Lake Turkana has been on my bucket list for a minute now. I had tried to rally some friends a few years back but didn’t get the numbers needed to make the trip viable- gladly, as this is a trip that I believe that is better done with a tour company, at least for me. And I’m quite the solo traveler.

The traverse was a 5 day expedition across multiple towns; Ngurunit on day one, Loiyangalani on day two, North Horr on day 3, Marsabit on day 4 and finally the trip back through Nanyuki and Isiolo.

The itinerary had at least one or two adventurous activities each day, giving relief to hours of travel in heat and dust.

I went on this trip with Green Rangers Safaris who I have travelled with a couple of times before, including the 6-country road trip I did back in 2017-2018.

After about 600kms of travel on day 1, we arrived at our campsite at about 5.00pm and stored our luggage in our manyattas before heading out for some rock sliding. This was preceded by a short 20 minute hike to the river.

We got guidance from some local guides on how to slide and followed suit and what a ride! This was so much fun.

The second day saw us visit the famous wind project in Turkana. I was not prepared for how massive the project is (I only had Ngong hills to compare and the wind mills there are countable). The Turkana windmills span tens of kilometres across an arid landscape that is so windy, it’s almost creepy!

The second night was spent in Malabo resort in Loiyangalani after about 160km of travel through the desert. This had masonry cottages and that were self contained, a welcome luxury for this expedition. It appears we were so in the moment that nobody remembered to take pictures of the rooms. The sunset was spectacular on this day.

On day 3, we visited the El molo community for some CSR. The community lives on Long’ech island, obviously accessed by boat. The poverty levels there are heartbreaking. I’ve spoken about poverty-tourism in my Harar post but this was different as it had a CSR angle. Even still, it was very upsetting.

We then departed for North Horr.

On this day another welcome luxury was accorded to us- swimming. We then visited the desert sand dunes of North Horr that evening after the sun was down and had the pleasure of seeing both the sunset and the moon across the sand dunes.

On day 4, we departed for Samburu, a 421km journey through the Chalbi desert.

Our activities in Samburu included a game drive at the Samburu National park then a night out in one of the local clubs.

On the fifth day, we began our journey back to Nairobi through Nanyuki where we stopped for lunch.

The expedition was not for the faint at heart. One of us suffered from heat stroke almost immediately and didn’t get to partake in a lot of activities. (Temperatures were as high as 40 degrees). This was in addition to having to go to the local clinics every so often. An early exit would have required him to board the one land cruiser that leaves the North at 2am for Marsabit, an overcrowded journey that may have done more harm than good. He did recover towards the end but it opened our eyes to the toll the expedition could take on one. The trip does need, a day or two of rest before resuming daily routines.

I should also mention that there are several police stops on the road where one must show their ID and be ready for the vehicle to be searched. These were no ordinary police officers- they were covered from head to toe and only had their hands exposed. No part of their faces could be seen. I did request one for a selfie to the utter shock of some of my tour-mates. Apparently these are not the type of cops to be casual with. I got quite the talk when we got back to the vehicle- turns out some of my colleagues had been really nervous on my behalf. Also the cops will also have you delete any photo (even of the surrounding, at the stop) that they deem to he a security threat. This reminded me of the road trip to Lamu.

That said, the trip was astounding- The people I got to meet, the locations visited whose landscapes were completely out of the ordinary, and the gratitude-inducing way of life of communities we visited, all made it worthwhile (even worth blogging about, regardless of the fact that I paused that).

As tiresome as it was, it’s a little interesting, perhaps unfortunate, that in touring the East of the lake, I discovered another potential expedition which I have my eyes set on-The West. This explores Lodwar and Eliye springs.

Until then, may adventure be with you!