The beauty of place two
Posted by Social Matters , Thursday, June 2, 2011 4:00 AM
I was scared… now any normal Kenyan should have heard the following about Turkana, its very hot, insecure (cattle rustling), hunger prone and God forsaken area. Yet the first time round there was my boss advising me to take anti-malaria pills, the second time they were talking about Yellow Fever, yes that was scary but sorry to admit it, I didn’t. Turkana sounded like on scary place full of real snakes that I had seen on TV only. I was not even excited about seeing Lake Turkana. It was one of those jobs that you needed several encouragements to go, the ones that you ask is the money really worth it? What’s the adventure in such a place? I headed out knowing so much yet so little.
The journey started on November 16th in the morning, I was looking forward to see the Rift Valley, there’s a point a the journey where you can be able to see the Rift Valley in its majesty and its breathtaking, I don’t think the driver understood that concept or maybe Kenyans don’t realize the beauty that they are endowed with. Passing through so many Kenyans town was amazing and some for a strange reason, also owing to the fact that I think too much reminded me of the post election violence and I failed to see the beauty in the midst of all the smoke. Oh forgive me, did I say I tend to over think and my imagination always gets the best of me. Burnt Forest was beautiful but it reminded me of something that Kenya went through when I was in Riruta Satellite which was relatively calm.
All the violence that I saw during that period was on television, the tension was there still, my friends from different communities as I did not see eye to eye at that point, it felt as if they were saying its ok for my community to be killed in the Rift Valley and I thought I am a Kikuyu, the only difference was that I was born in The Great Constituency (Da-goretti), if the tides changed I might have been among the numbers.
Point being the Post election violence did a lot of damage physiologically as well. Considering that I grew up in a cosmopolitan division, the post election and my University seemed remind me that did not matter. I have never thought about the ‘T’ until those two moments.
It was amazing going through all these places that were in Kenya and I never thought I would be able to get there, I enjoyed the road trip, I saw Nakuru, Naivasha, Burnt Forest, Eldama Ravine, Eldoret among others before stopping over at the all lovely Kitale town for the night.
Kitale Town
In Kitale the likely hood of being hit by a Bicycle is a higher than being hit by vehicles, at the hotel we stayed, their services was amazing, , apparently I passed through all these Kalenjin towns and did not get a tatse of Mursik, I do regret that. I would have preferred that to the ordinary Nyama Choma.
The next day after a boarding a bus at ten in the morning for Lodwar (the town that I thought was in North Eastern) which to my annoyance departed at 12 midday, people just kept moving in and out of the bus, I wanted to ask them if there were thorns on their seats but they were way older than myself so I kept my annoyance to myself. We passed through Kapenguria that was raining heavily before finding myself in Lokichar where all my fears were magnified when I saw a man presumably Turkana walking around with a gun, the small town of Lokichar was surrounded by bushes, my heart went silent with fear, I remembered all the stories about cattle rustlers and I began to wonder about the place we would set up camp, was it safe, was there somebody employed as a security escort. We were supposed to spend the night in Lodwar I wondered if they would be hotels anyway.
As we approached Lodwar at night, I was pleasantly shocked to hear some taxi drivers who asked if I wanted a ride start speaking to each other animatedly in Kikuyu, later on I would learn that Lodwar is a cosmopolitan town, Kenyans and foreigners from all sorts of life converged at the small town, though the municipal councils of all these towns should know that poor urban planning is repeating itself in all of them. There was no street lighting in Kitale and Lodwar. On the other hand it was good to no that where other people see insecurity others saw opportunity. And Lodwar is such a welcoming town.
The next day we drove off tour camp site, about fifty Kilometers from Lodwar and 20KM from Kalokol a small town near one of the many shores of Lake Turkana, and from that time onwards I fell in love with Turkana, the people, the geographical and the fact that everything my pale anthropology professor taught me finally made sense. You see in class they spoke of Koobi Fora whenever we were revising we would ask each other ‘is this place in Tanzania or in Kenya’, but having visited Turkana I will not be forgetting that anytime soon. So why should every Kenyan visit Turkana? Here are my reasons.
• Ever thought of going for a road trip, or are you the sort of person who loves adventure,
Turkana is the place to go. Its over 600KM away, and you get to go through some of the major towns in Kenya which are all part of the Great Rift Valley. You can stop by Kitale for a sleep over, enjoy the cold for one more time, laugh at being Kenya, and enjoy the Nyama Choma and hospitality over a cold soda. See endless bicycles and avoid getting hit by one. And sample the beauty of a nation so beautiful, I guarantee by the time you are through, the words of the National Anthem will ring true. ‘And our homeland of Kenya, heritage of splendor firm may we stand to defend.’
You will get to go through different geographical settings that are beautiful that makes you realize why tourists are crazy about it. Kenya is a small country indeed but every place is just different. The next time round I flew to Lodwar it only took roughly over an hour for temperatures to soar to 38 degrees and my sweat glands to become highly activated. By road the change in gradual and more spectacular, the towns, the forests, the heavy rain in one area and an hour later the dry country side.
The highway towns and their notorious reputations in connections to the truck drivers, amazingly towns like the one below and others like Lokichar have a thriving night economy. Seeing dark grey rain crowds in one town and none in the next for one month making me long for rain and love any one cloud you saw in the sky.
• Adventure, I have heard friends, young and in the corporate world who long for a weekend get away to Naivasha or Mountain climbing in Mount Kenya. Turkana provides something different wherever you go, when I went back to Turkana earlier this year, I visited so many different places courtesy of the field school that I was attending including Lothagam, Kerio Valley, Eliye Springs, Kalodirr, among others. And they are just different geologically speaking.
I climbed a lot of hills, measured the depth, height of the river Turkwel as well as crossing it on several occasions until the rainy season entered and the river transformed from this nice
Beautiful river that my fellow students and I loved to play around with, at times cross and when the geology demanded measure and learn how a seasonal river became perennial, the beautiful dam named after this river and its effects on the river, the garden just next to river and the beautiful vegetables that we had the privilege of consuming one of the evenings.
Small sand dunes on the banks of the river and most amazingly the evidence of the various stages the river had gone through, evidenced by the various depositional materials thousands of years back different in color and texture on the cliffs on one side we could easily tell which direction the river was moving towards.
As well as being a personal favorite for singing out loudly, that small hill near the river was way better than the bathroom, playing in the sand, watching the sunset and crossing for the sake of it, talking to the bright Turkana children who showed us and easier way of going round the hills and to us back home when evening fell.
It also the river I enjoyed playing with the Turkana children, more so the young boys, throwing the small palm like fruit upstream and trying to catch them so that they would not float away.
Or when the rains started, we could hear the Turkwel flowing heavily at night, reminding me of the small river that originated from the gorges that you could hear from kilometers away. More than just being a fun river to watch, it’s actually a source of life because women fetch water for use in this river. And during the rainy season there is also fish. Ultimately this river flows into Lake Turkana.
Lake Turkana
The Turkwel River before the rainy season
Easy to cross and play around with, whose sunset is to die for to this mad raging river?
In Lothagam was where we slept under the open sky full of stars, even the threat of hyenas and hearing scary American stories (culturally speaking they weren’t scary) couldn’t keep me awake under the beautiful romantic evening sky In Lothagam the next picture: Some shade
Geology of Lothagam was different in the places that we visited we geologically different and represented a different time period and formations such as ‘Nawata’ which the Americans pronounced as ‘No water’ with a weng.
Beautiful Lothagam the different colors of the formations can be clearly seen.
Lake Turkana is also adventurous in its own right, its crazy devilish winds almost carried my tents away, you could literally feel it being swayed side ways and every other way. Meaning most nights I was awake, earlier this year we slept in rooms but in those nights, when the crazy winds were blowing its simply crazy, during the day it’s the sand storms that carry day, when I stayed in a tent I had sand in it everyday. The fisher men have to wait until its calm so that they venture out, so when a boat ride was suggested I was excited at first, growing up my parents took me one too many times to Uhuru Park, so I wasn’t scared when we were going to Central Island on Lake Turkana, yes fellow ignorant Kenyans that Lake that marks the end of Kenya on the maps is a very big lake with three islands, I visited one which has three crater Lakes.
Central Island
approachingCentral Island
The boat ride to the beautiful island was scary to say the least, going across the waves, most of us including the most experienced swimmers among us held on for their dear lives, at some point I thought it was fun, I had a life jacket anyway, that was until on the ride back too much water got into our boat and seated at the back I realized the situation was not good because the captain for lack of a better word was in panic mode but we made it anyway.
• Tourism, most people think that there is nothing to see in Turkana, but there’s too much to be seen, ever heard of cultural tourism added to all of the above sceneries that you can see. Also Turkana is the best place for honey moon that quiet place that newlyweds in the world, longing for that feeling that they are the only people in the world. TURKANA is waiting for you, while Mombasa is too crowded and by plane it takes roughly over and hour.
Sunrise at Turkana Basin Institute
I never knew that I could love nature so much but each time I saw the sunrise I ran to get a closer look. Then again you can sleep under the open sky anywhere in Turkana and nobody will ask you. Most parts of Turkana are safe and it’s only when you get closer to the border of Turkana and other districts than you might experience insecurity.
As far as cultural tourism goes, the Turkana culture is amazing and original, a wedding ceremony goes for close to a week and just watching them in their Mohawk and traditional wear, it will make you think about other pastrol communities and how forgotten these cultures are and the potential that they hold not only to the people but to an entire nation.
One swim in this Lake and you become addicted.
At a wedding in Turkana, my good friends Kasha and Meadow enjoy themselves, in the same wedding I saw a camel go down literally. Camel and donkey meat are delicacies, the donkeys are some of the laziest in the world. They do no work at all.
The nights in Turkana are filled by song and dance, the young people both men and women gather around at a dancing ground and they sing and dance the night away. And its not a disco, its African, a tradition that most ethnic communities in Kenya have done away with.
In some places you might see hyenas which I am very scared off; they do after all have very powerful jaws for breaking bones. On other side of the Lake there is a National Park called Sibiloi.
The legend of this cliff is amazing apparently it a ‘jini that swallows goats’ whole.
• Education, for all the geology, anthropology, archaeology, history and ecology students Turkana is the place. They don’t say east Africa is the cradle of mankind for no good reason. Without Turkana and the fossils that it has provided we wouldn’t even come close. So many people are into evolution yet ignore the place that it all cam from.
Namaratunga Fossil
Namaratunga is a site that dates to the middle Holocene that is around 3000-4000 years ago, for anthropologists the people have an interesting account of the mass burial ground. Among the fossils found would include the Turkana boy (Homo erectus), most of Turkana is evidenced by extant Lakes, and is littered with artefacts such as pot sherds and egg shell beads.
Also for the ecology students I had the chance of learning about invasive species such as the Prosopis (Mathenge) and its harmful effects. We did a lot bird watching, in Kenya we have over 2000 different bird species. In Turkana there was the Somali crow a very black bird in a very hot place.
• A quiet time, I love being quiet, a place where I can be alone, talk to myself, think, no wonder I love such places as Turkana I can sing loudly and not have a care in the world.
Me being quiet.
It’s the perfect get away, its peaceful, no rude people shoving around like in the streets of Nairobi.
As a writer and Anthropologist I found Turkana a place full of stories and a culture that is unexplored. And I hope over the next few weeks I hope to bring that into light, it was inspirational as much as it was fun. I get to learn about their people and their unexplored beauty, the high levels of poverty made me realize that Turkana has long being dependant on foreign aid, but if Kenyans played a part, it wouldn’t need aid. We saw what simple irrigation can do a small piece of land without altering the land, because while the men graze when can dig. Truth be told most vegetables we had were from around Turkana not Nairobi or even Kitale.
The ultimate truth, the beauty of a place not being in what you hear or see on the TV but on visiting and realizing the beauty yourself.
A stroll on the lovely crater lake on central Island Lake Turkana
