Day 17: Cycle to Mt. Olorgesailie

We set off with some trepidation today: 30km uphill follwlowed by as far along the flat / downhill as we felt we could go - and camp wherever we ended up.

The climb went well, up through forests on very small tracks, some of which were pretty hard going. 
We were on a fairly large track and were surprised to find it closed off with thorns, as part of a Masai "Boma".
We were travelling through an area marked on the map as Marble Quarries. This is the only place in the country that has them. We are no experts, but it looked like pretty low grade stuff coming out. Nothing big enough for a cheese board, let alone a kitchen.
And then we were over the escarpment and down the other side. We had a route but it ended up in a river, or in another quarry or somewhere impassable so there was a lot of picking our way. Here the road crossed a river with what would be an impressive waterfall! 
Great lunch in Mile 46, the staple of beans, cabbage and chapatti. We also stocked up on water, to be filtered later.
At 2.30 we stopped under a tree for an hour before heading off. We needed more water... and were invited into a boma to fill up. People have plenty of stored rain water just now. Exceptionally welcoming and kind none the less. 
After 90km we found a place to camp off the road. We saw about 3 vehicles this afternoon in the last 40km. It turns out now that all the lorries return to the quarries  at night. As I write there is one every 5 minutes! 

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 18, 2022 at 1:43 PM

    seems you successfully avoided thorns in the tyres! An another amazing day Gents. The write ups and photos are fantastic!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 24: Cycle to Nyalilpuch

Image
Where on earth is Nyalilpuch? You might well ask. Well, it is perched on a ledge above Lake Bogoria. Here is a map of our route over the last 6 days. We started on the red line at the bottom of the picture and the days switch between red and blue (except there are 2 reds in a row at one point!) Daily life continues on the road: And near a place called Solai we went through a huge macadamia nut plantation. Being a geographer, Tom couldn't pass this erosion by without stopping. It looks like a relief model of an entire mountain range. We came over the final hill to find Lake Bogoria spread out below us. There are no car tracks to this camping spot, so we don't think it's is frequented by many travellers. The dryland forest spreads as far as the eye can see.
Read more

Day 41 to The Jade Sea!

Image
We set off early from our final night with Helen. We planned 3 short days of cycling, as everyone had told us how inhospitable the terrain would be. We passed through South Horr which was a very sleepy little town, with a tree lined main street. We even came across running water at the end, which was the first we had seen for 10 days. We arrived at the turn to Koros Camp at 8am and thought we could make better use of the day than sitting under a tree, so carried on towards Lake Turkana Wind Power. What a place! Tom has wanted to come here for ages ... The 365 turbines provide 17% of the country's power at peak times and 30% at night. It really is impressive. We are very thankful for the welcome we were given at the main site, to get out of the heat of the day, including lunch in the canteen. Here we are getting in a sliver of shade for and hour, by what must me the world's most exposed, hottest and windiest swimming pool (35°C and 30 knots??)
Read more

Day 32 Walk to Loidongo Lugga

Image
So, we are back on our journey! And for this leg are rejoined by Catherine and Emma. And we are joined by Tim, a friend of the Szlapaks from the US and Sandy, who has taken a long week out of school.  When we cycled up to Lkanto in May, we really felt we had got to the far north of the country. But today, we headed off further north, to walk through the Ndoto Mountains. Into the real wild. We are walking and Helen's camels are carrying the camp, as we walk up the dry luggas. There has not been proper rain here since March 2020, but it is in the area, as we flew over flowing rivers on the way in this morning.  Here is our camp tonight, taken from a nearby hill.  Our team of Samburu seem to have procured a goat for their supper and are preparing it on a bed of leaves as a makeshift kitchen surface, to reduce the sand and the dust that seems to get into everything given the opportunity.  Just a short walk of 10km today, we wi
Read more