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SOUTH HORR |
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Baragoi marks the end of the forbidding Elbarta plains, as the road
now climbs into ravine and mountain country, fantastically green if
there's been rain. Some 30km from Baragoi, a track to the left towards
Nyiru, signed by a red gas cylinder, leads to Desert Rose Camel Safaris,
which organizes luxury camel treks of six days or more in the
surrounding luggas and hills and up to Lake Turkana, with vehicle
back-up and two nights at their Desert Rose Lodge (FB over
Ksh16,000/$215).
There's a positive jungle all year round at the oasis village of SOUTH
HORR ( horr means "flowing water"), wedged tightly between the Nyiru and
Ol Doinyo Mara mountains. With its pleasantly somnolent atmosphere,
ample shade and relaxed herders lounging under the trees, it's a great
place to bunk down for a night or three, and making friends is easy
despite the language barrier. There are a few cheap hotelis and cold
drinks at Nhiro Serima Bar , but only rarely beer. If you stay the
night, you've a choice of half a dozen basic B&Ls (all under Ksh500).
There's good, dirt-cheap camping at the Forest Department Campsite ,
located up a rough trail to the left of the road a kilometre before
South Horr. Facilities consist of long-drops, an askari , and a river
for drinking water, bathing and washing the dust out of your clothes.
This site, a short walk from South Horr village where most vehicles
stop, is a good base for meeting up with supply or mission vehicles in
hopes of a lift north.
Well worth a visit in the village itself is SALTLICK (Semi-Arid Lands
Training and Livestock Improvement Centres Kenya), which concerns itself
with supporting the local pastoralist Samburu communities via honey-production
projects and cash-crop experiments involving the Senegalese acacia gum
tree; it's a mine of information on Samburu culture. For a more intimate
experience, you might try asking about the camel market which is held on
occasions a few kilometres south of the village at a roadside well.
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