Riding dirty in Hell’s Gate

During our time at Arusha, Tanzania, we were told by a fellow travelling couple about a magical place near Nairobi that allows you to do a bicycle safari. I think we more or less decided to do it instantly!

At Hell’s Gate park, just north of Nairobi, Kenya, somebody had the brilliant idea of removing all of the predators and opening up the park for visitors to either hike or bike through. Whoever did this should get a medal if they haven’t already!

The park is a fair way north of Nairobi on the Great Rift and currently offers a trail of about 8kms filled with wild animals. Getting there isn’t particularly difficult but we decided that it was a good idea to do so with a private tour as this would both avoid us the insanity of driving in Kenya as well as giving us the expertise of a local guide to show us around.

Though we started early, we were in good spirits and things were definitely looking up as we spotted several zebras even before we arrived at the park. Turns out the little rascals like escaping and causing havoc in nearby farms. Good on them and great for us as we’d never seen “free” zebras before.

Smiles were on our faces once again just before entering the park.

About a couple of kms before the gate you get to choose your bicycle (in case you do the bike tour) and after you’ve chosen your steed for the day, it is brought to the park. This is where things got funny!

Together with our tour guide and a trainee operator we required 4 bicycles and all 4 of them were brought by 1 boda boda.

Yes, 4 bicycles were brought to us by 1 man in a 50cc motorbike through a gravel road in 1 go!

I saw it with my own eyes and still don’t know how he did it. Turns out they can carry up to 7 bikes and that it was a piece of cake... cue the Shakira song “this is Africa”.

Once you get your formalities straightened out, you set off on your bike down the dirt road anxious to meet the stars of the day, the animals!

Turns out that starting the tour early paid out and soon enough we started seeing the first zebras in the park. They were in small groups and entirely oblivious to us. Just the way we wanted it to be, us observing and them being themselves. It was zelfie time!

A little down the road we then met the first of our big 5: the buffalo.

Slowly moving towards the watering hole there was an entire heard of the amazing animals and we were somehow frozen just looking at them. They are massive animals and I can only imagine the incredible scene it must be to witness them fight the lions.

On this note I asked our guide how they are sure that none of the big cats enters the park. As it turns out they were all long removed from the premises and that both the parks where the big cats live and this one are fenced thus eliminating this possibility. At the time I was convinced but when I think about the zebras outside of the park, I have my doubts about the effectiveness of that fence... but hey we made it I guess.

Onwards through the park we met giraffes and warthogs.

Though the giraffes in this park are somewhat shorter than the ones in the Masai Mara due to the different tree availability, they were still gigantic stick figures looming in the distance. Like humongous mantis roaming the bushes. Yeah, I think I like giraffes.

The warthogs, or pumba as they are often called, were also very different from what I expected. Less fury than their European cousins, built like small tanks and rather than aggressive, actually shy to humans, they are a sight to behold. Intrepid though I may be, I am also the cautious one in this endeavour, so I kept pedalling swiftly while around them just in case any decided to chase us.

And so, before we could notice it our 8km ride had reached its destination.

I must admit that I hadn’t done too much research on the park and did not know where the trail after the biking took us so it was with joy that I discovered the prize at the end of the trail.

This is the place that inspired the scene where Simba is presented to the world in the Lion King.

A beautiful viewpoint from a gorge!

And yes, we put the music from the movie on loud in our phones and pretended we were living that moment with Simba himself.

Though our tour turned back here, the trek actually continues down the gorge and into the riverbed. Apparently it used to be possible to continue onwards in the park but this was discontinued after a flash flood in 2019 killed 7 people. A shame though it may be, I was also convinced that I wouldn’t want to do it after our tour guide said there were several types of snakes and cobras on the hike down. Yeah, I hate snakes!

Happy from our experience, we turned back and cycled back to the entrance gate.

I wish I could tell you a lot about our experience coming back but there isn’t all that much to say. The reason there isn’t that much to say is that the 8kms back are slightly uphill and with the sun burning our backs and a mildly padded seat on my bicycle tormenting my behind, we mostly cycled silently through the park.

What I can tell you is that going early to the park really pays out!

As it turns out the animals are far more active in the morning and there are far less tourists as well so you will definitely be happy to have missed out on those couple of sleep hours you know you wanted!

And so, after about 3 hours in the park we emerged victorious from our bike ride!

Slight sunburn aside, I am super happy we did it and hope you do it too!