I must've only been asleep for about half an hour before I heard a distant grumble. It wasn't thunder and it wasn't T-man snoring so I unzipped the tent just enough to poke my head out and scan the area. Malin and T-man were up as well so we walked over to the electric fence and just metres away was a huge shadow of a hippo. It was grunting away and calling his mates over (maybe he was calling them over because he had just spotted three strange looking white people!)
We didn't want to shine out torch lights on him but the light from the restaurant and the moon was enough to make him out. I went back to my tent and layer there listening to him. I must've dropped off for a few minutes as I was woken up again by a much louder grunt that I could've mistaken for my own snoring! I poked my head out again and this time the hippos were right by the fence and my tent was about 10ft away from an absolute beast!
I layed back down and just prayed we didn't have a power cut! That thing would crush me in seconds if it felt like a night time run.
My alarm went off early with a view to get up and get to the park as soon as it opened. That plan had to change slightly due to some fuzzy Norwegian heads so I packed my things up anyway, ordered breakfast for the three of us and went for a walk around whilst Team Norway got ready.
I walked back to where we saw the first giraffe near the camp gate and the guard pointed me down a different road towards the lake. I didn't want to go too far so I just did a short loop in the same direction as a lot of barking. A couple of hundred metres down the road I came across 4 local dogs chasing 2 Zebras around a field...as you do. One of the dogs turned on me but thankfully took a liking to me and ended up following me back to the campsite.
We went inside the restaurant for a quick breakfast and just as we finished I spotted a stampede of Wildebeest being chased by the same dogs flash past the entrance to our camp. Now I was definitely in the "Lion King" and the three of us were just so surprised that we had seen so many animals and hadn't paid one entrance fee!
When we arrived at Hell's Gate National Park we were briefed with what animals we may see and where we could see them. To be honest I was happy with what I had seen already so anything new was a bonus. As we drove into the park the scenery was quite spectacular and for the majority of the day I hummed the Jurassic park theme tune (think T-man got annoyed with it after the 15th time but to his credit he didn't snap at all)
The park was really quiet with tourist but not with animals which was great for us. There were lots of Giraffes, Zebras, Warthogs (Pumbas), Impalas, Gazelles, Water Bucks and a couple of other animals that I forget the names of. T-man drove almost every inch of the Park and we were told there were Cheetahs and Lions in the park. I didn't believe them although I wanted to as my mind played tricks on me turning rocks into sleeping Lions etc.
We drove to a view point which was at one of the highest points of the Park. The major downside of the park became clear to see. Hell's Gate probably got its name from the Geothermal activity and unfortunately a lot of country's have cashed in on this and built factories all over the park. Due to this there is a constant whirring noise across the whole park and multiple clouds of bellowing smoke.
After animal spotting we parked up at the Gorge and went for a walk down it. It was a lot more full-on then I had thought it would be and it consisted of a bit of climbing and walking across rivers and waterfalls etc. I had to take it really careful because of my shoulder and so used my other arm to climb and support myself. The views were amazing and we discovered as much of the gorge and thermal springs as we physically could without climbing ropes!
As we got half way up the steep exit climb we found ourselves behind a farmer and some very scared sheep. T-man comes from a farming background back in Norway so put his farming cap on and helped the farmer turn the shaky sheep and push them in the right direction, I naturally began filming.
Just as I hit record I caught a bundle of something roll down the edge of the cliff in a big ball of dust. "Please tell me that's not a sheep!" It wasn't, it was a large rock from beneath our feet so I was happy for the farmer but a little more anxious to get to the top.
On our way out we decided to go via the last part of the park that we hadn't explored yet called Hell's Kitchen. This turned out to be a bit of a palaver as Kenyans don't believe in signage and Hell's Kitchen turned out to be more of a mountain goat's playground than a kitchen.
After some extreme off-roading and a lot of turning back on ourselves we eventually got out of the park and headed back home to Nakuru. Driving in the dark seemed a bit better than in the daylight but there were at least 5 idiots on motorbikes with a death wish as they had no tail lights whatsoever. It's not an exaggeration to say that about 90% of vehicles in Africa have at least one light out.
When we got back I had to hand it to T-Man, he did an amazing job driving. We must've been travelling around for almost 10 hours in the car with only one break when we walked through the gorge so he put a real shift in and the dinner choice was up to him. We ended an amazing road trip with a decent curry in our regular Gilani's.
It was great to finally get out of Nakuru and I think Team Norway enjoyed it just as much as I did. I'm really pleased I got to go on a trip with Team Norway and it will forever be a great memory of Kenya and a major highlight of my bike ride.
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