A cup of coffee at 5am started us off when team Lipstick discovered that their water stock was down to 4 bottles. Andre and Willy quickly decided to go into Isiolo and buy some more water supply at the 24/7 Total garage – the 2 other teams would in the meantime head north towards Laisamis by which time Lipstick would have caught up with them.

At Total the remaining stock of 14 1 l water bottles was purchased and the fridge loaded. On the way out of town Lipstick was stopped by a police stop station and told that they can only proceed further after 6am due to high security risks along the road. The 2 other teams obviously missed this police stop as the route from the Lodge took them straight to the A2 and on to Laisamis. Obviously not keen on waiting some 40 minutes team Lipstick proceeded with heavy negotiations mentioning that their other teams are already on the road. Despite offering to part with a most luxurious leatherman and maybe a nice set of ball pens the security officer did not bite but insisted that this rule is for our own security.

We than mentioned that Bulldog and Icevan would be putting themselves at risk by waiting on an open stretch of road for us and this logical argument convinced the commanding police chief to make an urgent phone call to his superiors who fortunately for us gave him permission to let us through.

With the other teams out of radio range we advised them by sms of the situation and caught up with them some 150km later just outside Laisamis.
The towns in this part of Nairobi are all a few 100m long and consist of traditionally built houses and shacks along both sides of the road. Traffic signs are non existing and we did not know where in Laisamis we needed to turn north East to Ilaut. Team Bulldog then loaded 2 local navigation fundis on their rear bumber and they truly guided us on the wrong turnoff.

We were now on a truly rural roadleading us along the edge of the Losai National Reserve towards Ilaut and South Horr. This road let us over patches of very stoney areas when at times we were convinced that we were lost. The tracks were hardly visible but we carried through and to our astonishment found 2 british army vehicles inclusive of 4 troops standing on the road side and also not being sure where they are.

Fortunately they wanted to go to where we came from and us exactly the other way, so good advice was exchanged and after some 2 hours later we arrived at South Horr – the last big town before lake Turkana.

Thereafter we only had to avoid turning right and we made sure that we missed a left turn at the only occasion as we came out the mountains into the open.

From there the landscape changed drastically into what must be the most moon like landscape on earth. We found ourselves driving on lava stones with lava landscapes to the left and to the right. Lava stones all over –the mother of all volcanic eruptions must have taken place right here.
After about another 45 m it suddenly appeared in front of us – Lake Turkana a huge lake surrounded by volcanic stones with nothing green to be seen other than the odd oases.

We made our way to the Palm Shade Rest Camping ground were we again exchanged ways forward and backward with a few other overland fans from Germany and South Africa.

The keen fishermen in our team – Andre, Rene and Denis quickly rigged up there fishing rods to catch the great Nile perch for which Lake Turkana is famous. The other members were thankful that we still had other food in our freezers because the great fisherman could not provide any fish specialities nor could they find a tin small enough to put their fish in.

Andre the proud Nile perch catcher
Andre the proud Nile perch catcher… the shiny piece in the middle is not part of his shirt but the monster fish he caught………….he says size does not count.

 

Camping site on Lake Turkana
Camping site on Lake Turkana

 

Andre and Willy with two local warriors
Andre and Willy with two local warriors

 

Camping atmosphere – chatting with other travellers
Day 23 – Isiolo to Loyangalani – 390km

One thought on “Day 23 – Isiolo to Loyangalani – 390km

  • June 30, 2011 at 2:13 pm
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    WOW!!! what an amazing adventure! I see Andre’s fishing at Lake Turkana is similar to that at Quolora.. 🙂

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