Visiting Hell’s Gate Gorge

Friday started with an early wake up to head off on my tour.  On today’s agenda, hike Hell’s Gate and have lunch at a local restaurant.   A long day as it takes a few hours to visit the gorge and then the time to get to and from.   The drive is at least half the adventure!   

Before arriving at the Gorge, there were a few side stops.

Stop 1 - Scenic Drive

The drive to the Gorge was scenic, if not a little bit on the scary side.  We drove along the side of this mountain and there were areas without guardrails.  That definitely would not happen back home but seems to be a common occurrence here.  We did stop at one point to allow me to take a few pictures and in case I wanted to buy a drink or some souvenirs. 

Stop 2 –Joy Adamson’s House

I was shown a video about her life, her work with Elsa the Lion, then had tea and dainties and a walk around the grounds.   We had hoped to see flamingos but no luck as the water was too high.  There are signs all over the grounds to be aware of animals as the hippos roam the grounds at night.

Stop 3 – Hell’s Gate Gorge

Once we arrived at the Gorge, I was paired up with a guide who took me in and around the Gorge itself.  Having a guide was definitely very helpful as he helped me up and down some of the cliffs.  I don’t believe you could actually go into the Gorge without a guide anyways.  This provides employment to the locals as there was not a lot of opportunity for them otherwise.  

Again, I was one on one with my guide, Francis, so we were able to chat a bit and learn about the other.  I found out he was 21 (I would have thought younger) and he wants to go to school to become an engineer.  He plans to come back once he is done and work in the local area.  

As we walked through, there were a few points where there were emergency escape routes.  I was told this was due to the possibility of fast rising water.  When it is the wet season, the Gorge can fill up very quickly and you need to get out fast.  

I definitely was not dressed for hiking with the pants I was wearing but on the other side, I was glad I didn’t have shorts on as I likely would have scraped my legs a bit.  But my shoes were definitely wet and my pants were wet along the bottom by the end.

Some of the people ahead of us - I saw some ladies in skirts and heels!

If you had an egg, you could boil it here.

Stop 3.5 – Leaving the Area

While this wasn’t an actual stop, it is worth mentioning.  As we were in a park, we had to leave the park as well.  Along the way, we saw many zebras.  Some of them were so close to the road you could almost reach out and touch them!  The animals are free to roam wherever they like as there are no fences.   We also saw people leading cows and sheep as well as mules and donkey’s pulling wagons along the side of the road.

Taken straight out the window, no zoom.

Stop 4 – Local Lunch

Part of the tour included a traditional African lunch.  We stopped at a local restaurant and as we walked in there was a bucket and tap to wash your hands.  Food is eaten by hand so it is important to do this; we also washed our hands as we left.

As I had no clue about the local food, my guide Jim, ordered for me.  It was some sort of greens (I later learnt it was likely spinach) as well as chicken.  My guide ordered this type of bread they make and gave me some to try and use with the greens.  The meal was okay but wasn’t my favorite especially as I do not like to eat with my hands.

From here, it was back to the hotel.

I was the only one on the tour which was good and bad.  Good in that you have the guide’s full attention and you do not have to wait your turn to ask the guide a question or get along with others.   Bad in that you have the guide’s full attention and it can be hard to come up with conversation for any amount of time.   We both asked questions about life in the other country, it is always interesting to find out how people live.

Things I learnt:

• Many families have two working people in them.  If they have kids, they tend to hire a nanny which costs approximately $200 US. 
• Mortgages have very high interest rates so people do asset financing.  They buy a piece of land and then borrow against it to build their house.  As they build, they have more of an asset and can borrow more money (very simplified explanation).  This explains a lot of the half completed construction that looked abandoned.
• Housing in Nairobi is very experience.
• Oil is a new industry in Kenya and they say that they have enough for 100 years.  As a result, there is a lot of industry emerging.
• Traffic is insane and I am very glad I was not driving.  Traffic lights were rare but roundabouts very common.

Waiting for My Tour

I purposely arrived in Nairobi a few days before my tour started to allow myself to get situated, get over any jetlag, and have a chance to see a few local sites as I knew the tour would be leaving town once it started.    Based on prior experience, I knew if I didn’t book something for when I arrived, I would just hang out at the hotel until my tour started (not necessarily a bad thing).  As a result, I booked a trip to Hell’s Gate Gorge for the Friday. 
 

Due to my missing luggage, I had a quick shower before bed, rinsed my clothing and crashed.  I was woken around 9 in the morning Thursday by my phone ringing, very odd.  It was the tour company calling to see if I wanted to go out that day.  Another hotel guest was going out on a day trip and if I wanted to go, he would make us a deal.  He sweetened the pot by mentioning we could stop at a mall as I did want to find some clothing, knowing I would have to wear the same clothing again on Friday.  

The day trip would include:  visiting an elephant orphanage, giraffes, a historical home and then a stop at a local mall for food and some shopping.   It would be $60 US for each of us.   I agreed but asked for a bit of time so I could get dressed my camera and such as well as grab some breakfast as it was complimentary at our hotel.  I knew I was going to need some food and caffeine to get me going.

Baby Elephants!

The first stop of the day was at the Elephant Orphanage.  These are elephants that have been abandoned for various reasons but as they went through them all, it seemed the most common was their mother falling into a well.  Some lost parents due to poaching or natural causes.  They showed us two groups of elephants, one was the group under 2 years and the other group was 2 to about 5 years old.  After they are two years old, they will take them out and work on re-introducing them to the wild.  It can take up to 10 years for that to happen.  

If you got too close, there was a good chance that you were going to get splashed with the red, muddy water.  Many people did and the wet wipes they had was not enough to get the mud off.

You were able to adopt one of the elephants for $50 US a year.   That gave you naming rights; a monthly newsletter and you could come out after hours on certain nights to visit your elephant and watch them be put to bed.  

Look up, Way up!

From here, we headed to where the giraffes were.  You could pet the giraffes and feed them for a small fee.  I chose not to but the other lady did.  You could tell the giraffes were used to being fed as they had no issue coming right up to the people.  There were a couple in the distance and some animals hanging around on the ground.  We didn’t stay here very long as a result.

Next up, the former house of Karen Blixon who wrote the book “Out ofAfrica”.  We were shown through her house and the grounds.  There was quite a bit of memorabilia from the movie as well as pictures.  

A Different Shopping Experience

I will start off by saying this is not a mall like what we have in Canada.  First of all, there was a guard where you came in.  They actually did a small search of the car – checked the glove compartment and the trunk.  I believe they also gave you a ticket to pay for parking once you left.   At the entrance to the mall, there were guards and they gave you a quick check and pat down when you entered.  From what I heard after, this mall had an explosion a few years back so security was tighter.

We went into a department type store (think Walmart) with a much more limited selection.  We both wanted a few things from the beauty department and some snack food.  Got what we want and left.  Went upstairs and discovered the store we had just been in had a second level too.  When we walked in, we learnt we had to check our bags at the door.  

Found clothing but the selection was very limited.  I think overall I found two pairs of pants that were the right size (elastic waistbands make life easier) and a shirt.  The shirt was not my normal style, but hey, I wasn’t being picky.  I picked up a pair of sandals as well as I knew I hadn’t brought any of those along and I would need them.

Headed to the food court to find some lunch but unlike at home, there were people from each stall who came out and tried to give you their menu to convince you to come to their stall.  Found something that worked for us and ordered it to go as we knew our guide was waiting downstairs.  But when we went to find him, he was missing so we ended up going back inside to eat.  Turned out he was hot and thirsty so had gone to find some water.

 

Losing My Luggage

It finally happened.  My luggage didn’t arrive with me at my destination.  It is one of those things that probably will happen to every traveler at some point but a person always thinks, not me, it won’t happen to me.  

<a href="https://pixabay.com/users/Mcability/">Mcability</a> / Pixabay

But it does.

So what do you do?

First things first, you go to the desk at wherever you are supposed to claim your luggage.  (Note: You may be told you do not have to collect it until your final destination, but depending on where you are flying, you may have to claim it to go through customs in some countries.)  Have your luggage tag ready as they are going to need it to check on the status of your luggage.

Wait patiently.

Wait impatiently.

When you have an agent ready to help you, present your tag. They will be able to look up in their system where your bag is.  If it has arrived in your destination but isn’t on the carousel, there may be a back room that unclaimed bags have gone.  Chances are, you have been hanging around the carousel for a while and you have seen the same six bags go around a dozen times.   But maybe somehow it didn’t make it onto the carousel or it’s in the back or somewhere else.   

If it didn’t arrive, then the next step is to figure out where it went and how it is going to get to you.  Hopefully it simply missed a connection and is already hurtling through the air to you.  If this is not the case, then the airline has to figure out what happened to it and what will happen next.

In the case of my luggage, it didn’t even leave home.  And it was 24 hours flying time to my destination not to mention layovers.   But customer service told me it would arrive Friday morning, Africa time.   They asked me if I wanted to pick it up or have it delivered.  I selected delivery as I did not have a vehicle and didn’t want to be paying a cab to go pick up my luggage that they forget to send.  I gave them the name of my hotel and I advised my hotel that the airline would be bringing in my luggage Friday morning.  My hotel took the information from me and they called the airline on my behalf Friday morning as well as I was heading out for the day.

Thankfully my story has a happy ending as my bag arrived.  

I did send an email to my airline, partly due to the lost luggage and partly due to my bag being ripped.  I never got a reply.  Maybe I didn’t send it?  I’m not sure.  But it is a good idea to look into the airlines website and see what they will or won’t cover.  

What my luggage looked like when it arrived - there was a rip 

Words of advice:

You always hear that you should pack a change of clothing in your carry-on.  I forgot.  I wish I hadn’t.  I had been in the same outfit for probably 36 hours by the time I got to my hotel.  At least in Africa, hand washing and hoping for it to dry overnight does not work out well.  I ended up purchasing a few pieces of clothing.  But, where we went, plus size clothing barely existed, I bought pants and a shirt that fit, not that I would necessarily wear in the future.

Carry any medications or important items with you.  This I have always done as medications can not necessarily be replaced at your destination.  Carry them in their original bottles and if you have multiple medications, do not combine them in one bottle to save space.  It isn’t worth it to have them confiscated.