Kenya: Nanyuki to Eldoret, Kenya

It's going to be an early start today and it's a beautiful sunny morning with Mount Kenya getting the early morning rays. Along the way, we will pass Lake Baringo and also cross the Rift Valley. The following information is taken from a website to give our blog followers a bit more information on two wonderful sights we will witness today.  

Africa's Great Rift Valley is a 6,000-mile crack (fissure) in the earth's crust, stretching from Lebanon to Mozambique. One of its most dramatic sections slices through East Africa, dividing Kenya into two segments. Geologists know that the Rift Valley was formed by violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earth's crust. These forces caused huge chunks of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines and force up molten rock in volcanic eruptions. Evidence that this process, called rifting, is still in progress comes from the many active and semi-active volcanoes, located along the Rift. Evidence of volcanic activity along the rift is provided by the presence of numerous boiling hot springs.  

Lake Baringo: This is a freshwater lake approximately 22 km long, by 11 kms wide, with an area of 168 sq kms. It is situated at an altitude of 1100 meters but is surrounded by mountains rising to almost 300 meters above the ambient ground level in places. At the northern end of the Lake lies the dormant volcano, Karosi, 1449 meters high. The water of Lake Baringo is fresh unlike those other Great Rift Valley lakes of Bogoria, Elementeita, Nakuru and Magadi which are "soda lakes." Although it is not known where the water flows out of Lake Baringo, it is reasoned that it must do so as otherwise the water would be subject to a continual process of evaporation, and the Lake would become soda. It may well do so from a submerged crevasse at its northern end, emerging 100 ks north at Karpedda. As a freshwater Lake it is home to hippos, crocodiles and an abundance of fish and birds, but it does not have flamingoes, as these feed on the algae specific to soda lakes. Despite this, it is most famous as an ornithologist's paradise, with 500 bird species, many of which are extremely rare or otherwise only seen in this area. 

Mindy looked after us so well for the 4 days we were there and we all send a big thank you to her. Once again, Pauline spoiled us with her culinary skills and that is going to have to last us quite a while. As we were leaving, we saw a very large bird, the Kori Bustard taking flight. It stands approximately a metre high and I know it’s the heaviest &  largest bird in Southern Africa but cannot say that for sure about East Africa. We were given a hearty breakfast to see us on our way, which was a good thing because the journey to Eldoret was 430 kms, with half of it on completely unmade roads. The first 100 kms was quite difficult to navigate because we were basically driving across the bush without a single road sign to help us. We made one mistake, finishing up in the town of Rumuriti, which necessitated a 20km backtrack but after that it was ok.

We also had to cross the Rift Valley on our way, descending from approx 6000 feet to the valley floor. On the way down, the brakes failed. Yes, isn't that your worst nightmare. Thankfully, we were almost down at the bottom. Still, it was a moment where any feeling of fatigue leaves your body in an instant.  I could push the pedal completely to the floor so good use of the gears and the weight of the vehicle kept us at a manageable speed. It took me a couple of hundred metres to stop on a completely level road. Despite being very careful not to overuse the brakes on the way down, we had obviously suffered from brake fade. It was now just getting dark.

We stopped for a short while and gave it a complete check. Pressure started to return and as we were now in the Rift Valley, we carried on, carefully. Thankfully, the remaining part of the journey to Eldoret involved climbing to 7000 feet, with no further brake incidents.  On our journey today we saw Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra, Impala, Dic Dic (small deer) and a large Tortoise.

We stayed at Naiberi River Lodge, run by Raj, who was there to greet us. The journey took us 9½ hours so a cold beer was very welcome, followed by steak & chips in the Stone Cave Bar.

Stone Cave Bar @ Naiberi Lodge

Naiberi River Lodge Resort

Stone Cave