The word “Hell” depicts a notion that no one will want to associate with as the term is believed by the two dominant religions of Islam and Christianity to be a place of torment prepared for those who disobey the commandments of the Almighty God.

In Kenya, there is a sort of a “Hell” but not the type the two religious faiths portray. It is a national park with unique features that attract an influx of tourists from different parts of the World.

While in Kenya recently for the second edition of Nollywood Road show organized by the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) which had on parade Sam Loco,Francis Duru,Patience Uzokwor (Moma G),Desmond Eliot, Monalisa Chinda,Uche Jombo and John Okafor (Mr Ibu),the team visited the Hell’s Gate National Park and the experience was captivating leaving fond memories.

Located in the south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, North West of Nairobi, Hells Gate National Park covers an area of about 68.25 square kilometres. The park is at 1,900 meters (6,200ft) above sea level with red cliffs which contain two volcanic plugs, the Fisher’s tower and Central tower.

According to Robert Musau,a ranger (guide) who is a staff of the Kenyan Wild Life Service, Hell’s Gate Park is named after a narrow break in the cliffs which was once a tributary of a pre-historic lake that fed early humans in the Rift Valley.

The ranger told Daily Trust that they record an influx of tourists from different parts of the world that visits the park especially during weekends, adding that the money realized from the tourists goes to conservation or Kenyan Wild Life Service.

He revealed that Kenya has about 37 parks and reserves which spin revenue for the country.

While some visitors like students visit the park to learn about the production of electricity from the underground steam, there are other categories of visitors who primarily go there for wild life viewing, hiking and bicycling.

The other categories of visitors go for the gorging expedition which is a cave-like structures. It is a walk that takes you round the volcanic features down to the “devil’s” bed and the “devil’s” shower.

Wild Life viewing

The trip from the main gate of the Hell’s gate park, to the ranger’s post where the gorging expedition begins was a memorable one as the team, especially this reporter saw for the first time some wild life animals like zebras, buffalo, giraffe among others.

It was gathered that there are elephants, leopards and lions in the park but these normally come out early or late in the evening, with over 103 species of birds in including eagles.

The gorge expedition

The gorging expedition remains the highest point of the activities at the Hell’s gate park. Starting from the rangers post, tourists are led by the ranger (guide) on an about 1 hour 30 minutes one-way walk inside the volcanic features, crossing many obstacles.

Starting from the ranger post, you get into the main gorge after which you get to the picnic side where you have small waterfalls. From the water falls, you get to the junction of the main gorge where you will proceed to the side gorge. In the side gorge, you get to the first obstacle, the second obstacle then to the central tower.

From there you get all the way to where you have a cave at the top, called the “devil’s” bed. This is where the movie, Tomb Raider was shot starring Hollywood movie star, Angelina Jolie.

From the side gorge, back to the main gorge, to the first offspring, second offspring where you have the “devils” shower then all the way back to the ranger’s post.

It should be noted that the walking exposition as summarized above was a tortuous one but full of fun.

The two striking places in the gorge expedition were the “devils” bed and the “devils” shower.

While addressing the team before embarking on the walk, the ranger warned that the team may likely see snakes but that there should not be any panic as they will not harm anybody.

Nobody took the ranger’s warning serious until the group came face to face with a snake relaxing on top of a rock at the devils bed.

“Don’t disturb my friend” the ranger muttered when one of the team members, Nollywood star, Monalisa Chinda, unknowingly had wanted to relax at the rock where the snake had coiled up.

Although everybody was apprehensive, the ranger once again assured the team of the snake’s harmlessness and throughout the about 15 minutes spent at the devils bed, the reptile was just on its own.

Another harrowing moment was at the Devil’s shower as the place emanates hot water that one cannot keep his hands longer under its shower.

Relishing the experience, one of the Nollywood stars, Patience Uzokwor (Moma G) puts it this way: “Well, it is exciting, is good to go to places like this as they call it Hell, so that by the time you come out, you will appreciate Heaven.”

She continues: “Like in Enugu for example we have caves like this but they are not as long as what we saw and we don’t have hot water from there. Is a beautiful place and I don’t blame anybody that comes here to shoot a movie. It’s a wonderful place to shoot especially what we called epic, stories of things that happened in the past. One can always shoot a good movie here, its so natural and you are very much close to nature. Different kinds of animals, you could see the zebras, chimpanzees and even snakes. The snake even doesn’t harm, it was just there on its own. We came to its house and it welcomed us, I’m excited.”

On his part, veteran movie star, Francis Duru said that though Kenyans appreciates Nigeria in terms of movie making, Nigeria needs to learn something from them in terms of tourism.

“They don’t have oil, they have just a fragment of the vegetation that we have yet the world is coming to them. What does that mean? It means that our vast tourist and cultural potentials are laying fallow. If well harnessed, along with our oil, we can rule the world.

“The Hell’s gate experience is worthwhile and exciting. It was a beautiful experience which also opened my eyes to some of the things we have over here and it tells you that we can do. What do we need? High level social re-engineering of our tourism, our film making and our vast potentials to make the world come to us,” he said.

Also speaking, the Nigeria High Commissioner to Kenya, Dr. Chijioke Wigwe said that tourism is one area that Nigeria has a lot to offer but must put the mechanism in place.

“We have health tourism and what you call historical building tourism. Many people may go to London but, ask yourself what is in London. Buildings, parks, shopping centre’s, that’s tourism. Go to Abuja, can you say that. We have Zuma Rock in Niger State, we can build the mills in the midst of that rock; create something around it and it becomes a tourist attraction.

“There is something I saw recently when I visited home and it must be removed. As you leave the International airport in Abuja to joint Shehu Musa Yar’adua highway, you will see a leopard skin spread there. You can’t find that in Kenya. What you are telling people is that we don’t care for wildlife, we kill our wildlife, eat them and sell their skin that is not tourism.

“In Kenya, what they do is if you go to restaurants that offer game meat, they make sure that the game meat is reared specially for the restaurant. You don’t go to the bush and killed a bear and other things and come and sell, it is against the law so these are some of the things we could do,” the high commissioner said.

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