As the sun rose all our visitors of the night
before reappeared plus many more. We set Steve onto them so we could at least
feed everyone else and pack up as fast as possible. He really was good at
keeping their attention and in no time at all they were gathered around him
being entertained - they thought these strangers were the best thing since
sliced bread. He got out the shirts, gave them all one and generally kept them
talking and laughing about god knows what. Gosh he has a really good way with
people and by the time we actually left they were thoroughly enjoying
themselves.
As I say 78 kms and counting....We did
the first 20 Kms at an average speed of 50 Kms/h - all good, spectacular
scenery and no real problem. Rouvierre and Andrea decided to ride with us again
as they had so enjoyed the day before in The Queen and it is also fun to swap
around and have someone different to talk to! They reckoned over the rough
stuff The Queen was the best place to be. We gradually left the big umbrella
trees behind and the landscape became more desert like with the only green to
be seen along the dry river beds. There were no cattle here but there were
still the odd herds of goats and of course more and more camels being looked
after by tiny little boys, I kid you not, they looked about four or five years
old and they must sleep out in the desert as it is too far to walk in half a
day. Mind you it was very hilly and there could have been little settlements
tucked into crevasses that we couldn't see from the road. The ships of the
desert is such a good description for camels, these ones are the single humped
ones with short hair and not quite as ugly and dirty as the ones you see in
China and Dubai. Then another 25 Ks, still a great road at a good speed. We
kept on expecting to come around the next corner to find a dreadful pile of volcanic
rock to drive on but the good road continued. The landscape here had turned
into hills and valleys all covered in these black round rocks, wow it was very
stark completely devoid of any life form and round black rock for as far as you
could see---- but would you believe it we still saw camels and goats eating I
don't know what!. We realized at this point that the road had been recently
rebuilt and we were just darn lucky to have come at this time, before it was
again destroyed by no maintenance. But then we also realized there are no heavy
trucks using this road plus the traffic was very low and the rainfalls pretty
much nonexistent so it will probably be like this for a few years to come.
Anyway one and a half hours later we came over a slight rise and there in front
of us was the spectacle we had traveled so long and far to see. And we were not
disappointed; lying in front of us was the magnificent Jade Sea. We stopped The
Queen, all climbed on top and just sat there soaking in the Lake, the rocks,
the colors, the sheer magnificence of the whole thing. Ernest had become quite
emotional and we had all felt the pure power of his emotion at having achieved
this lifelong goal. We had arrived! I think everyone felt their own particular
emotion and sense of achievement at having reached this remote and beautiful
spot on planet earth. Shew there were tears of joy and happiness and just the
magic in the air was almost tangible.
So we must have sat there, all seven of us, on
top of the truck for at least an hour, taking tons of photos and enjoying the
space. It took a lot of time for us to soak it all up, if time even exists in
moments like these.
Lake Turkana at last!
It is quite hard to describe in words what this
massive lake looks like - you begin to understand why it is called the Jade
SEA. It is 300 odd kilometers long and about 56 kilometers wide so you can’t see the other side. We came in from the
south and could see the South Island which is uninhibited except for a few
feral goats and really does look like the sea, without waves of course and the
color is just very blue with clean clear water. The surrounding Rock Mountains
are a great contrast and we couldn't see a blade of grass or green anywhere
even though there were little dots of white on the sides of the hills which we
realized were goats. Heaven knows what they can find to eat but they didn't look
unhealthy. We did notice that all the animals that we had seen since we
descended back into the Great Rift Valley were very small. The goats were tiny,
the cows small and the sheep also very small. Their growth must be stunted by
the lack of food in these harsh surroundings.
We still had just over 20 Kms to go before we
got to the little town of Loiyangalani on the shores of the lake where we
planned to camp for the night. So we just went along slowly, the road still
excellent except for a few dicey little bridges which we had to negotiate with
care. There were a few pockets of very basic settlements along the shores of
the lake. The Turkanians live in these tiny little round igloo shaped huts made
up of palm fronds that are very loosely woven to let wind and air through. Some
of them had black or yellow plastic woven into the top presumably to protect
the occupier from rain but these ones must be unbelievably hot inside. These
people that live in the little settlements around the lake are the fishermen
and their families. None of them had that thin haunted look of the Masai and
the Samburu. Presumably the diet of fish is better for them than the blood and
milk that the others live on.There were fishermen in the tiniest little boats
with their legs hanging in the water so Steve kept saying “see there can't be croc's here so I can
swim” Hell he is worse
than a kid!
It took us over an hour to cover those last 20 Kms
and landed up in the village of Loiyangalani. It was a dirty little hell hole
that stank and was dusty as hell. First you had to travel through the
traditional village with their little 'igloos' and then you got to the more
formal town with shops lining the street but still built of mud and banana
frond roofs. Wow talk about dirty, muddy and full of men just sitting around
and doing nothing. So off we sent Kim to find a decent camp site, there were
about 4 of them so off he went to inspect them and choose the best. We found a
funny little place called the Oasis hotel and stopped there to see if they
would allow camping there.
We got swamped by the usual touts who all wanted to
show us where to go and to sell us anything and everything from stones to
fossils. Oh my gosh these guys can really drive you mad. So us girls waited in
The Queen which is so high up they can't get to us while Ernest went to check
out the lodge. He found an old German guy who had arrived at Turkana 35 years
ago, built the lodge and had just
stayed. His wife had left him, his kids had left him and he had just become
more and more anti-social as time went on. He just sat in his lodge surrounded
by the weirdest pictures of days gone by. He would not let us camp but would let us use
his swimming pool for three hundred shillings a person and we could have one
room for 6000 for the night so we could use the toilet and the shower. Ernest
told him we would be back to tell him what we wanted to do and we set off to go
and try and find a decent place to camp. He would not go back to the shore line
as apparently if the wind comes up; it can literally flatten your tent so we
had to find a protected shady place to stay.
It was only about 11 o'clock so we
had the better part of the day still ahead of us and it was extremely hot
already... 36 degrees and climbing. He found the Woman's camp right next door.
Oh that was a bad mistake as although it was quite shaded during the day, it
was also surrounded by all the palm trees and so completely cut off any breeze
during the evening when you need some kind of air movement to cool you down. Anyway
it was run by the chairman of the Mama's club and she sat there and ruled the
roost with all the men running around her from morning till night. We probably
would have been better bush camping down at the water’s edge but who knew if the wind was going to come up and blow us
away so we stayed put and set up camp inside the town.
We really broke one of
our cardinal rules and that is to never camp in town if possible. Firstly that
is when you can pick up malaria, secondly it is never clean and there are all
sorts of diseases there which the locals are immune to and thirdly the locals
can just pester you from morning till night. I think Ernest had just gone
moggie with the heat and Kim had reported back that there were no trees in any
of the other sites so we stayed put. We all had lunch, gathered ourselves
together and at about three decided to go and swim next door at the Oasis. Well
the old bugger who is obviously so eccentric by now had somehow got upset
because we didn't take a room at this hotel or come back to him quick enough so
he decided to empty his pool and bugger off to town... In fact I think he was a
little mad to say the least. Oh well the touts came and told us there was
another pool just down the road who would also allow us to swim for 300 shillings
so off we went down the road. It wasn't quite as clean as the other place but
both pools were fed by the natural hot springs so we just thought what the hell
and in we all went. The water was hot from the hot springs so did little to
alleviate the heat.... Swim in hot water in the desert and try and get cool, no
I don't think so.
All the girls decided we needed a hair wash by this time, we
had missed out on a nice shower in the “best campsite in Kenya" so out came the shampoo and we washed
our hair under the hot whatever that was flowing into the swimming pool from
the hot springs. Back to the camp to try
and cool down under the shade of the trees where the old lady's grandson was
around us all the time wetting the ground to keep down the dust - and cool the
desert floor, so we got Steve to blow up one of the soccer balls and Ernest
gave it to him.. Oh my gosh that was a moment, he had a grin from ear to ear
and had obviously never had anything like that is his life. Granny then got
quite carried away and got him to fetch the girls over and she presented each
of us with a special necklace that she had made. Very serious and very
touching.
Our little boy with his new ball
After the swim we all went for a guided tour
around the traditional village. The tout promised to take us to someone who
sold the beaded necklaces that these women wear. They are particularly
beautiful and we wanted one for the new library. Rouvierre and Steve were
interested in the cultural side of the village and he promised to introduce us
to the oldest lady there who was a sear or clairvoyant or something of the
sort. Well did we get led up the garden path? He took us around and around and
then decided that the old lady was murdered the night before so we couldn't see
her, then they tried to rag us for money for the orphan children to go to
school etc. in the end I had maybe four or five of the little girls all trying
to hold mine and Andrea's hands and one in particular put her hand in mine and
just would not let go, she really was too sweet and was completely not going to
give up her position next to me. I think she was hoping I would take her with
me out of that hell hole.
Eventually we decided this was not for us and we
left to go back to the campsite and lost all our hangers on. Funny thing when
you stay at a place like that is the camping costs 500 each but you pay double
that to all the helpers that will just not go away.
That night the mama decided not to go home but
to stay in the campsite, I think she was hoping to be invited to join us for
our evening meal and when we gave her all the rice and veggies that were left
over she very indignantly asked where her meat was. Unfortunately for her it
was finished. We had a special little camp guard who walked around the whole
night shining his torch into every nook and cranny in the campsite plus into
the tents just to make sure we were alright (or to make sure we knew he was
working.) Kim said he sounded like a grunting hippo.
That night was the
hottest any of us had ever been in our lives. It was like an oven in that camp,
not a breath of fresh air and I don't think the temperature dropped at all, so
we had the whole tent open with no fly sheets, just the netting and as will
always happen at about three in the morning the heavens opened and down came
the rain. In the bloody desert none of us could believe it; this rain was just
following us. So out we scrambled, put on the fly sheets closed up the roof and
then the rain stopped and we started to boil again so off with the fly sheet
which then brought the rain again.... This time we said to hell with it we
would just get wet.
So The Woman's camp at Lake Turkana got the vote as the worst camp site of the trip.
For all the hardship that night it was still an
outstanding experience and we loved seeing the lake and its surroundings.
Until Tomorrow!
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