If you have ever wanted to do something weird inside a national park, then your dream could come true with this year’s fund-raising event to be held at the Hell’s Gate National Park in Naivasha on June 10-12 2011. All you need is a wheelbarrow!

Dubbed ‘To Hell’s Gate on a wheelbarrow’, it is an annual corporate team building challenge whose primary objective is to raise funds for the construction of a conservation education centre in Hell’s Gate National Park that will be used to educate communities about the delicate Naivasha ecosystem and how to conserve it.

Participants will have the opportunity to run several races including an elite 7 KM circuit. Other races include a 5 M corporate race, a 5 KM media race, a 500 M children’s race and a 5 KM race for schools.

Each race participant will receive a medal and goody bag on finishing. Additional cash prizes will be awarded as well. The race winner will carry home KES 50,000.00. There will also be prizes for the best corporate, media and children’s team including a KES 10,000.00 prize for the best-pimped wheelbarrow!

Entry fees to the park will be KES 300.00 for adult East African citizens, KES 200.00 for children and students from East Africa. East African residents will pay KES 500.00 (adults) and KES 300.00 (children and students). Foreigners will pay USD 25.00 (adults) and USD 15.00 (children and students) respectively.

As a sideshow to the main fundraising event, a guided tour on Saturday 11th June 2011 of the Olkaria Geothermal Power Station – the first African Geothermal field to be commercially exploited – between 3.00 PM and 5.00 PM will be conducted.

There will also be the first-ever Hell’s Gate Live Wheelbarrow Concert and a spectacular wild bush party at the National Park hosted by the KWS.

The Hell’s Gate Wheelbarrow Concert will be an Afro-fusion of some of the best bands in East Africa. Visitors will also get a chance to walk around the spectacular gorge and even ride a bicycle around the park. Bicycles will be on hire at Elsa’s Gate.

Hell’s Gate National Park is one of the only 2 Kenyan national parks to allow walking or cycling without an official KWS escort. The park offers some of the most scenic and well-equipped campsites in Kenya.

The facilities include picnic benches, sheltered picnic areas, shower blocks, water taps, pit latrines and litter bins. Even though there are no self-catering facilities within the park, these abound in Naivasha town.

It is, perhaps, one of the few remaining places where tourists can walk alongside herds of buffalo, zebra, eland, hartebeest, mountain reedbuck, hyrax, Thomson’s gazelle and giraffes. There are also troops of baboon, serval cat and some klipspringer antelope.

The 25-metre Fischer’s Tower named after the German explorer, Gustav Fischer, offers the grand finale of experiencing the true beauty of Hell’s Gate. The rock offers an excellent climbing opportunity and is home to a colony of rock hyrax, one of the closest relatives of the elephant.

The park also boasts an incredible 103 different bird species. Its massive cliffs also provide a home to thousands of swift as well as a unique breeding ground for vulture, augur buzzard, the elusive Verreaux’s eagle and the rare Lammergeyer vulture.

Be sure to come back and tell us what your experience was like by commenting below.