It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting in a really nice café with a new volunteer named Abby who arrived at the farm this week. Of all the places in the world she could’ve come here from, would you believe she’s also from Seattle? It’s a wild, small world. The café we’re sitting in is called ArtCaffé, same chain as the one I wrote from in my Week 1 Wrap post. Normally, I think chains are wack and I prefer to support small local businesses, but this place has everything I’ve needed- free wifi, really good chocolate cake, every meal has been delicious, and they also have a bar that serves wine. Also it’s not too far of a walk from the farm, it’s clean, good vibes with lots of natural light, and arguably most importantly of all, has ✨️indoor plumbing✨️ Anyway, my point is that if you’re ever in Kenya and see an ArtCaffé, know that I recommend their food and drink. I’m not familiar with their company culture or politics, so hopefully I’m not sitting here endorsing an ethically garbage business.
Anyway, this week was another good one on the farm. Its been the rainiest and probably the coldest. So if you know me, you know I spent a lot of time this week suffering. By Friday night I had a really bad cough. Saturday night, my voice was GONE. Today, its still weak, but making a comeback. Clearly I need to do a better job of choosing my destinations and just avoid any place that’s less than 75-80 degrees. I could go off on a tangent complaining about cold weather, but I’ll instead share that the strength and resilience of the local people I volunteer with here is unmatched. Even when its cold, they’re chillin in t-shirts. In my mind I’m like, “excuse me???”, but the thing is, they all seem happy to tolerate a lot of things that I’d consider impossible. If you ask me to remove a pot of hot food from over a raging flame, you’re gonna need to give me some oven mitts and water to put out the fire. But these local volunteers will reach right into the flames to pick up the pot with no problem, laughing and carrying on conversations without pause. I’m not too proud to say, being around these people has me feeling like a little punk but I also have no interest in developing this new type of callous on my hands. They’re ok with being in the cold but me, I’ll complain and run to the warmest place I can find while my body slowly starts shutting down. I’m just not built for some things at the moment and thats ok. Maybe one day I will put my hand in a fire or eat a flame, but well today is not that day and I’m good with that.
I seriously doubt I can remember every event of this week- the days are starting to blend together. Generally though each day, I’m up at 7 (as late as 7:30 on lazy mornings), eat breakfast of porridge and bread, wash up, do a little farm work, (pulling weeds, hauling and dumping cow dung slurry, turning compost, etc.), help with some administrative tasks on the computer, hang out with the other volunteers, eat sleep repeat. It’s cold at night- under 60 degrees, so once the sun sets, I am all about going to bed because I have no interest in sitting up and freezing my ass off. I’ll hang out some nights when the group is watching movies, but tbh once I’m cold, I just want to go warm up under the covers. This week, one of the volunteers that works with the cows let me try my hand at milking. I thought I was getting decent at it until I saw other volunteers doing it lol but what a great experience. Having cows is such a game-changer for regenerative farming and homesteading. They provide milk, fertilizer, biogas for stove cooking, free grass mowing, and a nice baritone addition to the symphony of nature sounds on the farm. If I was friendly enough with them, they might even provide some warmth and companionship but alas. There’s a calf that is often left in a section of the farm I like to sit in and I enjoy watching him. Today, he tried to play with one of the cats and it was super cute but the cat ran away. I wonder if they’ll be friends one day.
The week was good, but a major highlight for me was yesterday, Saturday, when Abby and I went to Hell’s Gate National Park for a biking safari + hike down into the natural hot-spring fed gorges. It was GORGEous…
So the day started at 7:30 when our taxi driver came to pick us up and take us to Elsa gate around 8:30. We bought our tickets online using the qr code by the ticket booth (you have to pay a separate fee for individual entry which is $52.40 for non-residents plus a bike entry fee of $10.50). There were a lot of tourists there with their respective tour groups, but it wasn’t overly crowded. At this point, I was like oh no my throat hurts and I feel sick but yolo, just drink water I’ll be iight. Our tour guide arrived with our bikes and got us all situated with our tickets and passes and we were off! Biking toward these massive cliffs with expansive plains on either side of us was impressive and awe-inspiring in itself, and it didn’t take long at all for us to come across our first herd of animals, some impalas (basically brown gazelles). It was so wild just biking past them with no barriers. It was one male with a harem of at least 30 females and their young. Of all the animals we saw during the day, it’s kind of funny and seems obvious, but all we really observed them doing was either eating, standing around, or walking behind their leader. The exception was a zebra we saw rolling around in some mud to cool off, a couple of gazelles playing, and a baboon that went inside of a tour van and jumped back out 😂😂😂.
After a few minutes of biking we pulled over to check out this sweet rock tower that some people were climbing up. Of course this tower has a name, I just don’t know it. As we walked around the tower, our tour guide, Lewis, showed us some white African sage that grows on shrubs so tall, they’re basically trees. We also got to see some rock hyrax, small mammals that share a common evolutionary ancestor with elephants.
Next, we biked another few minutes to Echo Cliff, an enormous beautiful rock wall that produces the most magnificent echo I’ve ever heard. It was just a totally majestic sensory experience. The beauty of the place, the clarity and volume of the echo, and the perfect weather was unforgettable. It’s rare moments like these where I feel fulfilled in my quest to live life fully and it brings me indescribable joy. Lewis directed us to do a really dope panorama photo there where we had to run around him to get to each mark. It was funny and the result was pretty sweet!
After leaving Echo Cliff, we biked onward and saw so many herds of animals- zebras, buffalo, giraffes (all the giraffes we saw were solo), eland, gazelles, baboons, warthogs, and guinea fowl. The giraffes were all pretty far away, but we got a really nice view of a herd of zebras. It was funny bc one of them was standing there staring right at us the whole time as if to say, “Try something. I dare you.”
After biking for who knows how long maybe 30-45 minutes, we ended up at a hiking trailhead that leads to “hell”. Not nearly as creepy as it sounds. Actually, there were some cute baboons hanging around since people do picnics there and monkeys don’t pass up a chance to get easy food. We hiked down down into the gorge where we saw some beautiful waterfalls, the most majestic of which was called the devil’s shower. The geothermal activity in the area makes the water nice and warm which had me questioning… do I like hell?
Another really cool thing we got to see was the area that inspired the landscape for the wildebeest stampede/ death of Mufasa scene from The Lion King. It was an emotional moment and also a reminder that I’m long overdue for a re-watch of that classic masterpiece.
The green mosses, hot water, beautiful obsidian all over the ground and obviously the experience of just walking in such a naturally majestic, peaceful place was truly awesome.
After going down down down for so long, well we had to climb back up. I was honestly nervous bc falling would mean serious injury or worse, but as always everything turned out fine. Idk if this rope climb was the most or second most intimidating part of the trek, I’m just glad to say we made it without trouble 😅
Once we returned above ground, we were met with a pretty easy walk and a Masai community market. The trek we took crosses the National Park/ Community boundary and so being on the Community side, the Masai tribe are allowed to sell their crafts, drinks and snacks. There were some beautiful crafts there, so you know I picked up some souvenirs. One of the vendors said I looked Masai and gave me some beaded pieces to try on for a photo. I told her I’d put it on if she got in the photo with me lol.
At this point, I was so tired and felt like I was going to pass out. My body was clearly fighting a cold, I just had banana chips for breakfast and the trek and bike were wearing on me. I was glad to have some time to sit in the shade and rest before carrying on. We eventually headed back to our bikes at the trail head and made our way back to the gate. On the way, we passed by a big group of baboons that were all up in the road and also a small herd of buffalo crossed the road about 15m ahead of us. We made it back to the gate at around 1:30, putting us at 5 hours of activity. By then we were both starving, so Lewis drove us into town where we went to Mother’s Kitchen, the place Oore and I went to when he visited Naivasha. This place is 2/2 when it comes to getting me right when I’m in desperate need of nourishment, so while I’m endorsing establishments, I encourage you to check out Mother’s Kitchen if you’re ever in Naivasha. Also, Lewis Adventures is the tour company we used and I had a really great time and would highly recommend going with him.
Wow well it took me forever to write this, so I’m gonna stop here. The rest of the day and weekend have been relatively uneventful and it is 3:33am, a good time to go back to sleep. (Yes, I know I said I started this post at ArtCaffé, but I didn’t finish it there).
Thanks for reading and I’ll write again soon!