To Lake Bogoria and further

Wednesday, 6.11.2013
At six in the morning in Nakuru we were woken up by a Muslim morning prayer, which began with a melodic chanting for an hour, then it moved to a prayer till his voice had got completely hoarse. Quick breakfast, grocery shopping in a Europe-ish supermarket and once again road, road ……

After an hour of driving we crossed the equator for the nth time. We tried to stand at the same time both in the northern and the southern hemispheres. My feet were a few centimeters too short to do it, but I tried to stretch the legs very much and managed fifty-fifty. I was saved by taking photos at a globe, as realizing that I have a weakness, souvenir sellers surrounded me and I would have broken. During the photo time I gathered all my soul’s forces to not buy everything I liked. Other members of our group are strong since birth and did not-exaggerate with shopping, except Ilgonis who bought three African drums, but it is probably his unrealised dream of childhood.

Further the road leads to Lake Bogoria. Plain landscape – hills overgrown with shrubs, in places there are cactuses. Local houses once again are poor. There are also houses of corrugated tin. I do not like them – they clash with the surrounding landscape. There are also cactus hedges, even quite high, nobody will get through them. Again the architectural masterpieces of the old friends, termites.

Lake Bogoria did not excite me too much. Yes, there were both the greater and the lesser flamingos, there was the African black stork. All the joy was suppressed for me by the bird corpses lying around the lake. Excitement was caused by the hot springs and the possibility to cook the eggs we have taken with us. One needs to know how to cook eggs here, as the strong bubbling of the springs can bring them to the gods the springs.

There was a plan to see at the Thomson’s water fall in the village of Nyahururu, height of which is 170 meters. Unfortunately, one hour can change everything. We arrived in pitch black darkness; the waterfall could only be sensed by ears and skin. Still we should drive of 100 km to the arranged accommodation.

We searched for the accommodation for a long time and thoroughly- nothing. Then we captured a talkative person, who took us to the another site since the-old was closed down. As Agnese had strong documents, which showed that the old site was booked and deposit paid, we got some great 2 and 4 person rooms in the new place for a very good price. Later it turned out that the 4 person room has two beds for four men.

We could order a dinner in the motel. Me and Vitolds 4.8LVL for both ate each two sausages with cabbage salad and ugali, drank beer. Great! This was followed by a fantastic night – a cool fresh air, good beds and warm, warm blankets.

Part 1: Turkana republic

Sunday, 3.11.2013
Sunday, it’s been a week since we left Latvia for our trip to watch solar eclipse in Kenya. Today the set wake-up time was 7 AM since we were in no hurry to get to the next destination that was Kolokol near lake Turkana or Lake Rudolf as it was called before. Obviously we departed only after two hours as that’s our normal pace in mornings. Usually when we have a strict plan we can be ready in about 1.5 hours, but today we haven’t got such so we take our time.

Staying here at Lodwar is really nice because we have normal beds and I don’t have any more to wake up several times per night to get back blood circulation in the hand on which I was sleeping. Sleeping in tents has some advantages like being close to nature and being cheap but also sleeping is a bit uncomfortable. Well may be I just should sleep more in tents and this feeling comes from my lack of experience.

So at first we went to Eliye Springs which were located near the Lake Turkana. Eclipse started only at 4 PM so we had some free time to spend. Eliye springs was an excellent place for that. Agnese told us that Eliye springs was once a famous resort but it wasn’t so popular anymore. Roads north from Lodwar were much better than roads till now. Of course there were lot of holes but still we were driving much faster, oh, and there were no speed bumps. Eliye springs is located approximately 60 km from the main road.

To drive to the very resort was rather complicated since there were dunes starting in the proximity of the lake, so the car started to stuck and everyone had to leave the car to get it lighter. The temperature n shadow based on Ilgoni’s thermometer was around + 38 C, not sure how precise was his device, but the day was definitely extremely hot. Also the sun was strong and bright. This was actually the first day when I decided to use the sunscreen as already in the morning one could feel that the day will be hot. And, taking into account that it was planned to walk outside the car, I realized that if I don’t put the sunscreen on, there is a big possibility to get sun-burned. Usually I don’t use anything like that.

There were quite many people in the resort, music was playing, one could immediately see that many tourists have come, of course, to see the eclipse. For me the most surprising thing was an outdoors swimming pool as I didn’t expect to see anything like that in a perishing resort and at first I didn’t find it sensible at all. Later I understood as the water in the lake was very warm, too warm to cool down. When I went into the lake it felt like we could spend there the whole day, but of course, it gets boring after a while, so we went out one by one after a while. The time which was intended to be spent in this resort was only one hour, but I think it was excellently spent as the swim in the lake refreshed us from the horrible heath.

When considering the water of Lake Turkana, it is a bit brownish, but clean after all. If one drives his fingers through the water it seems that the water is a bit soapy. We discussed already when going to the lake that it is most likely caused by the carbonates in the water. When discussing it with Anders, we decided that it’s a sweet-water lake because we couldn’t feel any salt in mouth if swallowing some water and also the water of the lake is used for drinking.

Near the resort, as everywhere in Kenya, there were armed guards with machine guns. But it is a common thing here, so nobody is paying attention to it anymore. Of course, there were local articles as souvenirs under offer – all kinds of wicker baskets and other things that are very liked by older people.

After visiting the resort we went back to the main road to go to the eclipse place. It took an hour from the resort to the main road. The next object to visit in our plan was Namoratunga stones which supposedly have had an astronomical significance. But for me much interesting was the diversity of the sceneries and nature which could be observed while driving rather than a couple of humble stone blocks. The stones were located on the right side of the road, around 20m from the road. It was easy to spot them – they are rather big and cylindrical, dark stones, but yes, in my opinion nothing interesting, not really worth to stop for.

However, the scenery was extremely interesting. For Kenya characteristic mountains in the background, acacias around, all kinds of small thorny bushes, dried river beds. On the roadside one can see camels, donkeys, goats grazing and different small birds. Camels is another surprise of this trip for me as I was sure that all the camels are domesticated, but here one could see rather many of these animals, not looked after by anyone. Of course, I might be mistaken since also for goats it is not often easy to spot the goatherd, however most likely they belong to someone, but it seemed to me that these are animals living in wild. It did not seem that the camels were too interesting for locals. I am not sure about the donkeys whether the ones observed could be classified as wild animals or not as I didn’t see any people.

…to be continued…

Kisumu to Marich Pass

Friday, 1.11.2013
Morning, Kisumu, waking up at Lake Victoria. The technical data of the day: Route Kisumu-Marich Pass, the plan is to spend 3 hours driving, our reality 9h. The distance is around 250-300km. The condition of the road… it’s hard to comment THIS bad road with potholes which is also covered by speed bumps. Even though there are repairworks going on in many places,  there are no predictions that anything will seriously change during next 10 years therefore it is not advisable to go by a common car, but rather by an offroad vehicle.

The event’s of the day. We wake up under a sausage tree and walk to look at the bay of the lake Victoria. It is not advisable to swim here as there are parasites which get and start living under the human skin. We leave the campsite at 8:50, then shopping for groceries and beer, searching for a tyre for the car therefore we leave at 11am only.  

The route which is long and boring is made ornate only by the life bubbling along the roadside – people who are gathering here always wanting to be together, the small, tiny huts which are not anymore made from sticks’ carcass and clay , but from Marichno aereted concrete bricks, children who always smile and greet us whenever they see us. The area becomes more fertile and when stopping in any place local ladies bring some fruit they want to sell. We would like to buy, but we are just driving and driving. Life through the car’s window and dust since we MUST manage the planned route, otherwise we might arrive late to the place where we will be watching the total solar eclipse. We buy something, however -the only purchase is a long sugarcane which should be peeled and then chewed, and the mouth gets filled by juice as sugarwater. It costs 50 shillings, we buy only half of the cane for 25 shillings, and the length of it reaches over all the saloon of our vehicle.  

At the beginning of the day we are driving through Kakamega, we have flown past several possible sightseeing objects, but we manage to catch one – at Webuye village we turn to right and with an advice from the locals arrive at the opposite coast of the valley of Nzoia river. Strong, effervescent, muddy in a bald valley among stones -that’s how it looks.

It doesn’t need too long to look at, in half an hour we have lunch, and our driver Karioki tells about the leaves of Manuakou tree. We notice the tree because of its strange fruits, similar to sweet peppers, but the bitter tea is made from leaves only and it has helped against malaria in ancient times. But the young people nowadays are not using it anymore. The meadow and trees around are full of sounds, insects and birds are making all kinds of sounds.  

The big value of Kenya are its people. Kind, very, very kind, with a serious attitude and smiling, happy. On our way, whenever it’s possible they try to start a conversation, shake hands, especially children are trying to touch us for whom our white or maybe colourless ;) skin looks a miracle.  

Further our route goes through Kitale to Marich Pass, and along the setting of darkness in the saloon of the car come sharper feelings of potholes and lively conversations. Ilgonis tells about the Solar eclipse. If you would like to know what exactly, you should find out the answers to the following questions:
– how many times the Sun is bigger than the Earth,
– how many times the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun,
– why the totality of this year’s eclipse lasts only 15 seconds,
– how do you feel when you have never experienced sex, but know about it, have written about it, and then one day experience it…  

Anyway, our road among the potholes tumbles further, runs pat the sunset and the shadow games of sunset where especially beautiful photos get created, past the school children crowds in towns who are gathering on Friday nights, in different uniforms for each school, to go home somewhere by bus. We try to take photos of everything on the run since we cannot afford to stop for a minute, we must get to the designed place.  However, if also you go to this red chocolate country, stop for a moment to get a good shot, to have a chat with the bypassers and to greet the children which appear around you from nowhere. Because. It is important to stick to the plan, but a minute of feelings won’t crash it most likely. Much more than a good technical organisation is to feel a good mood and to take care about smile in the faces of companions.  

But we arrive in Marich Pass field studies centre  campsite and are sleeping in a classroom where beds have been brought in with mosquito nets. It’s the first time we sleep under them and it is very romantic and a bit scary as well. Maybe about the unknown.

To Nairobi

Monday, 28.10.2013
Our way to Africa begins in Zurich. Ilgonis, Ilva, Vitolds, Ināra and Artis are worried about Agnese being late but when the boarding begins, she arrives. Her day has not started luckily, Agnese lost her ID card and some other documents. But these problems cannot interrupt our journey.

6000 km long flight to Nairobi takes 8 hours. Some people are watching movies, others are reading. Food provided by Swiss Airlines is nice, drinks are plenty. But this is not so important comparing with excellent views through plane’s windows. Grey color Swiss Alpes are followed by brown Greek mountains. Then comes refreshingly blue Mediterranean sea with inclusion of Crete island. Vivid yellow color of Egyptian desert comes as a surprise. Over this vast area white clouds are chasing their shadows. Then come high tropical clouds When they clear out, we see unnumerous fields of green plants in Sudan. While approaching Kenya, the sun sets down, but we still can see Turkana lake where we will watch the solar eclipse.

Formalities at Nairobi airport are short but we must leave our fingerprints. We are met but two guys in suits. They deliver us to car rental company owner’s house. We are warmly welcomed by hostess Helena and her beautiful daughter Diany, try Kenyan food and drink tea with milk. We meet Rūdolfs and Anders, now all our group is together. We sleep in twin rooms.