January 2, 2013 in Kenya

We are in Jomo Kenyatta airport (Nairobi) after several sensational days in Kenya.  Stayed at a resort on Lake Naivasha.  Grounds the size of a golf course with amazing colorful birds, hippos, giraffes, waterbuck, colobus and vervet monkeys and others as friends and neighbors.  The animals wander freely, as did we.  Meals were a large buffet for all meals in a lovely rustic lodge type main building.  Our room was huge with 2 king beds, a large sitting area on a separate level, our own outdoor patio.

A harem of gazelles; the guy in front is the stud

First day we took matatu (a Kenyan minibus) a few miles down the road to Hell's Gate national park, the only park in Kenya where you can walk/ride bikes.  We rented well used mountain bikes and cycled 10 miles over a rugged, pitted,  dirt road, stopping frequently to see (up close and personal) hundreds, if not thousands of animals in their natural habitat.  Our destination was "the gorge" which was the site of filming of an Angelina Jolie movie.  

The gorge involves a descent of perhaps 200 ft and then a nearly 2 hr. walk; at times spooky, frankly terrifying, and otherwise a casual stroll.  The difficult part is 15 ft descents down vertical rocks with tiny notches for your feet, nothing to hold except the hand, shoulder or head of our already descended guide, Jeremy.  Rachel (12 yr old granddaughter) scampered like a monkey while I was at times sweating with fear.  Jeremy is a Masai who looks 15, but is 24, weighs at most 120#, and supports us in our descent.  He is a fabulous guy who invites us to his village at the end of our hike.  180 men, women, and children living in mud huts with no electricity, running water or toilets.  This was a fascinating cultural experience that words cannot describe.  After a half hour in the village, we walk 2 km back to our bikes and then cycle 10 miles back thru the park, partly in a light drizzle.

This all takes place in the Great Rift Valley, an area where perhaps the most extensive earthquake in history took place 700 years ago.  The top of the dirt/stone tower you see in the distance was where the earth was before the earthquake; foreground is where it is now.

Lunch after a rough ride; in background is height of land before the great earthquake 700 years ago

Next day we our picked up at our hotel by Philip our driver and guide for the day.  We drive 40 miles or so, nearly two hrs to Nakuru, where we stop to pay Susan for the day.  Unfortunately she tells us the price is not as we had previously agreed.  After negotiation and some tense moments, I agreed to a slightly higher price.  The highlight was clearly the "birds".  Thousands of greater and lesser flamingos, herons, multiple varieties of ibis, storks, cormorants, and too many others to mention, most of which I had never seen.

Can you do this?

Today we were waiting for a matatu to come by to take us up the road to visit a women's weaving collective.  Two lovely British girls stopped and offered us a ride.  Later our driver will be coming from Nairobi, to take us back to the Nairobi airport for our flight back to Addis