Describe an enjoyable day out you had

I want to talk about a day out I had in Hell's Gate National Park, which is near Lake Naivasha, about two hours from Nairobi by road. It's quite famous because you can cycle there between the wild animals, which is unusual for a national park in Kenya.

I went with four friends from my university course. One of them, Wanjiru, she borrowed her uncle's car, so we shared the cost of the fuel and left Nairobi very early, around six o'clock, to avoid the traffic.

When we arrived, we hired bicycles at the gate and we cycled for about seven kilometres on a dusty road. We saw zebras, giraffes and buffaloes very near to us, and I was a bit scaring of the buffaloes because they are dangerous. After that we hiked down into a gorge with a guide. The rocks was very high and there were small hot springs, so the water was coming out hot from the ground. In the afternoon we had a picnic under a tree and then we drove back.

I enjoyed it because it was a complete change from my normal life. Usually I spend all day in front of the laptop, but there was no network, so we just talked and laughing all day. Also it was very cheap, we only paid the entrance fee and the bikes. I would definitely do it again.

The day out I'd like to describe was a trip to Hell's Gate National Park, near Lake Naivasha, roughly two hours' drive north-west of Nairobi. What makes it special is that it's one of the few parks in Kenya where you're allowed to walk or cycle among the animals instead of watching them from a vehicle.

There were five of us, all from the same course at university. My friend Wanjiru managed borrowing her uncle's old car for the day, so we split the petrol money and set off before sunrise to beat the traffic out of the city.

We hired some fairly battered mountain bikes at the main gate and spent the morning cycling along a dirt track, with zebras grazing just a few metres away and giraffes watching us as if we were the strange ones. A herd of buffalo was standing near the road at one point, and we all went very quiet and pedalled past as fast as we could. After lunch, a local guide took us down into the gorge, where the rock walls rise straight up on both sides and steam comes out of little cracks in the ground.

I think I enjoyed it so much because it was such a break from routine. I'm usually glued to my laptop, but there was no signal at all, so we spent the whole day actually talking to each other. It was also incredibly cheap, and I came home sunburnt, exhausted and happier than I'd been for weeks.

The best day out I've had in a long time was at Hell's Gate National Park, which sits just beyond Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley, a couple of hours from Nairobi. Most Kenyan parks keep you sealed inside a safari vehicle, but Hell's Gate has hardly any big predators, so you're free to explore it on foot or by bike, which gives it a completely different feel.

I went with four coursemates from university. Wanjiru, who's the only one of us with a driving licence, talked her uncle into lending us his ancient Toyota, and we left at half past five with flasks of tea and a bag of mandazi, squabbling over the music the whole way.

At the gate we rented bikes that had clearly seen better days and rattled along a dusty track beneath enormous red cliffs, with zebras barely bothering to look up as we passed. The scariest moment was rounding a bend to find a buffalo standing in the middle of the path, and none of us has ever pedalled so silently in our lives. In the afternoon a Maasai guide led us down into Ol Njorowa Gorge, squeezing through narrow passages where hot water trickles out of the rock and you have to scramble down on your hands.

As for why it worked so well, I think it was the opposite of my everyday life. I normally spend twelve hours a day staring at a screen, and out there there wasn't a bar of signal, so we were forced to just be together. It cost almost nothing, and yet I came back feeling as though I'd had a week's holiday crammed into one day.