We have a parted ways with our friend Bartol and their daughters, who are driving back to Nairobi, while we head a few hundred kilometres North to Lake Naivasha, one of the many lakes that dot the Kenyan stretch of the Rift Valley. On the road, we are surprised at how busy the country seems to be. Traffic is heavy with lots of trucks coming from and going to Uganda, and we are so happy we have a driver who knows how to manage the craziness of it. Cities and villages are bustling with activity and everyone apparently has something to do. There is also a lot of activity in the fields and on the land. Everything would look very organised if not for the houses and buildings, which construction only obeys the law of chaos, and the muddy streets in between them, which cannot cope with the rainy season and are often littered with plastic trash.
Close to Lake Naivasha lies Hell’s Gate National Park. We are in a high geothermal activity zone, where the smart Kenyans built the first geothermal station in Africa, back in 1981, followed by 3 more stations in the past 30 years. Today, they provide clean electricity to a sizeable part of the Nakuru region.
But as we enter the National Park on utterly uncomfortable mountain bikes rented for 5 dollars a day, we only see spectacular orange cliffs and rock towers looming. The weather is glorious and at the bottom of the cliffs, peaceful zebras, giraffes and buffalos are strolling around. For our only bike ride of the year (in Libreville, being a pedestrian is dangerous enough), we are spoiled.
A few kilometres further into the park, we reach a canyon-like spot where the water dug deep gorges. They look attractive from above, but it is forbidden to walk them in this rainy season. The guide explains us that within a few minutes, the water level in the gorge can rise by several meters. We console ourselves with a panoramic view from the so-called “Lion King rock” – there are more than a few of them in Kenya. Nearby, from an invisible point in the rocks, hot water is flowing…
Tanad stories from Gabon 