December 18th, 2023
I ordered an Uber from the hostel to the bus park downtown
in Nairobi. A helpful guy led me from
the bus area to where the matatus were (which is what I needed) to go to
Naivasha, a small city about 2 hours north of Nairobi. I purchased my ticket for 300 shillings ($3)
and being only the second person to get in the van, I sussed out my best
seating option. The other passenger was
an older man in the front seat. This van
was definitely bigger than the standard ones in Uganda with a higher roof, not
high enough to stand upright in but similar to the Toyota campervan I had in
New Zealand five years ago. Kenyans must
have more padding in their butts as I found all of the seats pretty devoid of
any cushioning. The layout was 2 x 2
with an aisle down the middle. They were
very narrow seats but then I clued in that the back row was still only four
seats, but there was no aisle…so that’s where I sat.
You never know when the matatu is going to leave, as they
wait until it is full. Three people
hopped in, and the woman immediately sat beside me. Turns out that Judy was the mother of the
teenage girl, and aunt of the 21-year-old guy.
Judy didn’t look that old herself, maybe early 30s but East Africans
tend to age well. She was friendly and
nice to chat with. Finally, about half
an hour later, the van was full and we set off…I already had a sore butt and we
had only just left!
In the matatu:
The busy streets of Nairobi:
Arriving in Naivasha, I thought I’d get a boda boda but the
guy wanted a ridiculous price, so I opted for an Uber. I chatted with the driver and in passing I
mentioned that I had seen the Big Five animals, but I was looking forward to
seeing a zebra, which I knew was almost a certainty in this area. Well ask and ye shall receive. The Uber driver saw one and pulled into a
dirt road across the highway and boom, there was my first and second zebra in
the wild. Thanks dude!
The bus park in Naivasha:
The place I was staying at was called El Sueno and on the
first night, I was the only guest. I
went from a hostel where I was sharing a room with 3 other guys to having a
veritable mansion to myself. The place
was a bit remote, about 4 km out of town but for two nights, it will be
fine. Veronica checked me in, showed me
the room and would be my chef as well for the next couple of breakfasts and
dinners.
El Sueno Guesthouse:
The next morning, I grabbed another Uber (I’ve never Uber-ed
so much in my life) to go to my main reason for coming to the area, Hell’s Gate
National Park. That morning I struggled
again with the Kenyan government’s website to buy my ticket. Actually, it was more of a problem with my
bank. I’ve had no problems for a month
and a half in Africa and now, CIBC wanted me to enter a security code which
could only be texted or called to my Canadian phone number…which is in Canada. I was about to head into town to a Kenyan
bank to make a payment but thankfully Terry, my assistant paragliding
instructor back in Canada, happened to be up and could forward me the security
code from there.
Veronica hopped in the Uber with me for a ride part way
towards her home. Arriving at the
national park, the Uber driver asked me how I wanted to pay…cash or Mpesa
(Mpesa is a way to pay with your phone in Kenya which has become ubiquitous here
after Covid). I was a but
dumbstruck. “Mmm, by the Uber app?” That’s one of the points of using Uber is
that you don’t have to worry about payment, it just goes on your credit
card. The driver said that the amount
Uber set was too low. I showed him on my
phone that I was giving him a tip and a 5-star rating. He didn’t seem super happy with this, but I
bid him good-bye and got out of the vehicle.
Sorry dude, if you didn’t like the price, why did you accept my ride
request.
I walked up to the gate to the park and was met by a
guide. I asked about renting a bike and
he told me that it was 800 shillings. A
bike was brought up from a place by the main road, about 1½ km away, that I had
just passed in the Uber. I could only
pay by Mpesa, but then the guide paid for me, and I paid him cash. He asked if I wanted a guide. I asked for what exactly. The bike ride was about 7 kms but then when
you got near the canyon, you needed to have a local guide. He claimed that it was going to cost me more
than the 4000 shillings ($35) that he was going to charge me. Unfortunately, the best hiking part, a narrow
gorge was closed due to worries about flash floods since we were still in the
rainy season (I questioned that). Oh,
and I had to pay 215 shillings (only a couple of dollars) to use the bike. I was now getting a bit frustrated about
having to pay here and there for everything.
I declined his guiding offer and hopped on my bike.
An interesting map of the area at the entrance...looks like they used child labour to make it.
The ride to the canyon was easy, as it was mostly slightly
downhill. You could hardly see the
decline, but the pedaling was fairly effortless. I passed three foreigners whom I guessed were
European.
There were a few people rock climbing here.
Arriving at the starting area for the hiking, I was
approached by a guide who gave me the rundown on the options. I could do a short hike, 40 minutes, for 2000
shillings, a medium hike for 3000 or a long one for 4000. I wanted to at least do the short one but
adding up my costs for the day, I was over $60 for just a 7 km bicycle ride and
now maybe a 40-minute hike…seemed a bit excessive. I decided to wait for the three guys that I
passed to show up and perhaps we could go together as a group. They eventually turned up (I was surprised
that they took so long as they looked 20-25 years younger than me). They were on the fence about the hike and
said that they might just cycle around more.
I was a bit surprised as it wasn’t much money if you were 4 people. Two of the guys were from France, and the
other lived in the US (although I think he was French). They lied down in the grass and proceeded to
have a nap.
Okay Dave, buck up…you will not be here again in your
lifetime, just pay the money and do the hike.
I chose the short hike, not just because it was the cheapest, but it was
now 1 pm and the sun was blazing. My
guide was a tall man named Zambia, who was married with 4 kids from 22
years-old down to 8, and he was 49 years-old.
Zambia was great and amazingly had been working in the park
for 17 years. We stopped here and there,
with me taking photos. He was surprised
at my speed and decided to take me on the “medium” hike, even though I’d only
paid for the short one. That meant that
we descended into the canyon and then walked up it a ways, until we had to
backtrack.
Very green moss forming on the wall.
The water was warm. There's a lot of geothermal activity here, enough so that they have some geothermal rigs turning the steam into electricity.
In the end it cost me the same as I tipped him the 1000
shillings extra that I would have paid for the longer hike, but I was glad that
it was going into his pocket as he had turned my slight grumpiness about the
constant money grabbing around.
The ride back on the bike wasn’t as bad as I expected. I was lucky that the sun shaded out due to
developing cumulus clouds about 10 minutes into my ride. When I reached the park gate, I asked if I
could just continue down to the main road where the bike originally came from,
and they were fine with that. It was a
bumpy ride, but I hardly had to pedal since it was downhill. I caught boda boda and enjoyed a nice evening
back at my accommodation.
The plan was to catch a matatu back to Nairobi the next day and then the train to Mombasa the day after that. Time to head to the hot and humid coast.
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