Lamu to Jade Sea

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??)...

Last day with Helen today! A very short walk of a few kilometres to a road junction south of South Horr. The main snag was that Tom was really unwell during the night. Must have been too much sun, although we have tried to be really careful with that. After an ORS and copious amounts of water he joined the walking party! We were met at our camp by Mutiso, who drove north over the last two days. The late afternoon was spent putting our bikes together and getting ready for the road tomorrow. "Transition" triathletes would call it. Emma, Catherine, Tim and Sandy said their goodbyes and they went to a tiny and remote airstrip to fly back to Nairobi. Helen and team have a day in this camp tomorrow, cleaning things, watering the camels etc. She then sets off back to where we started but hopes to have another group join her for some of the way. She's happiest with the itinerant lifestyle of keeping on the move. . . We have had an extremely spe...

A short day today, as we approach South Horr in order to meet up with Mutiso and our bikes tomorrow! The morning light was spectacular and Tom got a bit carried away taking pictures of the Acacia tortilis trees but all taken on the real camera, so we can't see them yet. We climbed a hill for a view over the Acacia rufisiens forest (in the distance above) which made a contiguous canopy. The trees are a perfect inverted triangle so on foot you can weave a path in between them. Here, Daniel and Tim survey the landscape from the hill. Each morning we walk for 2 or 3 hours to work up an appetite for breakfast. Eggs are cooked in rapid order and we are now experts in collapsible chair construction and take-down. Then the breakfast camels are repacked and off we go. Most are unmistakably Helen's: Helen and Emma did an audit of the bird list at lunchtime, now running at an impressive 115. It might  have been many more, were it not for the drought. T...

16th of September. Today we left the Ndotos, walking with their north Western tail to our left for most of the day. This was our day "crossing the desert" as Helen described it last night. Dominated by sand and "red acacia," it was our first time of being properly hot - for 22km, getting into camp at 2.45pm. But there were signs of life everywhere. We saw lion prints (maybe the one that took a camel - not ours - in last night's village?). There were numerous middens, which seemed to be used by both dik dik and ardwolf. We also saw aardvark, African wolf (formerly golden jackal), bat eared fox and ostrich spoors. And 3 gerenuk in real life. So there are lots of animals, just hard to see. Sandy found the skin of a black mamba, very long. And we reached 100 birds! An accomplishment lead by Emma and assisted by Helen who has an encyclopedic knowledge of calls, feathers and feet marks. The sand was burning hot to touch, so one of the Great Dan...

We had a great walk before sunset yesterday further up the hill. Earlier, there had been heated discussions, with Tom reckoning that the summit would be a 4 hour round trip and the others thought it would be much longer! Most of the walk was in tunnels through the bush, made by elephants, which we saw in the distance. Two hours walking down from the hill this morning. Very much easier on the old knees than normal, as a walk down a mountain is normally proceeded by a stiff walk up, but we had done that yesterday. Through another amazing dry forest, this time dominated by a special prickly euphorbia. The path had been built up recently by Helen's team - who lost a dog to a black mamba in the process (we found some of his bones in the same place). But even so, it was steep for the camels and we were very happy to have them all down without mishap.  We came down to a village in a boma and all around is very barren indeed, as it has been so dry. But t...

Up and up today, along a winding path, as the lugga became narrower and narrower, with very occasional patches of water from tiny springs. These are used by the wildlife as a lifeline. We passed a village with a single well. It was very overgrazed all around  but soon we were past that and back into dry forest. We saw a bat hawk which is very unusual, partly because it is nocturnal and also because we are further north than it is understood to live. And then a Verraux's Eagle Owl which was very beautiful. We have just heard a spot flanked barbet and seen crowned eagle, also very rare. Emma's list extends beyond 75 species so far. We wound our way up to the pass and we saw lion footprints and spoor, which is a first for Helen in this northern part, "its big news". Will we hear the lion roar tonight? Camp is at 1,700 metres (c.5,500ft) on the pass, looking down to the plains of South Horr below us. And we can see elephants, right up here.  Sorry ...

Our camp was right down in a lugga so the morning started with a steep climb out, to get the leg muscles loosened up. We were cutting a corner, and went up through a dry forest before dropping down into a gorge. This kept the sun off us, at times very narrow. It was a porcupine's paradise; we saw their droppings all the way along and then found the remains of one, maybe taken by a leopard, 100 spines all that remained. They seem to like hedgehogs too, leaving the spines shrivelled like a spiky purse. We left the gorge and up and over to another sandy one, where we were rejoined by the camels. Half a dozen camels carry breakfast, drinking water and anything else that might be needed during the day. The main group come behind, a further 34 camels, who walk in groups of 4 tied together. That is more than Helen would normally take but it's been so dry there is extra water to carry some days. She has 100 in all, they join her aged 3 and start work aged 5 and carry on until they are ...

12th September. We set off before breakfast, directly north up the lugga. It's very wide,  with fresh leopard spoor. Elephants had very recently made the most of the shade on the Eastern Bank, as we did too, with the sun rising and the equinoctal full moon setting to the west. Crashing in the trees let us know how close the elephants were. After 2 hours, we reach a fork in the lugga, the camels caught up, and we stopped for breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee. Home made bacon and sausages from Tim Hobbs had been cooked earlier. Thank you Tim! The men has their chai, picture above, made with cardamon, milk and honey. We carried on up out of the lugga to a high area, of comifera  trees with silvery bark but trees quite spread out. There were a number of bomas  or homesteads. with traditional low houses and an animal shelter, surrounded by a protective strip of cut thorns. We met the primary school teacher who holds lessons under a local tree for the 40 six year olds in h...

Yikes, we start walking at 6.15 each morning! In fact, this is fine and is far the better than lying in, because it gets hot, as soon as the sun comes up. We are woken by a singing Samburu, followed up by a cup of milky tea with cardamon. Once walking, debates were soon being had about two key decisions: where to get water (for us and the camels) and our route over the the mountains. Helen, our host, does not know where we will finish, or how we will get there. Her and her team read the land, the weather and the water situation and then decide on the next day's route. They all know the luggas, the paths, the wells and the landscape like an urban dweller may know the local street map. As we get to know their ways, this starts to make more sense - and gives great reassurance. This is a well, dug in a dry river bed, the only way to find water; there were a lot more round the corner, so it must be a good spot. The Great Dane is standing next to a wat...

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 10...