In the beginning there was fear: of the lions, who didn't always want springbok or zebra on the menu.

And before hippos, cheetahs and poison-spewing cobras that stretch their long necks in the air.

A bicycle safari – is that a delivery service that has become human flesh, like meals on wheels?

The tour guide Joshua Ndinga laughs when he hears about the concerns.

No predators, rarely cobras, but solitary water buffalo that can become aggressive.

Martin Franke

Editor on duty at FAZ.NET.

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It's Sunday morning at the entrance gate to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya.

Half the country is in church right now.

In sight, a larger horde of baboons takes advantage of the moment and fills their stomachs on a vegetable plantation fenced off with electricity.

Young Maasai have loaded dozens of bicycles onto their mopeds, transported them over the bumpy roads and turned them into a fleet at the gate.

At the Gate of Hell it is still quiet, only a few tourists are there: an elderly couple, a small group of Spaniards and a family with two children.

A visit is particularly worthwhile in the morning, when the sun has not yet developed its full power, or in the afternoon.

You should take several liters with you to drink, put on a hat and, of course, apply lotion.

The national park, just under a two-hour drive north of Nairobi, with its 68.25 square kilometers - tour guide Ndinga gives the exact size to two decimal places and corresponds to the size of a smaller German city - is rather tiny by African standards.

But it is the only one in Kenya and one of the few in East Africa that can be crossed by bike or on foot.

The bikes can be rented for a fee.

However, you shouldn't expect any riding pleasure from it: the somewhat rusty and squeaky mountain bikes are getting old, hardly maintained and for tall people like a visit to the children's carousel.

Steam rises from the cracks in the earth

The bike wobbles and rattles on the gravel path, which is a little less rugged on the sides. Not a hundred meters behind the entrance, technical questions are unimportant - the first zebras and warthogs sweeten the sight.

A "Good morning" is not returned.

In return, you are not approached stupidly from the side, at most you are looked at with irritation.

You can stray from the path here.

When people step into the comfort zone of animals, they flee.

In the case of the warthog, this is accompanied by a distinctive head movement first down, then up, a rotation around its own axis and a wriggling tail.

You can't miss the animals: African buffalo, zebra, eland, giraffe and baboon are to be found, although not in large numbers as in other national parks in Kenya, Tanzania or Botswana.

Ornithologists can observe the more than 100 species of birds, including vultures, Verreaux's eagles, long-nosed buzzards and swifts.

Only hyenas keep a low profile.

The Maasai Ndinga call them "weak hunters" who come out in the evening sun and prefer carrion.