Sailing on Lake Baringo

Lying so low in the Great Rift Valley, the sun scorches the earth from sunrise to sunset. There is no respite save for when the rain brings its clouds for a few days in the year.

The lake shimmers as we skim the waters. With the rains so good in the highlands earlier in the year, the lake level has risen, as the rivers have flowed in full of the precious liquid. Il Chamus men sail on their reed rafts made from the ambatch (balsa) tree that grows in the water.

The trunk is light and waterproof. Augustine Onyango buys a few tilapia from the fisherman. The island nearest to shore is Parmalok where old man Lempkenyi lives with his five wives, 28 children and more than 37 grandchildren. He’s not on the island so we sail past, to the hot springs on Ol Kokwe, which in Il Chamus lingo means the meeting place.

Close to shore, we see the water bubbling. It’s piping hot. Hot steam rises from the vents into the hot blue sky. A Tugen woman in traditional finery sits by the bubbling waterhole where the locals come to cook. She’s a newcomer to the island having had to leave the mainland.

“Nimetorokea Kokwe kwa sababu ya jamii ya Pokot,” laments Nolikiapu, the Tugen woman.

She and her eight children have been on the island for a year and she earns her living by selling jewellery and decorated calabashes to tourists. Higher up in the rocks, Onyango, our guide from Soi Safari Lodge, points to the ‘sauna’ and we make our way over the rocks for the healing powers of the steam from the earth’s womb.

Back in the boat, we sail past Devil’s island. The bare cliff wall of the island glows gold when the sun sets in the western sky. Under the midday sky, it’s stark dark.

Onyango whistles, flings the fish in the water and to the count of a slow three, the resident African fish eagle rises off its perch high on the top tree of the cliff and glides majestically to the water with its talons outstretched to scoop the fish off the surface and return to its high perch. It’s stunning to watch.

“We have eight pairs of the African fish eagle on the lake,” says Onyango. “They live in pairs.” Meanwhile, the branches on the shrub growing in the shallow water by the cliff is speckled with the smaller pied kingfishers looking like someone hung them as decorations.

We spot a Goliath heron standing still as a statue by the lakeshore. It is the world’s largest heron. Our bird list increases with the purple heron, squacco heron and others.

A hippo watches us glide by as the crocodile hides its eyes and snout all within sight of the women doing laundry. The crocs of Baringo have got to be the world’s most laid-back.
In the evening, we drive to Loruk to visit a Pokot village called Maindi. The women are in – Chepranye with her six children is the eldest.

She has four co-wives and between them, 10 children. Her eldest son, Kuget Limalai, not more than 10 years old, receives a hug from grandma as he returns from the bush after weeks with the cows.

The savvy kid is already a man of the world. It was good in the bush, he recounts. The cows had plenty to eat because of the rains and he and his four friends had plenty of milk to drink.

“Did you read about the 16 Tugen men who were killed by the Pokot about two years ago?” asks Onyango. “I’ll show you the place. It’s at Moinonin.”

We walk to the base of the cliffs and look up. Rock hyraxes animate the cliffs as the cliff cats hop on the ledges, chatting all the time. Young Tugen boys follow us. “The Tugens were ambushed in the cave there,” points Onyango.

The boys run up the rocks to the caves like mountain goats to show the exact point. “The warfare is traditional. The Pokot pay high bride price and so they are always going on cattle raid,” explains our guide.

There are so many spots to stop at. A bare field full of stones is famous for its nightjars. Nobody lives there because the place is said to be haunted.

We are told the previous year, a woman who lived at the base moved away after she heard voices in the dark calling names of those who had passed away. We stroll to the nesting site stopping where the birds have left their mark. But to see the birds, we must return at night like the ornithologists do.

Our final stop in the setting sun is the viewpoint at Kapkotor, high on the cliffs from where we see the entire lake surrounded by the Laikipia escarpment where explorer Joseph Thomson became the first European to spot the lake in 1883, Samburu and Tugen hills. Below, the women with their debes full of water make for home as the dark rain fills the lake.

Fact File
Stay at Soi Safari Lodge on the shores of the lake. It’s value for money at Sh7,600 full board a double. Tel: 020 318774   email: soisafarilodge2003@yahoo.com.

Ask for the Suswa Wing rooms because they face the lake. The resident naturalist, Augustine Oliech is full of local lore, so consult with him for excursions offered from lake excursions to local hotspots. There’s a county council fee, ask for the rate from the lodge.

Lake Baringo is 270 kilometres from Nairobi – the road upto Nakuru was recently rebuilt and is a great drive. It’s easy to reach by matatu – just go down to River Road – one-way costs less than a Sh1000.

Once there, you don’t really need a car unless you want to drive to the hot waterfalls at Kapedo 50 kilometres north of Baringo or south to Lake Bogoria or Lake 94.