Mar 20, 05:18 PM
Lake Baringo and Mt. Kenya
On Saturday morning at around 6:30am, we met our friend, Amit, a young businessman from Kenya who is the cousin of my friend and former co-worker, Radhika. We traveled with him for about 5 hours north of Nairobi to the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, an area known right now for the horrible draught that Kenya has been experiencing. We could definitely see the dramatic difference in the terrain as we zoomed along at a good clip in Amit’s mazda pickup and saw many of the lakes along the way from viewpoints off the side of the road (we couldn’t go to each one). We traveled past Lake Naivasha, Elementaita, and Nukuru was what we saw from the road, but we ended up in a small town of Marigot, nearby Lake Baringo, which was our final destination. Before we could get to Roberts Camp, where we were staying, we had to take a matatu (Kenya’s famous, or infamous, depending on the way you look at it, mode of transport). Our friend, Amit dropped us off at the matatu so that he could do his business there for the afternoon and after about an hour, our matatu finally dropped us off at our location which probably should’ve only taken 20 minutes at the most. Later that evening, over the Irish whiskey that we brought for Amit (because we thought we were going to be spending St. Patrick’s Day with him), he said that he chuckled to himself as he dropped the two naive Americans off at the matatu stop.
We loved Lake Baringo and saw hippoes from afar (which is the best way to see them because they can actually be quite dangerous) and many, many beautiful birds. We took a guided walk in a local village called Kampi and met two great people, Julius and Cliff William, who showed us many of the native birds to their village and area, as well as showed us the cliffs that their village borders. Our walk ended with huddling from the sudden rain shower (ironically, in drought struck Kenya) in a humble home of Cliff William’s aunt in the village. It was quite a humbling experience, to say the least.
We spent the evening in a wonderful banda at Robert’s Camp, watching the sun set and rise over the beautiful Lake Baringo. It was lovely, but it was hard to think of the stark contrast between the relative comfort we enjoyed and the simple hut we’d just been in—global inequality smooshed down to less than a kilometer’s space.
Sunday, we traveled to Amit’s project, which is a special partnership with the local Marigot community, the European Union, the Kenyan government, and Amit’s private business, Land Mawe (Rock Land in kiswahili). The business is one of its kind in Kenya, where they are trying to get the aloe plant that is indigenous to that part of Kenya to turn a profit for the local community.
Amit dropped us off in Nakuru, a town about an hour away from Marigot, and we caught a bus to the town called Naru Moru, at the foot of Mt. Kenya. Our guide, Joseph, who picked us up in Nairobi at the airport on Friday, met us at the station (which was wonderful, as it was almost 8:30pm at that time-a 5 1/2 hour bus ride-and VERY dark). He drove us to the hostel he owns, Mt. Kenya Youth Hostel, and we’ve been there since last night. We had a great meal, a great sleep, which we really needed, and hiked into the Mau Mau Caves this morning and into afternoon, in order to acclimatize and ready ourselves for the four day trek we will take up Mt. Kenya, starting tomorrow. The Mau Mau caves were used as a hideaway during the rebellion against the colonials in the early 1950’s; the rebellion eventually led to the independence of Kenya in 1963.
Our guide, Sam, was very cool, funny, and genuinely kind. We actually saw some of the Masai tribe members on our walk, as they had to migrate to the Mt. Kenya region, where it is much less dry than the northern part of Kenya that they usually stay (further north from Lake Baringo in the Great Rift Valley). Although, they don’t really stay anywhere very long, as they are a nomadic tribe and walked from the Great Rift Valley to Mt. Kenya (a walk that takes at least 3 weeks) to survive the draught and revive their animals that they herd.
Joseph, the owner of the hostel, is a wonderful man. He is very well-respected in the community and has a meeting tonight with folks who want to bring electricity to the area, as most people operate generators for power. He is excited about this opportunity. At the meeting they are also going to discuss supporting two local children who’s parents died of AIDS.
He has quite an operation at the hostel with many locals who guide and are porters for him. Most importantly, everyone we have met thus far has been incredibly kind, welcoming, and just wonderful, resilient, and strong people.
We look forward to our trek up Mt. Kenya and will hopefully check in again when we make it back to Nairobi on Saturday.