lounging by stinky palm trees

Another hot and dusty driving day. We passed many little villages, all somewhat identical with their main street lined with tiny stores selling soaps, candles, bread, matches, and tins of tomatoes. People lounged around under the big trees, chatting, squatting, eating.

People don't always like having their picture taken here and I've been quite reluctant to just point and click, even when we're driving. I feel like I can't just snap a quick shot just for my own sake, but it's very tempting. The people from this Lake Turkana region are some of the most stunning individuals I've ever laid eyes on. Their brightly coloured clothes are magnificent, and set against the pale dusty landscape, it appears that much more dazzling.

The shower felt wonderful when we arrived at Palm Shade Camp in Loyangalani. We didn't even mind that it wasn't hot.

But for 450 Shillings per person here - to CAMP! - it's a definite rip off. Someone (i won't mention who in our party of 5) remarked that "everything smells like poo around here", and it did. Even less reason to fork over the camping fee. But we were too tired and lazy to find another campsite, not knowing if it would be better or not.

None of us felt like cooking tonight so we ordered the 'local dinner' from the camp. We paid 1000 Shillings for the ingredients for dinner, plus 400 Shillings for labour cost. A delicious feast was brought to us an hour later: five full-sized tilapia fish, an enormous bowl of rice, cabbage, sauce and oranges. The tilapia was perfectly grilled, and again I was the lucky one who got the remnants of everyone's bones and fish heads. FYI, fish cheeks are the best and most tender part of the entire fish. Try it once and you'll be hooked.

We ate and drank like royalty late into the night. At some point, someone in charge came to tell us "sorry, we have to turn off the generator." No problem, we kept chatting in the dark.

I noticed tonight that I'm developing a blister on my top lip. I hadn't realized how strong the sun was (duh) and made a mental reminder to be more vigilant in applying sunscreen.



Start: Campsite in Progress, on road in Northern Kenya. 09:07
End: Palm Shade Camp, Loyangalani, KENYA. 17:00
Distance Traveled: 200 km
Road Conditions: luckily the rain has held off so far and we've been crossing mainly dry riverbeds
Temperature: hot and dry, and really dusty