Highlights of Day 3.
“We are here tonight (edge of the badlands heading towards Eburu). Covered as the crow flys about 6 km but on the road about 18 km.” JP
It was a challenging walk for camel and men through the rough terrain of the “badlands”.
Things are not quite the same when on foot, as they seem when bouncing along in a vehicle taking mileages, thinking it'll only take this long! We did nearly 18 kms today, ending up on the edge of the Utut badlands that Joseph Thompson had described. We went this far partly because we took time to find any trees higher than a Psaidia punculator bush; all that was left by the charcoal burners who were regularly passing by with donkeys carrying heavy loads of this.
But we found a very cosy alcove amongst the lava fields, with a wonderful view overlooking the badlands and onto the back of The Nose where we'd come from. The camel men worked hard to cut poles to hold our tandaruas as protection for the boxes and kitchen from the incoming rain. As it was this never materialised. We discovered, after dark when it was cold, that one of the several holes in our campsite was a steam jet.
There were a several fly-overs of flamingos in the night, coming and going, we imagine between Lake Elementeita and Lake Natron?
Apparently our goal of Jaika is just behind the hill from where we're camped, with a dam. So I was allowed a heavenly couple of litres of warm water for a bucket bath as we'll collect more tomorrow from the dam. Bliss, after 3 days of hot, sweaty walking.
We'd enjoyed our climb up Delamere’s Nose in the morning, going diagonally up the side to avoid the new boundary fence. It was a beautiful day. Lots of buffalo below, with one mob galloping into the open, possibly away from a lion, whose fresh track we'd seen on the road in. I felt sorry for the zebras who are having all their foals taken out by hyaenas every night, now the super predator. In all the herds we passed, we only saw one new born foal.
Soysambu to South Coast, a three month adventure.