Merry Christmas from Lake Turkana - Part 2

Sunday, 23rd December

We left the east side of Lake Turkana yesterday and started our three day trip to the west. Because of the layout of this part of Kenya it is impossible to get from east to west without first heading south of the Lake for about 200 km.   We knew that if we wanted to spend Christmas in some sort of comfort rather than bush camp we had three days of solid driving on very poor roads ahead of us.

The first day was reasonably uneventful. We had been on this particular road before and although there were a few muddy patches, we got through alright. We arrived at our camp in Maralal by early evening and as we walked into the bar a Christmas party hosted by local Turkana people was in full swing. We didn’t want to intrude so we sat outside but as the music got louder and the beat more inviting,  Heather and myself couldn’t help ourselves and decided to join in (sorry kids, I know what you are thinking…). We were immediately welcomed into the group and needless to say, had a lot of fun. 

For the second day we didn’t set ourselves a target other than to get as far north as possible before dark. We had planned a route which would take us as close as possible along the shore of the lake although in the south and most of the west, all roads and tracks are separated from the Lake by mountains. By about three o’clock the track was getting steeper and narrower and then our GPS ran out of ideas altogether and just displayed the wording ‘danger of Bandits’. Well by now we consider ourselves to be seasoned travelers and it didn’t particularly worry us.

We did however pick up a local Turkana man in one of the villages we passed through to help us find our way. He knew of a village nearby (that’s two hours away!) where there was a catholic mission and where we would be able to spend the night.

We reached the village by 5pm and decided to call it a day. The priest running the catholic mission and who was a ‘Father Ted lookalike’ kindly let us spend the night camping in the local school yard.  

Monday 24^th December,

What a day! We left very early this morning safe in the expectation that we would reach the western shore of the lake in good time since we only had another 280 km to go. We had identified a camp site in our guidebook (Eliya Springs) which sounded like a good place to spend Christmas and it seemed reachable.

During the day I received several calls and messages wishing me a 'Happy Birthday' which was very special, being so far from home.

By 3pm progress suddenly came to a halt. As we were approaching the Turkwell River crossing we could see a long queue of stationary lorries and trucks in front of us and when we got out to investigate we saw that a river had burst it’s banks and flooded the bridge. The problem was not only the height of the water level but the fact that it was impossible to make out the boundaries of the bridge. 

After an hour or so of waiting around it looked like the water level was falling and one truck made a start to the cheers of the onlookers. About three quarters of the way it looked like it was going to topple over and with people hanging off the sides and sitting on the roof it was a breath taking moment. Luckily it made it across and after that everyone had a go. Ian and Heather went in front of us and made it across without any problems

It was our turn next and Don kept his cool but I was shaking when we got to the other side. By this time we only had one hour of daylight left and a local priest told us that in order to reach our camp by the lake we needed to cross two more rivers so we decided to call it a day. We ended up camping in the compound of a lodge run by a local women's cooperative and actually had a nice evening.

Tuesday 25^th December, Christmas Day

This morning we scrubbed up and went to the village church where the local people were celebrating Christmas, Turkana style.  As we walked in an old Turkana woman came up to us to welcome us with an elaborate hand shaking ceremony which was very touching. The congregation consisted mostly of Turkana children and a handful of elderly ladies and the service was entirely singing and dancing, a mixture of what must be local music and reggae. It was magic!  At one point everyone was dancing (apart from Don and Ian!) and it felt like you were at a concert.

The kids were incredibly well dressed in what must be there Christmas, not just Sunday, best and of course we were very curious about us. 

After about an hour we left , not sure whether the service would continue in this fashion for another hour or the whole day. We finally made it to our destination by lunchtime, a beautiful camp right on the lake with sand dunes and palm trees but very very hot!

Sadly we discovered on arrival that there was absolutely no phone signal for at least 100 km so for the first time ever, we didn’t manage to speak to the children to wish them a Merry Christmas.

We finally had our Christmas meal as the sun was setting, sitting under palm trees overlooking the lake and because it was Christmas, the sky was clear and the moon was full.

Thursday 27th December,

Today we took another boat trip, this time to 'Central Island' on Lake Turkana. This the the island I have mentioned before which is dominated by the remnants of three former volcanoes, two of of which have been infiltrated by water to form isolated lakes within the island. One of these lakes now serves as the most prolific breeding ground for crocodiles in Africa. When the baby crocodiles hatch in March /April they make their way towards the lake. Amazingly there are no snakes on this island which is why so many of the newly hatched crocodiles survive. The views were stunning but because we are now in December we saw neither crocodile eggs nor baby crocodiles (although we did see adult crocs slinking in the water). I did however find a skeleton of a baby croc, although Ian thinks it is that of a Nile perch, but as you know there are no Nile perch in Lake Turkana....

We have decided to finally leave Lake Turkana and head towards Uganda. If there is one place we may come back to one day it would be Lake Turkana! 

Merry Christmas from Lake Turkana

This post is mainly to wish our families and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013.

All four of us feel very privileged to be able to do such a trip as we are doing.

We are well aware that there are a whole range of things being done in the background to make this trip easier for us, e.g. dealing with our admin, checking that the house is still standing, the pipes remain unfrozen, keeping Don up to date with the rugby and football scores and generally making the effort to stay in touch so a big 'Thank you!' to all of you out there who are there for us!

We have made it back to Lake Turkana and are once again captivated by it's rugged beauty. Yesterday we took a boat trip to the most southern point of the lake which can only be reached by boat and has at it's tip another extinct volcano crater. Ian and Don managed to climb to the top and took some stunning pictures overlooking the lake, Heather and myself managed to get halfway then had to slide down on our bottoms because the incline was too steep for us. 

The picture above shows an aerial view of Nabiyotum Crater in Lake Turkana - the world's largest desert lake (taken by a professional photographer). I included this picture to give you a feel of the sheer 'awsomeness' of this part of the world. The small triangular area on the top right of the picture is where our boat landed and where the picture of the three of us was taken on the next page.

View from the top of the crater

Looking into the crater

Ian on his way down with Don taking the picture

We are leaving here tomorrow to head to the west coast of the lake where we plan to spend Christmas day, but with the roads having been as they are we have no idea if we will make it or not and are prepared for a 'bush camp' Xmas. We have bought a ham in Nairobi, I have made the German potato salad already and also bought some candles.

And finally, I know you are all dying to know what happened to that Nile perch; the answer is not on this trip, perhaps another time...

Love Don and Gabi 

Kenya - Part 5

Saturday 15^th December

We have been back on the road since last Tuesday after Don returned from Durban late Monday night with a few life savers: chocolate, biltong, mosquito repellent and hair dye. It felt like Christmas had come early this year.

Before Don left for Durban we had already made the decision to go back to Lake Turkana once more even though it meant a round trip of about 1400 km. Crazy for sure, but not only did we all hugely enjoy that remote part of northern Kenya but there is clearly some unfinished business up there as far as Don and Ian’s ‘bucket list’ is concerned. Decided to up our travel insurance from silver to gold (only joking!) just in case of more ‘extreme fishing’. Perhaps sky-diving into the lake with a harpoon will finally hook that Nile perch!

With the front shock absorber fixed (again!) we first headed south to spend a couple of days in two of Kenya’s most famous game parks, Tsavo East and Tsavo West. The reason for doing that was that we plan to enter Uganda via Lake Turkana which is in the north west of the country so we wanted to see these game parks before leaving the south of Kenya for good.

Even though both parks are right next to each other they are famous for very different reasons. Tsavo West has an uninterrupted view of Kilimanjaro and  if you are lucky you see that classic postcard picture view of the mountain in the background and a  herd of elephant strolling in the foreground. As bad luck would have it Kilimanjaro was almost totally obscured by clouds and there were no elephant anywhere near the mountain.

Tsavo East is best known for it’s large elephant population (12,000) and winning it’s fight against poaching which had reduced the numbers from 30,000 in 1967 to as low as 5300 in 1988.  At that time it looked like the elephants would be wiped out completely. Luckily the international ivory trade restrictions, in place since 1989 had an immediate effect on the numbers of new elephant corpses being found in the park. Another important new but less publicised policy was brought in at the same time which meant that poachers were shot on sight. When you see the photographs of elephants lying on the ground with their tusks literally hacked off their faces covered in blood it does seem justified.

Anyway, we had a great day having many sightings of elephant. To me, Kenya and elephant are synonymous and I just love them. Kenyan elephant are by far the largest in the world and their presence is awe inspiring especially when you get close to them like the ones in the pictures below.

We left the Tsavo East yesterday at the crack of dawn and started to head back north, crossing the equator a third time in four months.  We had no idea how far we would get or what was ahead in terms of overnight camps, but at around 4pm our ‘Tracks for Africa’ GPS showed ‘the only camp in the area…’ , clearly an entry made by some previous travellers on this stretch of the road.

Anyway we decided to give it a go and of course there was no camp, just a  clearing in the bush with shady acasia trees and lots of fresh elephant droppings so we knew we were in for a treat. 

It turned out to be the most beautiful bush camp we have stayed in so far and by the time we had cooked our tuna pasta we were surrounded by elephant on all sides although it was pitch black dark so we didn’t see them but certainly heard them.

We had bought fresh fruit that day and found ourselves in a predicament of not knowing where to store it. Ian & Heather have previously been in a situation where an elephant came right up to their truck and searched for fruit with its trunk whilst Heather was fast asleep and oblivious to it and Ian watching on from a distance not knowing what to do next. So we decided to put all the fruit in a cooler box and leave it well away from our trucks. It turned out the elephants didn’t feel like fruit on this occasion and we had a very peaceful night. 

Monday 17^th December

We arrived in Marsabit in the Kenyan far north on Sunday and decided to spend a day in Marsabit National Park before heading west towards Lake Turkana.

This park is totally different from any other we have seen so far, it consists mostly of impenetrable wild forest with two beautiful volcanic crater lakes. It also is home to long-tusked Marsabit elephant as well as lion, cheetah and buffalo.

The dirt road through the park is mostly steep and it is not advisable to enter the park after rains. Unfortunately, the park office had run out of maps but we were reassured that it was impossible to get lost because '...there is only one road'.  Well, guess what?

It was sunny when we entered the park and we had a magical day driving through dense ancient forest with an abundance of birds, butterflies and spiders in webs stretching right across our track. 

By mid-afternoon we hit trouble. Ian was driving  a few kilometers ahead of us and it soon became apparent that we had taken a wrong turn (remember there is only ONE road in the park!). The track became very steep and narrow and in places totally overgrown with long grass seemingly heading nowhere.

In parts trees were leaning heavily towards the track or obliterating it altogether. We were just trying to avoid one of those tree branches by driving almost on the bank when there was a terrible noise coming from our roof and it turned out that the tree had sliced straight into our rooftop tent.  We immediately radioed Ian and Heather who were out of sight but luckily within radio range because we were totally stuck. The branch was deeply embedded in the tent and the one tool we don’t carry in our truck is a saw.

At this point Ian and Heather had also realised that we had gone wrong somewhere and had already started to head back. Out came the tools and Ian started to saw the branch which was no easy task since the wood was very tough.

This all happened on a slope with I & H’s truck facing ours and suddenly the branch was cut loose and our car started to roll since the only thing holding it in position had been the tree branch. Ian was still sitting on top of the truck holding the saw,  I was trying to jump in from the passenger side to pull the handbrake but it was Don who managed to jump in on the driver’s side to swing the car round and hit the brake to avoid a collision with Ian’s.

All this happened it a split second and someone somewhere was watching over us! Phew!

We turned back and found the ‘right’ track to the volcanic lakes, relieved that we had a lucky escape. The crater lakes are beautiful and you get a real sense of the forces of nature when you see the size of them as well as the volcanic rocks strewn all around, this time more the size of a small cars.

We started to head back and then, guess what…? It started to rain!

We were already halfway to the gate so we didn’t worry too much since it was only about an hour’s drive to the exit, but after crawling up a particularly steep hill we came around a corner and saw Ian’s truck stuck in ditch. The sandy track had become so slippery due to the rain that with each attempt to drive out he was digging himself in deeper and deeper.

Out came all the big toys: ropes, winches, spades etc. Heather and I started to collect stones and wood to create friction under the wheels, ignoring the third bit of advice we were given at the entrance gate: don’t get out of your car!

Eventually, an hour later and covered in mud we managed to winch Ian out by securing the winch to the large tree and off we went. Or so we thought!

Next, it was our turn to get stuck. Whilst we were all busy getting Ian out of the ditch the slope we were on had become increasingly more slippery and as soon as we started to pull off the car started to veer into the ditch no matter what we tried to do to prevent this from happening. At this point our tyres had become covered in deep mud and there was no effective tread  left to provide any traction. So we started our third rescue operation for that day and eventually Ian managed to winch Don out.

We managed to get to the gate by driving/sliding/slipping at 5km/hour but at least we made it out before the gate closed. Back at our camp we were relieved to find that only the tent cover was ripped but the structure of the tent was intact.

That night the cold beers tasted better than ever and hey, guess what?

                                         Another tough day in Africa….

Kenya - Part 4

Where is that Nile Perch?

Monday, 26^th November,

yes, I know you were all expecting to see that picture of the Nile perch here but guess what? It turns out there aren't any Nile perches in Lake Turkana after all. Plenty of other fish like this little ugly thing Don managed to hook: It is called a Nile puffer’. Immediately after it comes out of the water it blows itself up into the shape of a small balloon but after a while it deflates itself again. It is inedible so we put it back.

The boys certainly tried their very best to find a perch. Yesterday we took a boat onto the lake thinking that might be a good way to avoid the crocodiles on the shore.

The little fishing boat was very old, and so was our captain actually, so we were relieved when he was joined by a younger deck hand, only to discover that the latter's job was to scoop water out of the boat with a plastic container which started to pour in as soon as the boat left shore. He kept pace well, so we didn't worry.

The lake is absolutely beautiful, it changes colour continuously, depending on the time of the day but is predominantly a rich jade. The part charcoal, part biscuit coloured landscape surrounding it forms a beautiful contrast. 

On the lake are three islands, the most interesting is 'central island' which is actually a 'triple volcano' poking out of the water. Two out of the three volcanoes are covered by lakes and are the breeding ground for the largest crocodile populations in Africa. The island can be visited by boat and if you ever happen to be here in March/April (just saying...) you can witness the newly hatched baby crocs running down to the crater lake.

Two hours into our boat trip it became clear that we weren’t going to catch that perch today.  To give the boys credit, our deck hand also had a line in the lake and he didn’t get a bite either. Tomorrow Don and Ian will try fishing from the shore if we can find a suitable spot.

Monday, 26^th November

Today the boys did what can only be described as ‘extreme fishing’. First we found a spot which we had been assured by people living in a local village ‘doesn’t have any crocodiles’. There was a little island about 200 meters in from the lake shore and Ian decided that he would wade there. WADE THERE!

Ten minutes later, the boys were first waste deep, then shoulder deep, fishing in the lake.

Don

Ian

Heather and I watched the whole thing for a while then Heather decided that if the boys can fish there then she can swim there, so in she went. Oh well, I guess that is the difference between being European and African; there was no way I was in the least bit tempted to go in. So I kept watch from the safety of the shore instead, trying to recall whether our travel insurance covered this kind of activity.

After about an hour or so Don caught the 'nile puffer' in the picture above. Ian hooked several Nile Tilapia and a tiger fish. So some result at least.

Tuesdy 27^th November,

Today we received the very sad news that our Granny B has passed away. She had not been well since we left her in July and had even suffered a fractured hip recently, so whilst it was a relief that she is no longer suffering, it is nevertheless sad that she is no longer part of our lives. Granny B was our kids’ last surviving grandparent so it also marks the end of an era for us.

Don and myself are pleased that we managed to spend some quality time with her before her stroke back in June and we have many fond memories of family holidays with her.

Monday, 3rd December

We are back in Nairobi after another two day journey south from Lake Turkana. The landscape and the track were very similar to the drive to the lake, with one major difference: it had rained and this time the river beds weren’t dry and empty; there was mud everywhere. Luckily we didn’t get stuck but we passed several lorries which were really struggling.

We are now back at Jungle Junction in Nairobi where we stayed twice before and it looks like the rain is going to continue for some time. Most of the camp is ankle deep in mud and we now need to plan our next move accordingly, since many roads become impassable after heavy rain. 

We have also made the collective decision that Don will fly to SA this coming weekend to represent us at Granny B's funeral. This means we will be here for at least another 10 days. Enough time to sort out our shock absorber once again (one of them was wrongly fitted in Addis!) and to catch up on lots of other things. 

Thoughts are naturally turning towards Christmas now and I heard my very first xmas carol on a radio this morning :(:(:( I think it will be difficult for the four of us not to be able to see the kids this year but to join up with them somewhere here would have been logistically impossible; even at this stage we still don't know where we will be.

Kenya - Lake Turkana

Tuesday 20^th November

This morning we crossed from Ethiopia into Kenya through the ‘back door’ in that the border post is not actually shown on any of our maps. The 'border' itself turned out to be a piece of string with a cloth in the middle. We had decided on this particular route because even though it is remote and at times impassable, it has some of the most stunning scenery in Kenya.

With the lake on our right, the track crossed numerous large pans and dry river beds and at times it was almost impossible to follow, being hardly discernible from the surrounding countryside and littered with obstacles such as rocks, branches, trees and potholes; hard to imagine how people navigate through this when the pans are under water (which they are after the infrequent rains that occur in this desert region).

Much of the landscape comprises a mixture of volcanic rock and desert, not too unlike Sudan, and temperatures are very hot. We were doing fine until lunch time when Don thought he heard the right front shock absorber make a strange noise and pulling off the road and having a quick inspection confirmed that it had displaced once again and the central shaft was hitting the chassis.

Out came the tools and what we thought would be a quick job turned out lasting all day and as the sun went down (phew!) it was obvious that we would be bush camping “in situ” right there for the night.

We managed to knock up a Macaroni cheese and ended up having a lovely evening sitting under the stars. From our roof top tent we caught our first sunset over Lake Turkana.

Friday 23^rd November

It took us two full days of driving to complete our 250 km long journey along the east shore of Lake Turkana. Amazingly, we did not come across a single other vehicle on the entire  trip and apart from seeing the odd camel or a herd of goats with herdsman guarding them, no people either.

Lake Turkana is the biggest desert lake in the world and due to the high prevailing ambient temperature, loses about tree meters of water through evaporation each year. It is home to the largest population of crocodiles in Africa and it’s prehistoric connection to the Nile accounts for the presence of the enormous Nile Perch (some weighing up to 100kg). Guess what the boys are planning to do here?

We spent a second night camping close to the lake edge and even though it is incredibly hot and the lake is the colour of jade you cannot  swim in the water due to the large number of crocodiles perched on the water edge. Heather did make an attempt to have a wash in the lake, but only after Ian chased the crocs away with a stick.

This really is the most isolated area on our trip so far, the landscape ranges from desert to large flat surfaces carpeted with volcanic rocks (the kind you buy at garden centres for your gas BBQ but much bigger) with the occasional dry river bed here and there and Lake Turkana on our right. Driving conditions were tough with constant stop/starting, gear changes, in and out of river beds, standing on the bonnet to make out the road ahead but hey, guess what?... 

Actually us girls also enjoyed it enormously, we are well aware that this may be the closest to ‘getting away from it all’ on our entire trip. Unlike in Sudan, we also know that we have a cold beer waiting at the end of the day (thanks to our fridge!).

Saturday, 24^th November

We have now found a nice camp at Lyongalani on the southern tip of the lake where we will spend a few days. Ian and Don are planning to do some fishing here whilst us girls do what we always do after having been on the road for a few days; wash our clothes, get rid of the dust everywhere, plug our eye brows, shave legs etc.

Lake Turkana has been Ian’s number one priority destination of the whole trip since he is a very keen fisherman. I am reserving this spot below for the picture of the Nile Perch which he and Don are going to catch: