Road trip to Northern Kenya

The sheer mention of a trip to Northern Kenya is enough to evoke fear in any traveller’s heart. However, as ALLAN OLINGO found out, it’s a journey that also offers lots of fun filled exploration

When I was informed that I would be traveling for nine days to the Northern corridor, I was not excited. The stories that come from this area has never been positive save for the recent oil discovery. But given  my curiosity instincts, I decided to give it a try.

We left Nairobi on a chilly Monday morning in a convoy of six Game trackers land cruisers, with our first destination being Maralal, 400 kilometres from Nairobi. The roads was smooth till we got to Rumuruti where we were informed that the next time we would enjoy the tarmac would be on the eighth day!

I wasn’t quite prepared for this extreme roughness of this road. “Was it going to be so bumpy the entire route?” I asked Kyalo, our van driver.

“Yes it will be, until the eighth day when you will get to Isiolo,” Kyalo responded with a smile knowing that I was now being ‘baptised’ into the Northern Kenya terrain. I was resigned to fate.

The first few hours, were bearable and exciting as we marvelled at the lovely hills, landscape and the occasional stoppages by the roadside to admire the herds of elephants, buffaloes and even the Zebras in the private ranches that line up the Rumuruti-Maralal road. Interestingly, we only met one matatu on our four-hour journey to Maralal.

Rough rides

The stories and jokes soon faded and it dawned on everyone in the van that we were in the jungle.  We all went quiet, suffering in silence as we were thrown from side to side in the vans as the drivers tried their best to reach Maralal within ‘safe hours’.

My entire body slowly grew numb with pain from the rattling of the van. But my anticipation of reaching Maralal or  an encounter with the bandits kept me alert and full of fight.

We got to Maralal at around 9pm and checked in at a lodge. The next day, we set off for Loyangalani, another 400 kilometres away, with a possible lunch break at Baragoi.

Driving towards the Suguta Valley, the landscape transformed into a green bushy escarpment and as we made our stop to admire this valley, you could see a mirage of white clouds appearing on the horizon, which transformed into herds of very resilient sheep.

The lead driver, Rufus, warned us that this was now a prime bandit territory and that we had to be within eyesight of each other’s car. Suguta valley is famed for the notorious Pokot raiders who use it to hide the animals that they steal from the Turkanas.

Panoramic view

As we drove towards Baragoi, a sandy horizon peppered with black volcanic rocks, inhospitably beautiful in a stark sort of way started unfolding as the landscape changed. The heat was also increasingly becoming unbearable at around 36 degrees centigrade.

The scenery was one of the most beautiful you can find anywhere in Kenya. As you drive to Baragoi, you will be able to spot the Nyiro plateau facing Mount Nyiro and Mount Kukoyo, which I later learnt was where Kenya’s founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta crashed stones while in detention.

Baragoi is a mall administrative centre and after having a ‘buffet’, we set off to Loiyangalani.

The scenery between Baragoi and Loiyangalani, a small town on the south-eastern coast of Lake Turkana, is spectacular. Midway we met a group of turkanas armed with AK47 with a herd of cattle heading to a traditional ceremony. We exchanged pleasantries with them, as the others in the team took photos of the scenery.

When one of the journalists asked a 16-year-old boy how many bullets he had, he clicked and started shaking— out of anger. We knew we had crossed the line. The drivers advised us to apologize, which we promptly did, hopped into the vans and drove off. That was close.

Driving through South Horr, the landscape transformed once again into lush green vegetation complete with maize plantations. At South Horr we met a large group of morans strategising how to give a chase to bandits who had just raided their village and drove off with herds of cattle!

Safe hands

As dusk approached, the roads became reduced to rocky tracks that only the master drivers, who have spent almost 20 years on it, could figure out. We arrived at Loiyangalani (a Turkana word that means place of many trees) and checked in at Palm Shade Resort.

Well… by the local standard of the area, it is a resort, but not anything that you might have in mind. It was just a hotel with manyatta themed rooms. It wasn’t classy at all.  The rooms were tiny, with old beddings and full of insects. Breakfast  the next morning was mandazi’s and pancakes.

There were hilarious moments as guests trotted through the dining area in towels heading to the showers, while dogs kept vigil inside the open kitchen that was opposite the dining area!

We later set off for Sibilio National park, then Koobi for a, another 380 kilometres.

 This was going to be a long day. It had rained heavily the previous night and ten kilometres from Loiyangalani, we had to abandon the journey. The lagas (seasonal rivers) had swept off most parts of the roads and we could not risk driving through the raging waters!

Strict hospitality

We spent the day at the Loiyangalani Museum and later that evening we changed hotels. We were booked at the Oasis Lodge, a modern facility complete with a steam pool, fed from a hot spring! This was the location of the movie Constant Gardener and is a favourite spot for photo shoots by international photographers and models.

The lodge’s proprietor, Wolfgang Deschler, is a very interesting guy. Some will find him strict almost bordering on rudeness.

“Go pick your calls outside the dining area,” he shouted at a television camera guy who had picked a phone call close to him.

Deschler runs his lodge by his own rules and we got a taste of it when he switched off the television, as he retired to bed, despite the fact that we were all watching it!

We dared not switch it back on, because as his staff informed us, he would not hesitate to throw us out! The Oasis Lodge is the only lodge, south of Lake Turkana where one can enjoy a great swim as you take cover from the scorching heat, so dead into the night, when we were sure Deschler was dead asleep, and the generators were off, we decided to go wild, and indulge in a pool party!