On Monday, 10 September 2007, we left our flat in Nairobi and rode with Joseph, a friend, into the Great Rift Valley. While there, we visited Hell's Gate National Park.
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The road is a gravel and dusty one-lane, intended for the bicycles they rent at the office and at the intersection of the main road. As soon as we take the first curve, bicycles appear being ridden by many very pink tourists (the sun is intense today). The landscape is amazing. There are 2 freestanding towers of rock, many bluffs, rolling hills, and grasslands. We stop by the first tower to stretch our legs and take in the atmosphere. We walk around the tower and find some small pieces of obsidian on the ground and some bones. As we walk back toward the car, the antics of a girl, having successfully climbed the tower but having trouble on her decent, caught our attention. With her climbing instructor and the park's resident climber trying to talk her down, she began freaking out. We started out amazed, but soon the sniggering fits started as her yelling and protestations got wilder. She had gotten half way down, but was now scared and had grasped the guide rope and they could not lower her down unless she released it - which she was not willing to do, even though urged by the instructor. Finally, the instructor "free climbed" up the rock and tried to get her to release the other rope so they could let her down. Failing to get her to release the rope, he finally grabbed her and pulled her off the rock. Her legs flailing, she began screaming, "You're trying to kill me!" Ignoring her protests, the un-roped instructor carried the screaming girl down and placed her on the ground. Toni used her camera to take video of the episode. We later learned that the girl, once she stopped screaming, phoned her father to tell him that the instructors had beaten her. Some people....
Passing the first tower, we took an unmarked left turn onto a dirt track leading into a thicket of acacia trees. As we passed through the trees, we passed a zebra on the left. After clearing the thicket and topping the next hill we came upon some more animals. Again we are standing outside the car taking pictures in awe of the sight before us.
The scene is classic Africa. The grass carpeting the ground is a dusty brown and deceptively deep. Tufts of low green shrubs poke up through the grass carpet here and there, lending some color to the dull ground. The background so dominates the scene that my eyes sweep it before returning to the middle. The bluff rises hundreds of meters, covered with low trees and shrubs of bright green on every space where dirt could settle. The bluff could have been thrust upward only just the day before, the rock appears dry from exposure to air only in a few places. At the base of the bluff, some of the ground is piled as if recently fallen off the bluff or been thrust upward with the bluffs emergence. In the middle space, there are a few leafless tree trunks poking through the dusty grass. Slightly to the left of center and far off to the right, zebra congregate in small groups. Individuals roll on the ground, stirring wispy clouds of dry dust that drift off to the right on an unfelt breeze. In front of the zebras, two giraffes stand and watch us watching them. It appears that they are the dominant male and female, but I cannot tell for sure which is which. As my eyes get more accustomed to the colors and subtle hues of the scene, one of the leafless tree trunks turns its head. Suddenly, I notice several of them - smaller giraffes laying down, only their long necks and heads visible above the dusty grass. The scene, though not still, remains calm for several minutes - we watching everything, the giraffes watching us, the zebras mostly ignoring our presence. I turn around and behind us is another similar scene on the low hill behind us. Two large giraffes have emerged from the acacia trees and stand watching us while a large zebra near them also watches us. We seem to be as interesting to them as they are to us. So as to not startle them too much and break the calm, we get back into the car and drive on. In a word - wonderful!
Further down the dirt track, we pass near a herd of Gazelles. They are shy of the car and move away as we approach. The dirt road circles back and we head back the way we came.
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