Leaving our little unexpected "heaven"
we set off on the road again, this time again expecting a really bad road, only
to find that once out of town there were great improvements in the condition of
the road but a few rocky patches. We
were able to pick up our speed considerably and as we climbed up and up through
a very pretty area we became quite excited as to how great the entire landscape
had become. It was fairly heavily populated but the people were not as thin and
were so productive. There was wheat, maize and Kasavas growing in big fields
and there were still lots of cattle, sheep and goats but everything was green
even though you could still see signs of overgrazing.
We climbed up to an altitude of 8400 feet and I
for one could feel the effects of the lack of oxygen, or maybe it was just
psychological but it wasn't for too long and we were going down again. The
views from the top were absolutely spectacular, we were all just totally
surprised and overawed at the beauty of the place and the distance that we
could see. There were a few hairy moments however as the road came perilously
close to the edge of a cliff and the drop was nearly two thousand feet straight
down. Thank goodness I wasn't driving as I think I would have just frozen with
fear. Rouvierre said her knees went completely wobbly but the road was good and
there was really no danger at all.
As we crested the summit, the vegetation quite
quickly became fairly sparse and had a moon scape look about it. The descent
back down into the Rift Valley again was spectacular -down down down we went
with the vegetation becoming more desert like as we went. It was truly
beautiful, the umbrella trees were huge and sometimes green and sometimes quite
brown and dead looking, there were succulent paper bark trees, lots of short
little stubby trees and brown bushes and then rocks, rocks and more rocks of
every shape and color you can think of from reddy brown to black. We just could
not get over the pure beauty of the place.
The road was bad, but “not so bad” as they say in
Africa. We certainly didn't find it as bad as we were expecting but that could
have been because we were all so enjoying the surroundings and the pictures we
saw around us. We kept radioing back to Steve to say “please take that scene or this tree or that valley". He has
become the “official
photographer" of the group. His camera and ability is so superior to ours
and so we found out he has another hidden talent which we never knew about. If
we ask for a photo he jumped out of the car and ran over to take the photo. He
invariably loses one of his slops on the way over and now has permanently dirty
feet that I am sure are stained for life. He reminds me of Willem, a friend who
came on the last trip who often wore no shoes at all and whose feet were
equally as dirty... Willem you have found your match. I asked Andrea if she
allowed him into the tent like that at night.... Never got an answer!
There was one section that was very corrugated
and being in The Queen with huge wheels was a tremendous advantage. Ernest was
able to put his foot down and we just sailed across the top of it. The cars
however didn't do very well on this stuff. In fact we had left them far behind
(something we are not supposed to do) and I heard some very crackly message
from Rouvierre. By the urgency and tone of her voice I could tell that she was
in some kind of distress. So we stopped and waited and eventually got the
message that Ken’s left back shock had
gone... Oh dear disaster and we hadn't even got to the real bad Turkana road.
They eventually caught up with us and it was decided that Rouvierre would come
with us and Steve would travel slowly to the next campsite with Ken where we
could then set ourselves up to change the shock.
Fixing Kens car
So Rouvierre and Andrea, not
to be outdone for some girls company, jumped into our truck and we set off to
try and get to the camp before it became dark as then it would be difficult to
do the needed repairs. After about 5 Kms we got a great radio message, it was
not the shock but actually the left back attachment on the roof rack that had
come lose and all the rattling and banging made it sound like the shock had
gone. Shew we were happy. Steve our wonder boy had solved the problem again.
Ken promised to wait on him hand and foot for the next three days... Didn't
last long but it was a nice thought anyway. The girls decided they kind of
liked sitting with their feet up chatting in The Queen and I think Ernest also
enjoyed the chatter instead of listening to his wife telling him to go slower
or mind the goat or watch out for that rock!
By the time we reached South Horr which was to
be our destination for the night, it was nearing four o'clock and we started
looking for the wonderful campsite that was apparently in the area.... Again
just out of town. The description in Ernest's book said it was at an Oasis and
was the best campsite in the whole of Kenya. Whew we just couldn't wait to get
there and have a shower and wash our hair that was beginning to feel more like
straw than hair. What we didn't realize was that this bloody book of his was
all of 9 years old and the camp site didn't exist anymore. So after driving
backwards and forwards through town and out of town again, asking everyone
about this mystery campsite, we realized that we would just have to bush camp.
Now the area was very densely populated and there seemed to be people
everywhere and the further we drove all we found was another settlement. So
eventually we just turned our noses off the road and bashed our way into the
bush far enough away from the road not to be noticed.
South Horr
Our Bushcamp at South Horr
No sooner had we stopped
than we were found! These people are not at all aggressive and I am sure would
never harm you but they are as curious as anything and just stand around and
stare at you and watch the activity around the truck. We had a woman with her
two children (plus a bun in the oven) who just watched us for at least an hour,
then another guy arrived to sell us some green garnets, then the elder of the
village arrived and just leant against the car and watched our every move. For us
this is quite disturbing but for them it is quite natural, they just want to
see what we do and how we behave. We had often passed guys carrying AK 47' s
casually over their shoulders but they don't seem threatening at all and when
Steve asked them why they carried these guns they said they were protecting
their cattle from cattle thieves-- apparently Turkana's come and steal their
livestock. When we had stopped on the mountain and one of these gun carrying
guys had walked passed us, Steve of course wanted a photo with them so we
started snapping away with Steve in between these fierce warriors, much to
their delight.
Steve and the fierce warriors
Then Rouvierre decided she also wanted to be part of the action
and have a photo with them on either side of her, she even grabbed the gun and
held it for the photo, again much to their amusement. They just loved seeing
the picture, such a pity we could never send them a copy.
Rouvierre in on the action!
Our Samburu Warriors!
I must say South Horr was one of the prettiest
places we have visited so far on this trip, as you approach the little village
which is nestled in a valley between two large rocky mountains you cross over
these very wide dry river beds with very shady umbrella trees lining the banks,
so large in fact that they that almost look unreal. The landscape is stark yet
beautiful and the trees give shelter for the very hot sun to the poor sheep and
goats that we saw everywhere.
View from our campsite
We also saw the fattest healthiest donkeys I have
ever seen in all our travels through Africa, heaven knows what they eat as
there is no grass what so ever. Then of course I have forgotten to mention the
camels, big ones and tiny little ones dotted on the mountain feeding off
something which we were not able to see.
So back to the camp site and our surrounding
audience who just stared at every move we made and then all of a sudden as the
sun was about to set they just disappeared - but we were under no illusions to
think that was the last we would see of them.
We had a great night parked under the umbrella
trees in this beautiful stark setting, with a backdrop of huge mountains and a
warm but not too hot evening, in the middle of nowhere. We could hear the
people from the nearest village, probably talking about these Strange
Travellers but they left us in peace to enjoy this very unique place on planet
earth.
Good bye for now!
Good bye for now!
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