Holiday Safaris Northern Kenya

There is one half of Kenya about which the other half knows nothing and seems to care even less.

ou rarely think of deserts in Kenya,but  the north –more than half the country-is an arid zone,cinder-dry for more than ten months of the year. The old "Northern Frontier District" remains one of the most exciting and adventurous parts of Africa:a vast tract of terrirory,criss crossed by ancient migration routes, and still tramped by nomadic Samburu, Boran, Rendille, Gabbra, Turkana and Somalia herders. Unfortunately, it also has a dangerous reputation with livestock-rustling and tribal feuding widespread.Banditry, and the spillover from Somalia's civil conflict, makes it too risky to vist the whole area east of the Isiolo-Marsabit-Moyale road. By contrast the huge area of north west Kenya,if not exactly trouble-free, is certainly not too risky to visit, and incidents involving tourists are virtually unknown.

     The target for most travellers is th wonderful jade splash of lakeTurkana –very remote and unhighly unpredicatable in nature (when British sailors first ventured out on it, they reckoned it could turn "rougher than the North Sea"). To get there, you have two main options: going on an organized camping safari, or taking the matatus and lorries that ferrygoods and people from the hub of highlands Kenya. Comparatively few visitors drive themselves, though it's becoming more popular with expat and Kenyan 4WD fans.NGOs,and most people on business, tend to fly to the north.

      Because of the layout of the roads and tracks that radiate north from the Central Highlands,you'll need to make a decision about which "spokes" to cover . it's hard to get from east to west, or vice versa, without going back south,so don't be over ambitious. Bus and matatu services are patchy at best, whilst lorries and hitching lifts can work out, but are exhausting. If you're driving,having enough water,fuel and mechanical know-how should be your priorities since you'll need to be almost self-sufficient. In practical terms, the current situation limits you to the two main routes up to lake Turkana(one from Kitale, one from Maralal), the Mathews Range north of Samburu and, with caution,the route to Marsabit, which then doubles back to Turkana via North Horr.

         Although the landscape is parched for most of the year, when the rains do come(usually around May) they can have dramatic effect, bringing torrents of water along the ravines and luggas (watercourses) and tearing away bridges and concrete fords with a violence that has to be seen to be believed. Flood waters often sweep over the plains to leave an ooze of mud and, within twenty-four hours, new shoots. in these conditions, you can easily be atranded- even along the now notoriously broken-up paved road to Lowdwar. However, if your plans are flexible, being up north during the rains is an exciting time to explore. Needles to say, driving any vehicle yourself in the rainy season, unless it's a sturdy 4WD, is not recommended.

Turkana

Straddling the Ethiopian border at its northern end, Lake Turkana stretches south for 250km, bisecting Kenya's rocky deserts like a turquoide sickle. It's hemmed in by sandy wadted and black-and –brown volcanic ranges,and the lake scenes changes constantly. The water, a glassy, milky blue one minute, can become slate-grey and choppy pr glaring emerald green the next.

     The lake was discovered for the rest of the world only in 1888 by the Hungarian explorer Count Samuel Teleki de Sze'k and his Austrian co-expeditionary Ludwing von Hohnel.they named it : Lake Rudolf after their patron, the Crown Prince of Austria. Later, it became eulogized as the "jade sea"in travel writer John Hillaby's book about his camel trek. The name "turkana"only come into being diring the wholesale Kenyanization  of place names in the 1970s.by then, it had also been dubbed the "cradle of manind"' the site f revelatory fossil discoveries in the field of human evolution. It was also becoming agreat excuse for a week of rough travel in asafari lorry or a get-way-from-it-all weekend in one of the handful of lakeshore lodges. There are afewer lodges now than there were in 1980, and apart from those that remain, and one or two windy campsite, the tourist infrastructure is nil. And there's still only one paved road, from Kitale to Lodwar (in dire condition) and on to Lokichokio.

Ecology and climate

Lake Turkana is the biggest permanent desert lake in the world,with a shoreline longer than the whole of Kenya's sea coast. Yet 10,000years ago its surface was 150m higher than today, it spread south as far as the now desolate Suguta Valley and fed the headwaters of the Nile. Today it has reduced to a mere sliver of its former expanse. A gigantic natural sump, with rivers flowing in but no outlets, it loses a staggering there metres of water through evaporation from it surface each year (nearly a centimetre every day). As aresult, the lake water is quite alkaline-although you can just about drink it, and it's not hostile to all aquatic life.

The prehistoric connection with the Nile accounts for the presence of enormous Nile perch (some weighing more than 100kg) and Africa's biggest population of Nile crocodiles- some 10,000 to 22,000 of them. Turkana is one of the few places where you can still see great stacks of crocs basking on sand banks. There is a profusionof birdlife, too,including European migrants seen most spectacularly on their way home between march and may. Hippos, widely hunted and starved from many of their former lakeshore haunts through lick of grazing, manage to hang on in fairly large numbers, though you wont see many unless you go out of your way.

Climatically, Turkana is extremely hot and dry for ten months of the year, and very humid during the rains.it is notorious for its strong easterly winds that puff and gust energetically most of the time and occasionally become demonic. The squalls whipped up by the wind are the cause of most accidental deaths of local people on the lake, rather than hippo or crocodiles.

        The people most likely to be encountered are Turkana on the western and southern shores, as far round as Loiyangalani,Samburu south of Loiyangalani, Elmolo to the north of Loiyangalani, and Gabbra further east. The Turkana and Samburu are pastoralists, who hold their cattle in great reverence, the Gabbra herd camels; while the Elmolo are traditioinally property-less hunters and fishers.

   Turkana's water level is subject to wild fluctuations. From the mis-1980s to 1997, the level receded steadily, leaving parts of the former shoreline more than 8km from the lake. But heavy El Nino rains in 1998 led to asix-metre rise in the lake level in less than a year. Fish stocks recovered and former fishing communities rediscovered their vocation. Since then, however, the level has fallen again, the lakeshore receding by as much as a kilometre in some places.

Getting there

There are three road routes to Turkana:one to the western shore that atarts in kitale, and two to the eastern shore from Maral and Marsabit (the latter very remote). There is no route connecting the east and west shores, the volcanic Suguta Valley forming a blazing hot barrier.

            To western approach, from Kitale to Lodwar,is the one used by most independent travellers without their own vehicles, for transport, there's a choice of buses or lorries ,but whichever way you do it the road is diabolical.

            To the east, the Maralal-Loiyangalani route is the ont traditionally used by the Turkana camping safaris lorries (the main operators these days are Gametrackers, who return by this route).if you can afford for the week long trip, this option has definite advantages,including magnificient scenery and a great sense of adventure.

              The third route,from Isiolo to Loiyangalani via Marsabit and North Horr,is feasible if you are prepared to wait longer for lifts, first from lsiolo to marsabit, and then on to north Horr. Game trackers uses this route on its northbound Turkana Truck trip via the Chalbi Desert .

There's only one scheduled air service to Turkana,Fly540'sdaily flight from Narobi JKIA's domestic terminal to Lodwar,via KItale.

Lodwar and the western lakeshore

From kitale, a number of budes leave for Lodwar in the ealy morning (the first at around 6am), with the last stragglers leaving just after midday, taking anything from eight to twelve hours to cover the 285km of what remains of the road built in the early 1980s. Alternatively, you might try hitching-there are always a few trucks and 4WDs bound for the aid centre at Lokichokio, northwest of Lodwar near the south Sudan border,and finding a vehicle is not too difficult, though it's advisable to find out the going rate in advance if you think the driver will want paying. Make sure you take plenty of water for this trip,as delays and breakdowns are all too common and people are expected to fend for themselves.

The best part of the journey is the beginning. The last ATM before you reach Lodwar is Makutano, where it is also agood idea to fill up with fuel, though you should be able to find that further north at Ortum.

   After the Marich pass, you come out of the Cherangani Hills and onto the plain, passing fromPokot into Turkana territory when you cross the Turkwel River just before Kaninuk-an occasional flashpoint for inter-communal violence. The change of scenery is dramatic, but fromthe thorny wilderness of the Turkana Plains beyond, it's hard to exact much of scenic intrest, although if you're travelling by bus or lorry,the regular stops to pock up increasingly wild-looking passangers maintain gently heightening expectations as you head north.

Nasalot and South Turkana National Reserves

At Kainuk, there is apossible detour to the Nasalot National Reserves.which bound the northern slopes of the mountains and the southern fringers of the south Turkana plains. From the gate, 6km off the lodwar road (signposted on the left), the winding paved route drops several hundered metres into the heat, with plunging precipes and a spectacular view all round, to the Turkwel Gorge and hydroelectric dam.

   As the reserve is mostly covered with thickbush,spotting animals isn't all that easy: the elephants here, though larder than their southern cousins, hide themselves pretty well , andyour best chance of seeing them is in the pavedroad at dawn or dusk. You'd be unusually fortunate to see any of the reserve's lion and leopards. Camping is not allowed,but there are some good value bandas by the dam.

    Beyond Naslot back on the A1 Lodwar road, another detour to the right tskes you to the southTurkana National Reserves, which lacks Nasalot's scenic grandeur,but is where theelephants migrate to between March and July.

Lodwar

For most Kenyans, mention of LODWAR conjures up remote ans outlandish images of the badlands, an aberrant place where anything could befall you. And the Turkana District capital is, to put it mildly, a wild town,and somewhat unformed and incongruous in this searing  wilderness. During the 1980's it became Kenya's desert boomtown, the lake's fishing, the possibility of oil discoveries and the new road from Kitale all encouraging inward migration. While Turkana people have always predominated, Luo and luhya also arrived in search of opportunities. With the exhaustion of farming country in the south, Lodwar and the area around it become increasingly attractive to pioneers and cowboys of all sorts. But this expansion has now fizzled out  and Lodwar has returned to being a sleepy frontier town.

   The Turkana

Until few decade ago, the Turkana, the main people of the western shore of the lake, had very little contact with the outside world, or even with the Republic of Kenya. Turkana people did not traditionally wear much in the way of clothing, though the women wear several tiers of beads around their necks and, if married, a metal band too. Turkana men are rarely seen without their akichalong, a small wooden headrest like a stool, which they recline on at any opportunity. Many still wear a wide bracelet on their waists called an aberait, which is in fact aweapon. Although it's usually covered with aleather guard, the edge of the aberait id razor-sharp, and can be wielded in a fight like a slashing knife, while leaving the hands free.                                  

          Linguistically, the Turkana are related to the Maa-speaking Samburu and Maasai. Indeed,along tne northwest shore of the lake, the people are probably an old mixture of Turkana and samburu, although, like the Luo (also distantly related by language), the Turkana did not traditionally practise circumcision. They moved east from their old homeland around the present-day borders of Sudan and Uganda in the seventeen century. The desolate region between the lake and the Ugandan border that they now occupy is barely habitable land, and their daily struggle for existence has profoundly influenced the shape of their society and, inevitably, helped create the funnel into modern Kenya that Lodwar, with its road, has become.