Hell’s Gate - Game Park Safari – and Lioness Adopts Baby Oryx

In this world, wonders will never cease to amuse. It seems every country in this world has something to offer. Wonders are many and may include the flightless kiwi birds of New Zealand that will lay huge eggs which each are up to half the weight of the kiwi bird that laid the egg. Another wonder is the kangaroos of Australia that have pouches for putting their babies. And another wonder is the Hell’s Gate which is in Kenya. Hell’s Gate is not a gate to abode of condemned souls, devil, darkness, evil and misery. Hell’s Gate is a small Game Park in Kenya on your way to Masai Mara.

Kenya is that place in Africa where a wild lioness adopted and provided protection to a baby Oryx. An Oryx is a large antelope of the species genus Oryx which will herd in groups of a few hundred antelopes. The said lioness is known to adopt baby Oryx not once, not twice, but five different antelope calves. A baby Oryx will normally make the sweetest meal for a lion. A lion can chew two such babies for a day’s meal. Believe it or not, the lioness will usually give the baby Oryx a break of a few minutes to go to her mother each day to breast feed.

Animals, like humans, have ability to show maternal affection for other animals they would usually consider as a meal. A dog is man’s best friend and will remain so until it suffers from rabies. Animals such as chimpanzees will show maternal affection to humans including attempt to learn human languages until one day when they may abruptly decides to whip you mercilessly. For a lioness to show maternal affection for a one-day old baby Oryx may be described by Christians as miracles of god. In all the five incidents, the lioness was fiercely protective of the Oryx’s calf but would unfortunately lose the adopted baby Oryx to other hungry lions when it fell asleep. Rather than saying you were told this incidence of world wonders by someone somewhere on Hubpages, watch the video below so that you can see with your own eyes this lioness adopting the baby Oryx.

200 Kilometres Southeast of Hell’s Gate is TsavoGamePark which was popularized by two lions who were the man eaters of Tsavo. It was in 1896 when Her Majesty the Queen of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had the idea that a railway line had to be built from port of Mombasa through Kenya to Uganda via Lake Victoria at whatever cost and risks. The Queen, through her wisdom, had dispatched an Anglo-Irish soldier and Engineer by the name of Colonel John Henry Patterson, to see to it that the railway line reached Uganda. Colonel Patterson had first to pick from India hundred of skilled laborers for the job in Kenya. Upon reaching Tsavo, Colonel Patterson’s team had to camp there for several months as there was a railway bridge to be put up before proceeding any farther.

At Tsavo, there was this notorious pair of lions that was eager to welcome the guests from out of Africa.  The two lions were the Man Eaters of Tsavo who were mane-less male lions. These two lions had specialized in hunting at night. Every night, these two lions would systematically move from house to house looking for a railway laborer for a meal. In total, the lions fed on 135 healthy human beings, and it seems they were particularly interested in guys from Indian. The Tsavo Man Eaters did not have maternal affection for humans and never bothered to adopt a few railway laborers like the lion that adopts antelope’s babies.

Colonel Patterson, upon realizing he was also on the waiting list of those to be turned into a lion’s meal, had to take swift action into eliminating the two lions. Colonel Patterson was a highly trained soldier; he had several guns, a good job, and a name to protect. By hiding on top of trees, Colonel Patterson finally killed the two lions and sold their skins to the Chicago Field Museum in 1924 for a sum of $5,000 which was a fortune at that time.

At Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, the skins were reconstructed into lions and now the Tsavo Man Eaters are on permanent display in that museum. I read somewhere that Kenyan authorities would wish to make another wonder by asking for those two skins of Tsavo Man Eaters to be returned back so that they can reconstruct the man eating lions in TsavoGamePark. One wonders why they don’t just go there in Tsavo, slaughter two out of the hundreds of lions there and reconstruct Tsavo Man Eaters similar to those at Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. But why should people see the Tsavo Man Eaters in Chicago when they can travel all the way to TsavoGamePark in Kenya to see the Tsavo Man Eaters in their original habitat? Never mind the tourism. industry in Kenya is mostly owned by British and American entrepreneurs.

If one is to travel for a Game Park Safari to one of the world’s greatest wonders, the Masai Mara, one will most likely hear of that small game park called the Hell’s Gate. Hell's GateNational Park is located around LakeNaivasha, Suswa Volcanoes and longonot. LakeNaivasha is popular with the third Baron Delamere who owns thousands and thousands of land in and around LakeNaivasha and indeed one the finest farmers in that country for the last 115 years.

The Delameres are indirect descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. If you may be interested, the family link is as follows:

1. Thomas Cholmondeley, 1st Baron Delamere (1767-1855)

2. Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere (1811-1887)

3. Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere (1870-1931)

4. Thomas Pitt Hamilton Cholmondeley, 4th Baron Delamere (1900-1979)

5. Hugh George Cholmondeley, 5th Baron Delamere (born 1934) and still kicking

6. Heir Apparent, Thomas Patrick Gilbert Cholmondeley (born 19 January 1968) and still kicking.

The name Hell’s Gate was given to this location by early British and German explorers, Gustav A. Fisher and Joseph Thomson in 1883. Joseph Thomson (February 14, 1858 - August 2, 1895) was a Scottish geologist and explorer who on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played a key role in the scramble for Africa. Joseph Thomson was an excellent explorer who believed that the key to survival from hostile indigenous people in Africa was to avoid killing the indigenous people or have any violence with them. Joseph Thomson believed that, he who goes gently goes safely, and he who goes safely, goes far. Whilst in Africa, Thomson saw a gazelle which he admired very much and decided to call it Thomson Gazelle. Now you know where Thomson Gazelle came about. Thomson Gazelle is one of the many animals that are found in Hell’s GateGamePark. What do you think Thomson would have called a baby Oryx adopted by a lioness? What do you think Thomson would have called the Man Eaters of Tsavo?

Gustav Adolf Fischer (March 3, 1848 - November 11, 1886, Berlin) was a German explorer from Berlin who also doubled as a physician while in Africa. Fischer is one guy who had easy access to funding from the Geographical Society of Hamburg. It is through such funding that he visited the Kenya’s Maasai grazing land in 1882 and penetrated to LakeNaivasha. It’s here where he believed he had reached the gate to hell on earth where he was to encounter the abode of condemned souls, devil, darkness, evil and misery. But it was never to be as he was prevented from advancing further by the indigenous people. Whilst in Hell’s Gate, Fisher saw and fell in love with a bird which he called Fischer's Lovebird. Now you know how fisher’s lovebird came about. In Hell's GateGamePark, there is a gorge called Hell’s Gate Gorge which is lined with red cliffs which contains volcanic plugs called Fischer's Tower and CentralTower.

There are a number of animals to be found in Hell’s Gate Game Park and include but not limited to antelopes, Thomson’s gazelles, Gnu, Impala, Reedbucks, waterbucks, Buffaloes, Giraffes, Zebras, Genet, Hyrax, Hyenas, Jackals, Baboons, Monkeys, Ostriches, Vultures, speckled Pigeons, Laughing Doves, Yellow Bishops, etc, etc. Here below is a listing of interesting features one’s can see at Hell’s Gate.

1. Central Tower
2. Fischer Tower
3. Hell's Gate Cliffs
4. Lake Naivasha
5. Lower Gorge And Ol Njorowa Gorge
6. Mount Longonot
7. Obsidian Caves
8. Ol Karia Geothermal Plant
9. Olook Karia Maasai Cultural Center
10. Wildlife

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