When I was a young warthog...

I couldn't get the Lion King songs out of my head this past weekend...I blame it on the warthogs, giraffes and zebras at Hell's Gate National Park.  The park is small by Kenya standards, but it felt vast to me. 

Getting there was quite interesting, even though it was only 90 kilometers away from Nairobi.  As soon as we got on the highway (the main road from Nairobi to Rwanda), the traffic going our direction slowed down to a crawl.  And we kept crawling for a long time.  People were standing on the rooftops of nearby buildings to get a view of what was going on.  It took us a curve in the road to figure out exactly what was going on...

People were striking on the highway - the highway!  We finally saw some official looking men carrying big sticks walk past our car.  Shortly thereafter the traffic began to move again. 

We meet up with the rest of our group at a restaurant in Naivasha.  Enjoying the sun and a few Tuskers maybe a bit too much, we found ourselves hurrying to make it to the park gate before 6pm.  It was close! After sorting out how much we owed (entrance fees are quite pricey for non-citizens -10 times more than for citizens, granted citizens only have to pay $5.00), we proceeded to our camp site.  The views upon entering the park were amazing, as we drove through a break in the cliffs, with zebras, buffaloes, gazelles and warthogs roaming free.

Behind (and below) me is the road leading to the entrance of Hell's Gate (to the left).  Our campsite was up on the cliff with unbelievable views of the valley floor - a perfect spot to spy on the wildlife! 




The next morning, we fueled up on a gourmet camping breakfast of bacon, sausage, beans and eggs before heading to the gorge.  The park is very well known for the gorge and hot springs. 

On the way to the gorge, I requested many stops to photograph the locals:

Spotting zebras just didn't get old!

Although I didn't see any, we were warned many times about baboons -

It was another warm day in Kenya, and I certainly wasn't complaining, but the gorge did provide some relief from the blazing sun.

We had to maneuver over rocks and through tight spaces...

but it was worth it!

Then it was back up to the top!

On the way back to the campsite, we spotted giraffes. Stop the car!!

And zebras and giraffes!



That's me with the orange hat - trying to get the giraffes to look at the camera!

 Another successful adventure in Kenya!