We were supposed to stop at Camp Gedeng on the Sabaki River to spot majestic rhinos, but we did not find the correct road there, and nobody answered our call, so we are unsure if the place still exists. After that, we continued our trip to the more intriguing sight inland from the north Kenyan coast to the Hell’s Kitchen or Nyari (‘the place broken by itself’). About 30km northeast of Malindi, it’s an eroded sandstone gorge where jungle, red rock, and cliffs heave into a stunning Mars-like landscape.
The depression is currently managed as a local tourism concern by Marafa village, with steep admission costs (🎟️750 KES) going into village programs. A guide (🎟️500 KES) took us around the lip of the gorge and into its heart of sandstone spikes and melted-candle-like formations to tell the story of Hell’s Kitchen. It goes like this: a wealthy family was so careless with their wealth that they bathed themselves in the valuable milk of their cows. God became angry with this excess and sank the family homestead into the earth. The white and red walls of the depression mark the milk and blood of the family painted over the gorge walls. The more mundane explanation? The depression is a chunk of sandstone geologically distinct from the surrounding rock and more susceptible to wind and rain erosion.
