Naivasha (longonot volcano & hell's gate)

Trip to Naivasha

(Longonot Volcano and Hell’s Gate)

Four of us decided that a trip to Naivasha was a good idea, especially for me as I have been in Kenya over a year and had never visited.  

We hired a car and drove via Narok, this journey took us through the lush green areas by Kerricho, the savannah planes near Narok and eventually arriving in the dark at Naivasha.  We stayed at the Crayfish Camp as all our other options were fully booked.  Kie had booked on the Wednesday for 2 rooms for 2 nights, but as usual things didn’t get written down in their books that way and we only had one night confirmed.

We were told that we were going to be shown to our rooms, so followed a man to the rooms.  He was walking quite fast, but none of us thought anything of it.  Then he opened the door and we followed him in.  I asked, “Are you sure this is our room, as there is a bag already in it?”  One of the other girls asked the question, “But where is the other bed?”   It turned out we had just followed a fellow guest into his room and he was not working at the hotel at all!!! Opps. (Wonder what he was thinking!!?)

We went to Carnelly’s for dinner just down the road and gorged ourselves on an amazing selection of food; Pizza, Nachos, Crayfish, Samosas (one flavour was camembert and bacon…. Absolutely to DIE FOR).

The next day we ate breakfast and asked about the room for that night, they said that most likely we could stay but were not all that convincing!  So we left for Longonot Volcano.  

Thankfully the day was a little cloudy so it wasn’t unbearably hot.  The first part of the hike was to the volcano rim, this meant walking up 2 very steep hills.  The ground was a mixture of slippy sand and volcanic rubble which made walking a little hard and at times needing to use our hands to climb certain parts was necessary.  This was not a simple stroll.

Once at the rim, we took a short rest before setting off to walk around the whole rim.  (Total hike that day was 21km…although I’m sure it was further!)  Most people who had climbed up were not walking the whole rim so this section was much quieter. There was one large peak that was almost as high as the walk to the rim, at one point we were actually rock climbing, with the rim only being a few feet wide.  The views from the top were unbelievable, you could see 360 degrees, lake Naivasha and back towards Massai Mara, it was beautiful.

Walking back down was the interesting bit, as many parts I found myself sliding on my ass.  Crazy Kenyan’s were actually running and jumping these parts, but that seemed like a stupid idea to me.

We got back to Crayfish and rather than ask them if we had a room I just approached the desk and asked for room keys 28 &29, they gave the keys, no questions asked! :) 

We decided the food at Carnelly’s was so great that we wanted to eat there again.  I was trying to explain my friends about the Kenyan Cowboys (KC’s), who are basically the rich white playboys of Kenya, born and bred but are notorious for being drunk, rude and annoying.  There were some in the bar and when we wanted to leave one KC rushed over to buy us drinks and make us stay.  Needless to say that one drink turned into several and before we knew it, it was 5.30am!!!

Two hours of sleep later we woke up to eat breakfast, see Hell’s Gate and drive all the way back to Kisumu!!!!!  (It was going to be a long tired day.)  However once getting to Hell’s Gate and starting to walk, I felt much better.  Hell’s Gate is the place that the Lion King is based on and also Tomb Raider was partly filmed there, you can see why it is such an awesome place to use for filming.  We walked through these tight gorges and saw thermal springs; in fact there is a huge thermal system that is being used as a source of power for Kenya.

Finally we had to make the 6/7 hour journey back to Kisumu, thankfully there were 2 of us driving so we could take it in turns.  That kept me awake and the fact I had 3 cans of Redbull!  The journey was pretty uneventful until we had an incident where the car half fell off the tarmac road, where there was a good foot drop and as the car tried to get back on the road, one tire was stuck and we started to swerve into the middle of the road as a truck was coming in the opposite direction.  I definitely think the word “FUCK” came out of my mouth from the back seat.  We survived but 5 minutes later, of course one of the tires was completely busted.  

Stuck in the middle of nowhere, raining hard and becoming quickly dark.  We tried to figure out the jack, but it was just rubbish.  The spare wheel had a ton of rips in it and also bulged horrifyingly in places, but we had no choice.  We managed to flag someone over, who literally saved us from sleeping in the car.  He came with his jack, in fact in the end we had to use both jacks!!  But the tire got replaced and we steadily carried on home, in the dark.  

Thank you to Gideon for saving our asses and being a helpful Kenyan when the Wazungu’s were too stupid.

Hiking Monkey Rock

“Hazel do you want to come on a hike to Monkey Rock?  It’s just a short stroll, maybe half an hour, and then we can have a picnic on the top.”

This was how it began…

It was lucky the weekend before we all cancelled due to lack of sleep and too much alcohol consumption the night before.

The 11am pick up to start the hike turned into a 12.30pm pick up, in true African style.  There were 7 of us in total.  Soon it became clear than in fact a half hour walk was going to be more like a 5 hour walk and was actually the tallest mountain surrounding Kisumu that I see beautiful sun rises from my bedroom window.

We arrived at a sugar plantation farm and it was decided that we needed a guide.   

So we set off in midday sun thinking, “it’s not that far, it won’t be too hard a hike.”  After the first half an hour walk through high sugar cane fields, it was clear it was going to be a long walk.  My poor friend Jay having only had 4 hours sleep and a few drinks the night before was already looking like he had just had a shower.  “No you guys go ahead; I’ll just wait for you here.”  We did not let this happen.

It was hot but the climb was good, not just a boring path to follow but clambering over rocks and plenty of lush vegetation to push past, not to mention the evil thorn bushes.  Even from near the bottom of the hill the views over the sugar plantations and back towards Kisumu and Lake Victoria were impressive.  It was one of those days where the haze never lifted and gave the feeling of a serene aura. 

As we walked into the first valley we started to see the rural communities and the traditional housing.  Small groups of cattle were grazing and chickens running around followed by their noisy chicks, which are the necessary for these small farming communities to survive.  The rocks covered in colourful clothes and bedding, drying in the afternoon sun.

Our guide was quite an old man and I am unsure as to how well he knew the way.  As we carefully crossed a field of corn it became clear he was in fact being directed by the small children from the local communities.  Naturally these children began to follow us. 

At the bottom of the Monkey Rock there was a cave, where it was said cow sacrifice happened.  However we all discussed that it would be hard to get a cow inside in the first place.  African guides do like to make up creative stories.

Finally after a 3 hour climb we had reached the top of Monkey Rock.  There was a local family relaxing, enjoying the Sunday afternoon.  As usual we were a source of entertainment for them and they thought all of us came from London, even though none of us did!  We squeezed through the rock out onto a ledge.  The view was unbelievable, the best from the hills around Kisumu I have seen yet.  I had no idea just how flat the land was and how much sugar cane was being farmed in the area surrounding Kisumu.  The plantations seemed to go on forever.

The drop from the ledge was pretty big, so we laid down to look over the edge.  Luckily we did spot one monkey, way way below.  So the name of the rock was not in vain.

The climb back down definitely made us realise how tired our legs were.  Naturally I was the one to fall over and take a chunk out of the palm of my hand and replace it with the cow dung I had landed on.  There was a small sense of urgency to get back to the car, as the sun was setting.  On the equator the sun sets very fast, you have about half an hour at most from light to dark.  I did not want to be on that mountain in dark and none of us had brought more clothes or more water.  The colours on the mountain and the sugar cane fields were brilliant for my photography as the sun went down.  We all managed to arrive back to the car at 7pm just as the sun disappeared.

Half an hour hike was in fact 6 hours…… 

Advice for other hikers about Monkey Rock…

1.       Set of early, maybe 8am.

2.       Take at least 1.5L water per person.

3.       Wear long trousers to avoid thorns.

4.       Definitely get a guide.

5.       Most importantly take a camera for the spectacular views.