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Published: February 27th 2007
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Cute Kids
Found kids playing on the edge of a deep gully. Asked me to take a photo of them. How could I not? After working the phones over Christmas, I had the chance to visit my client. Problem was, I was in Nairobi, and my clients was about 270 kilometers north by road, a place called Doldol on the other side of Mt. Kenya.
An early and hectic morning, to make sure I caught the earliest matatu (taxi). Hmmmm..... Did I say the earliest? Well, the matatu took off at 11am. Nice start!
Two and a half hours later, we got to Nanyuki, the edge of the north. Usually, I have a calm way of dealing with everything that seems to be going wrong. This was one of them. Surely, I could make it to Doldol, have the all-important chat and possibly head back, right? Read on.....
Assuming I had all the time, I walked into a hotel and gulped down a couple of samosas and tea. Aha! That should keep me going for the next 27 hours. Nice thought.
It was now way into the afternoon as I walked to the matatu stage (thats a bus terminus for the uninitiated). Empty van, no passengers in sight. "Is is usual?" I asked the driver. "Sure", he said. Two hours later, the passengers had tripled
Doldol Town
This is the entire town as seen from 400meters away. to 3. Surely, no way I was making the trip that day. Kicking the dust, I called a friend and let him know I would be dropping in, which I did, tired and pissed off at myself, promising myself that I would sleep early in readiness for the next day. That didnt happen - the rest of the night was spent listening to electronic music and playing pacman - yes, pacman. Arrgggghh!
The next day was a real drag. Tired and sleepy (I had had no sleep for at least 28hrs), I made it to the bus terminus just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Cool, this was going to work right.
A friendly mechanic travelling the same way started a conversation (thankfully) and we didnt notice how the hours passed and the van filled up. Until I noticed it was 11:30am. Where is a wall when you need one to bash your head on?
Never having gone past Nanyuki, this was a trip I'm still glad I took. Anyone who has been to Nanyuki will agree with me that northern Kenya is a beauty. Yes, flat, arid and sooo dusty, but surprisingly incredible. You can see all the
Doldol Main Street
The main (and only) street of Doldol way to the horizons on all sides, though you always seem to drive through curve after curve after curve. With the area largely "uninhabited" (actually, its mostly ranch-land and semi-nomadic Samburu people), the land is still in pristine condition. You might as well have walked into a time machine and been transported back to the 17th century.
The road from Nanyuki to Doldol starts as very smooth tarmac (very unusual for this part of Africa, until you realise that the roads here are built by (rich) ranchers who rarely use them-why drive while you could fly?). The drive was very quiet, with veterans of these parts seemingly bored. Well, I was new here, and I didnt care staring at small herds of zebra and camels like an idiot. What I loved best were the sceneries, the landscape perfect, low hills, scattered trees, rock formations. Just splendid. Then my camera let me know (in very certain terms) that the batteries were dead! Why oh why!!!
Then there was the dust! Very white, very fine, very light dust. Caught on anything and stuck to everything - hair, clothes, skin. Did I mention the heat up here? Hot sun and small van means
Doldol Main Street
The main (and only) street of Doldol open windows. We were either going to bake slowly or eat dust. Dust we ate.
We arrived at Doldol at 1:30pm, sweaty & dusty. Corporate types will flich, but this was how I was going to meet my client and make a business proposal! And I did.
The school is located on a hill about half a kilometer from town, which is a walk over grassland, with thorns and cactus. From up there one can see the entire town. (which isn't surprising as you shall learn later).
(Chat with client about the computer software they need to acquire) That took about 30 minutes.
Corporate flinching again? And I explain. Doldol is a remote town where there is no cellphone coverage, there are two (2) public phones (of which only one works). The post office was declared redundant about 2 years ago. Public transport is limited to two matatus (vans) daily (you understand considering that the first one leaves Nanyuki at midday). Only other mode of transport is a lift from the numerous livestock or sand trucks that ply the road. There is one not-too-good lodge, and with water at a premium, I had no inclination to have any tea. Talk
Acacia Roots
Moles view of the world. I imagine this is how moles experience their subterranean world of remote.
As luck would have it, I spotted the afternoon van approaching town just as I left the hilltop school. That didnt stop me from shooting some closeups of cactus fruits and some distant hilltop with interesting rock formations (photos to be uploaded later).
On arrival at the bus stage, I learnt that the driver had to have a snack. Good! I could walk around town and see everything. Doldol town is small, with one wide & dusty street, and several small retail shops. An olympic javelin throw from one end could reach the other. The water here is mainly from boreholes. That was all of town. Time to scout around.
A little distance from town was this deep gully, probably 15-20 meters wide, 6-7 meters deep.
On the opposite bank was an incredible sight. The roots of a massive acacia tree totally exposed by the floodwaters (see gallery). This had to be recorded. Out came my camera.......managed a few shots before the thing died.
The thing with arid areas is that when flash rains come down, they fall hard. And cause flash floods, raging terrors sweeping everything and creating the kind of gully I was looking at.
Flash Flood Fury
This is what happens in a several minutes of flash floods in these parts. The fury of nature. On the banks of the gully were two little kids, playing and running and stopping to look into the gully. Scared me stiff - the possibility of them falling in, and I could see no way out (apart from a looong walk to the other end where it shallowed out. On seeing the camera, the kids asked me if I could take a photo of them. Sure, why not!(see gallery). It was at that moment that some realization came to me. Something dawned in my mind. Something got clearer. (more on that later).
The driver was ready to drive back to town. With the van full, we were off to Nanyuki. Leaving the little town, the remoteness, those two children made me a little sad. But it also made me glad I had made that journey. Something I intend to do again very soon, with more camera batteries (the ones I had conked out on me numerous times, thats the reason so few shots were taken) and film (digital cameras just dont cut it. Film is still the best)..
On our way back, we stopped at this even-littler town whose Samburu name I never got. Its a little place in the middle of nowhere, where the local Samburu men wait by the road side, holding shovels, hoping to get casual jobs as sand-loaders for the trucks passing by. Another thing caught my eye: the town faces an eye-catching vista, a looong view to the horizon, amazing rock formations....Absolutely amazing!
By the time we got to Nanyuki, I was very very tired, dusty, sleepy but rejuvenated. And I shall take the journey again. And again. And again.
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christine hanford
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Thanks for the memory!
Hi. Jambo. I just read your discription of your journey and felt the need to come back! Last time I was in Kenya was in 2006, too long ago! Kenya woke up my interest in photogrophy and now, armed with my new LSR camara I cannot wait to come back. Hoping to make it around March 2010. Thanks again for sharing your journey. Christine.