Early explorers
European explorers, sponsored by scientific societies, monarchs, or rich individual backers, were common in the latter quarter of the XIX (19th) Centry (1875-1900), investigating and mapping the inner features of East and Central Africa. Many of them started further south than Kenya, basing themselves at Zanzibar and moving inland across what is now Tanzania. A major goal was finding the source of the Nile river. Three of the most famous explorers who passed Naivasha are described below.
An early explorer was Gustav Fischer, a military doctor, son of a banker, supported by the Geographical Society of Hamburg. He settled first in Zanzibar for some time, then in 1878 visited the northern coast of Kenya, including Witu forest, which lies relatively unspoiled still today, and Lamu island. Soon after, Fischer set off to the interior and reached the shores of Lake Naivasha near Hell's Gate, but here he had a violent confrontation with the local Maasai, who allegedly killed all his porters leaving him untouched to go back and report of his own defeat. Some time later, Fischer managed to return to Maasai country and to reach Lake Victoria. In 1883 he was the first to describe Ol Doinyo Lengai - a volcano in Tanzania - noticing that it was ready to erupt (it did erupt some 6 times after his visit, the last time in 2008). Eventually struck by a disease, he died in Germany not long after his return. Fischer's Tower, the single standing lava outcrop towering at the entrance of Hell's Gate National Park, bears his name. A species of lovebird was also named after him.
In 1883, Joseph Thomson received a grant from the Royal Geographical Society (London) and set off to East Africa. He reached Maasailand not long after Fischer's expedition and had to placate the people's anger before proceeding towards Lake Naivasha, approaching it from the eastern wall of the Rift, facing Mount Longonot. He did not descend, because of the fieceness of the people, so he proceeded along to top of the Rift northwards, eventually reaching Lake Baringo on 10th of November 1883. This area was renowned among Arab traders for being rich in ivory. Here Thomson wrote a first proper description of the Rift Valley's geomorphology, giving approximate measurements of its dimensions. He cited evident, aligned, recent tectonic features "... clearly not modelled by surface agents...". His description caught the attention of several explorers and geologists of his time. Thomposon named the mountain range that he travelled along the "Aberdares" after the then president of the Royal Geographical Society, Lord Aberdare. The spectacular waterfalls taking the mountain drainage flowing northwards off the mountains are now named after him as 'Thompsons Falls'. The town where the falls are, orginally given the same name in colonial times, is now known as Nyahururu.
Count Samuel Teleki von Szek was a Hungarian sportsman, passioned by hunting and adventurous travels. He ventured into the dark continent accompanied by the Austrian Ludwig von Hoehnel, from Pangani, in today's northern Tanzania. during his first trip he "discovered" two large lakes in southern Ethiopia and renamed tham Rudolph and Stephanie after Austro-Hungarian prince and his consort. Their expedition reached Lake Naivasha sometime in mid 1888 on their way back from Lake Baringo.The party made important observations on several Rift valley lakes that were recorded by the geologist and cartographer Suess back in Austria and provided more confirmation of Gregory's interpretation of the origins of the Great Rift Valley.
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