Kate and Calvin had a romantic adventure to The Rift Valley (sounds prehistoric!) today to explore Hell's Gate National Park and Lake Naivasha. Steve, the tour operator, who is somewhat associated with Safisha Africa Welfare, drove us there. It was pelting down torrential rain in Nairobi but the forecast for The Rift Valley was meant to be warm and dry. It took about 2.5 hours on bumpy potholed roads to reach Hell's Gate. Sure enough, it was sunny as soon as we got to The Rift Valley - as soon as we got up onto the escarpment and looked down over the whole valley, the rain got left behind.   The idea with Hell's Gate is to hire a bicycle, cycle through the park and down to the gorges where you clamber around, then cycle back. We had a choice to hire a bike from the main road or from Elsa Gate, the main entry into the park. We hired a bike each from the road (Kate's was pink and Calvin's was blue) costing $5 each and they seemed sound enough for the gravelly and rocky road through the park. After a few fees (fees for the entry to the park, fees for using the bikes in the park), we finally started cycling the 8 km to the gorge. We were being dorkily sun-smart - hat, suncream, sun glasses - we looked amazing. Unfortunately the animals didn't really think the same - only the warthogs and zebras came out to play today. It was nice to be out of the city though and into some fresh air and some exercise! About 3 km in to our adventure, Kate got a flat. Front tyre. Gone. We didn't have Steve's number but Calvin messaged Alice, Willie and Batu to ask for Steve's number - just needed a response. There weren't a lot of people cycling or driving past so we decided to not get deflated and to keep going. Calvin hopped on the flat tyre bike while he chivalrously gave his inflated bike to Kate. It was slow going and soon, we passed a guide who said the ranger's office was about 3 km away and we could maybe swap a bike there. So we kept going, and a few minutes later, came across another guide and 2 New Yorkians. This guide was quite helpful and called the staff at Elsa Gate to see if they could get the roadside bike hire to deliver Kate another bike. Then 2 cars came past. The first one had Chinese people who tried to speak in Mandarin with Calvin - unsuccessfully. The second car contained a guide and 2 tourists - they said to ditch the flat bike on the side, someone will pick it up later, Kate can hop in the car, Calvin will ride fast in front of the car to the ranger's office. So Calvin frantically pedalled on the rocky road, fast as he could so he wouldn't get run over by the car, while Kate sat and rode in the car in style to the gorge. We hired a guide for $5, Paul, to lead us through the short course of the gorge. The gorge was gorgeous. It has been carved out by rain water through soft volcanic rock. Mt Longonot is a dormant volcano nearby and there is pumice and obsidian all around. There are geothermal power stations all around Mt Longonot as the area is still quite active. There are a few hot springs around the gorge, the underground water is heated up and can get up to 70 degrees when it comes out of the rock! The water in the gorge was quite useful of cleaning our boots of the Kibera mud from yesterday. After an hour of wandering around the gorge, we came up and returned to the ranger's office. We looked for Kate's replacement bike however we couldn't see any extra bike and the ranger there didn't have any idea. We were in a bit of hot water. In the end, the ranger said just leave Calvin's bike and get a lift with one of the vans back to Elsa Gate - quite useful and saved us the uphill cycle back! Back in the van with Steve, we drove a short distance to Lake Naivasha. Kate's middle name is Naivasha so this was quite a special place for her to visit. We paid $35 for a 1 hour boat ride with a friendly skipper, Geoffrey, in a boat called 'Karibu'. The boat ride was stunning - nice calm water watching water fowl and hippos, locals fishing, a water buffalo or three - it was peaceful. Wouldn't want to be wading in the water with hippos and pythons swimming around. On the drive home, Kate asked Steve to stop somewhere where she could take a picture of herself with a sign of Lake Naivasha. It was a really fun and adventurous day!