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| Erin's Journal for Naivasha (10-22-02) We woke in the morning and had breakfast, with much nicer and less mosquito-filled views of the lake. It's a salt lake, so it had a greenish tinge, but still very pretty. After breakfast, we rented bicycles, as we were to visit Hell's Gate National Park and the walk from the entry to the gorge is 9km. I'd woken up with a bloody nose, so physical exertion was not just what I needed today, but I gamely got a bike and started the journey to the park. The ride up to the entry gate was hellish, as it was all sand, making the bikes slip and go practically nowhere. My nose was still bleeding a little, and I ended up walking most of the way to the gate, about 3 km. I was very skeptical about going into the park, as I was already tired and didn't want to provoke a gushing nosebleed in cheetah territory, but Richard (who'd driven to the gate, that stinker), told us the roads were much better in there and should be a quick ride. I said I'd try it, and we rode in, mostly at a slight downhill slant, for about 5 kms. We saw some animals along the way, including zebras, lots of warthogs (who had been very shy back in the Masai), water buffalo and even a few giraffes. It was very cool to be biking around in an African game reserve! After a while though I started feeling very sunburned. We'd applied tons of sunscreen, but the anti-malaria meds we're taking make us doubly sensitive to sun, so I was still getting burnt. After seemingly a long time, we started going steeply uphill, and ended up walking up to a geothermal plant at the top of the gorge. Icky sulfur! We turned around at that point to start back, as we had a schedule to keep and I'd noticed that the way back would be mostly UPhill! The ride back was pure hell, as the bike seats were like rocks and the road was bumpy and tiring. We made it back before the appointed time, however, and decided to ride all the way back to the hotel rather than wait for Richard at the gate. Thankfully, the torturous driveway I'd slaved away on in the beginning was a downhill spree going back, and we arrived back at the hotel in record time. By then, I could barely move. We had missed an appointed spot to visit the day before due to our rendevous for the other passengers, so we went to Elsamere this morning to see a video and the home of the Adamsons, Joy and George. They are the stars of the story 'Born Free', along with the lioness Elsa they rescued as a cub and raised to set free later. Their estate right on the lake is gorgeous and their story was interesting, so this was a good stop. Then we returned to the Naivasha campsite for lunch before driving on to Lake Nakuru. Nakuru is famous for its millions of flamingos. It's a shallow salt lake, which provides the algae they eat, and the whole thing looks pink-tinged from a distance. We arrived in time for an afternoon game drive, and saw some great rhinos as well as Rothchild giraffes (different than the Masai giraffes we'd seen earlier). At about sunset, we headed out a different gate of the park and went to our next 'campsite', in reality a horrible little place with the tent/shed concept we'd seen in the Masai. By now we were heartily regretting paying so much for this safari, as the places we'd been staying were absolute crap. It was now our 6th day without hot water, and the crappy camp meals of cold or hot beans with fried beef and stale bread was getting very old. This place had only 1 toilet out of 4 that actually flushed, and I heard it emptying out behind the building (near the vegetable garden). Horrible! Glenn went and raised hell with Richard, who had no choice in the matter as it is the company that makes the deals with the campsites, and we were able to get a pail of hot water to use for bathing. This was by no means satisfying, but at least we felt a little cleaner after soaping up and pouring it on ourselves. We went to bed very angry that night, as we knew we had to come back here the next night as well! |
| A bright yellow moon peers through the clouds & trees around our Naivasha campsite |