17th April 2009 Easter holliday at lake Naivasha

We left Nairobi on Easter Sunday at 8 toghether with Katja and Reinard, to drive north. In less than 2 hours we were passing a lot of flower and other farms that are situated at the lake sides. The local park called Hells Gate we had easily found. Paying for a ticket was not very straight forward, but we were allowed to enter. The canyon shaped landscape was very dry and dominated by camphor bushes. There were some animals here and there, like zebras and different types of deer. Most prominent were the large prey birds in the sky. We found a 20 m high fig tree growing halfway on the 40 m high canyon wall. And there were pieces of black obsidian glass scattered on the ground everywhere. The weather was on the verge to rain later, so we did not stop at the picnic site. Instead we drove on finding our selves outside of the park, which according to our little map was not possible. We tried to re-enter, but this was not possible without paying for a new ticket. So we went on further exploration to the Crater Lake. A tiny private park with in the middle a round salt lake where there were serving lunch in a floating terrace. Unfortunately the water did not smell very fresh, but the view was lovely. On the way back we spotted a lake site with flamingos, where we had a free look at their breeding site. In the water a hippo was observing us. And at the wood edge 50 m beyond a large family of warthogs were having lunch.

Looking for a place to overnight we went to the Fishermans camp a camping at the bank of the Lake. There they had a Banda available. This is a small hut consisting of a bedroom, with a double bed and two story bed, and a bathroom. Where, as far as I know, the warm water was not working. The furniture outside had to be collected from some other campsite users. The rains that had started that day at Hells gate, became worse, so we were very fortunate to have a hut and not a tent. The banda was only leaking at the middle of the roof, far beyond the beds, and at the porch we were able to sit outside in fairly dry conditions and in our warmest cloth. The electricity in that area stopped working due to the rains, but we brought some candles. In between some showers we managed to walk to the restaurant and cafe of the camping and had a simple diner. Then we went to explore the quality of the bedding, which had a lot of room for improvement. I was very happy to have brought my own sleeping bags because it was quite chilly that night.