A view like no other, the Marafa Depression: Photographic Memory (#2)

In this edition of Photographic Memory,

The 'Marafa depression', also known to the local communities as 'Hell's Kitchen', is a natural gorge filled with beautiful rock formations and found just inland from the central coastal area of Kenya in the continent of Africa. In this photo blog, I will share my favourite photos from my trip to the Marafa depression coupled with some more interesting facts and information about the area and my trip there.

During our recent trip to Kenya, my girlfriend, who was keen as a bean to explore the area, found out about the Marafa depression in our guide book and convinced me to join her on a trip to visit the sight. There was minimal information about the place online and even less in terms of direction, but regardless we set off on our journey!

After a 3 hour car drive, we arrived at a little village and were directed to the depression. There, we were happy to find that the Marafa Depression was completely looked after and run by a local community organization, and that our guide had lived in the area his entire life, had played inside the Depression as a child.

From where we parked our car at the top of the Depression, we could see all the way down the gorge and into the African savannah which stretched all the way to the horizon.

While taking us down into the depression, our guide explained to us that the Marafa Depression had once been a large limestone cliff which had over time become worn down by wind, rain and floods to create the beautiful land formations seen today. The incredible colors of these rock formations were due to the wide variety of minerals found within the gorge which had all eroded at different speeds leaving large multi-colored and different sized rock formations.

Once inside the gorge, we were surprised by the beautiful diversity of plant and animal life that had come to call the Depression home, and in no time we were joined by a troop of baboons who followed us around the gorge for the rest of our trip.

Having climbed our way back to the top of the ridge, we we're greeted by the golden setting sun which lit up the entire valley, illuminating the colors of all the different rock formations allowing me to take some of my favorite photos of our trip and bringing a perfect end to the perfect day adventure.

If you ever find yourself in the coastal region of Kenya, I really hope that you have a chance to visit the Marafa Depression. Not only is it a spectacular natural creation, but the community conservation initiative was also very commendable and their guides were extremely insightful! 

If anyone is ever in need of a little more information about this place or even traveling in Kenya, East Africa or Southern Africa in general, I would be more than happy to help you!

I hope you enjoyed this second post in the photographic memory series. Since I am new to Steemit, I would also love and appreciate any feedback or advice you might have on the format, content or feel of my blogs...

Until next time, 

Tristan

Read more about my story here:
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@tristanoliff/this-is-me-and-this-is-what-i-m-going-to-do-introducing-tristan

Check out the previous Photographic Memory blog here:
https://steemit.com/photography/@tristanoliff/the-most-incredible-sunset-over-the-parliament-of-canada-photographic-memory-1