Trip worth taking for skygazers

 

Desert Water in Turkana. Photo/FILE 

In Summary

• We drove to Lake Turkana 20 years ago.
• The tarmac didn’t run out till we were well past Lodwar.
• The only problem we had was getting stuck in soft sand a few kilometres from the lake shore and the Lake Turkana Fishing Lodge that is now, sadly, only a shell.

By John Fox

Turkana County is in the news, isn’t it? What with the discovery of the huge underground water reserve — 200 billion tons of drinkable water, according to Alain Gachet, the Frenchman who led the engineering team that ‘discovered’ it. I can’t get my head round figures like that — more understandable is that the aquifer could serve the whole of Kenya for 70 years.

And then there’s the oil. The British prospecting company, Tullow Oil, claimed earlier this month that there could be 368 million barrels of it.

So Turkana is going to change in the years ahead. Change dramatically.

We drove to Lake Turkana 20 years ago. We went the easier and quite gentle western route, over-nighting at Eldoret and at the Marich Pass Study Centre at the northern edge of the Cherangani Hills. The road then cut slightly east of north as it crossed the wide arid plain bisected by the River Turkwel.

The tarmac didn’t run out till we were well past Lodwar, and the only problem we had was getting stuck in soft sand a few kilometres from the lake shore and the Lake Turkana Fishing Lodge that is now, sadly, only a shell. The landscape was — and still must be — starkly beautiful: the largest permanent desert lake in the world, with backdrops of purple hills. And this coming November we will be taking the chance to enjoy that landscape again — on the very special occasion of an eclipse of the sun.

It is called a ‘hybrid solar eclipse’. I am not sure why. But the sun will be completely covered by the moon.

It will be the longest this century, so the astronomers say. The best place to see it will be in Turkana. The next one will be in 2023 — and that will not be visible in Africa. (You can learn more about this November’s eclipse on the NASA website.) No doubt there will be a number of trips to Lake Turkana organised for November 3. But the one I am going to tell you about is the one being organised by the Rotary Club of Nairobi. I have no compunction about advertising this, because all proceeds will go to charity.
Called ROTEC, the trip is being organised by the Rotary Club in partnership with the African Astronomical Society. Actually, there will be two trips — one by road and the other by air.

There will be two professors on hand during a two-day programme at Kalokol village on the north shore of Ferguson’s Gulf — reckoned to be the best site for viewing the eclipse. One of the professors is Dr Kakeem Oluseyi, an astronomy expert from the Florida Institute of Technology and Space Science; the other is Prof Simiyu Wandibba, an anthropologist from the University of Nairobi.

The first day at the lake will include a visit to the Namoratunga archae-astronomical site, and a presentation by Prof Wandibba.

The viewing of the eclipse (for more than two hours for the partial and about 14 seconds for the total eclipse) will take place in the evening at Kalokol — followed by a presentation by Prof Oluseyi. On the second day, there are choices: visiting primary health care projects supported by the Rotary Club; swimming in the lake or driving to the nearby Sabiloi National Park.

ACCOMODATION

Accommodation will be in special tents at the village of Eliye Springs, by the lake. Because of the springs, the village is an oasis along an otherwise barren shoreline.

There was a hunting lodge there once — an assortment of grass huts with basic facilities. The lodge fell into disrepair in the early 1980s, but there is now a new management, and the place has begun to attract tourists. It also has a sand-surface airstrip.
The air package, with Fly540, will be for three days (two nights at Eliye Springs); the more adventurous, if not leisurely, overland package, in very smart trucks, will be for six days (five nights). For both options, accommodation will be in tents, described as “superior”, “middle-class” or “basic” — but from the pictures in the ROTEC website, the tents look “very OK”.

The prices range from Sh84,620, for the air package and a superior tent, to Sh46,000 for the overland package and a basic tent. There is much more information on www.rotec.rotarynairobi.org.

Yes, the expedition is quite expensive, but it will be a very special one because the proceeds will go to support primary health care and community development projects in Turkana County. Because of the oil and water, Turkana might well benefit in years ahead — but, as of now, the county is rated among the poorest in the country.

John Fox is Managing Director of IDC Email; johnfox@idc.co.ke