Eldoret is about an hour east of the Ugandan border; the town has a busy fabric production industry and an agriculture base with wheat and cane crops. Traffic is nuts as is often the outcome of people being able to afford vehicles and no time or money available to upgrade streets. Robots (traffic lights) have been abandoned, hanging in pieces at intersections. Roundabouts are more efficient anyway and traffic policing creates jobs, a handy band-aid. By all appearances Eldoret is a twenty-first century Kenyan city, if a bit bedraggled. Here on the eve of the latest Kenyan elections the atmosphere is tense; there are very few tourists. People tell us tourism has been dismal since August, and we are warmly received  at the Naiberi River OverLand Stop for a four-day stay.

Created by Raj Sarat, a Kenyan-born Indian man whose family has been in Eldoret three generations, each Overland campsite features covered areas with lots of room, expanding our real estate by about 100 percent – a big plus since it is raining cats and dogs periodically every day. There is a place to hang damp clothes under cover and a clothes line out in the sun should the sun shine long enough. We pull in, level the truck, unroll the Fiama awning, and set up dinner in about 15 minutes. The neighboring campers are just returning from Lake Turkana, our next destination, and they have excellent road information; we talk about the huge dam being built in Ethiopia that will impact the northern tribes. It would be interesting to return here in 10 years to see how it all falls out – the dam, the elections, life.

In no hurry, we stay four days at Overland Stop then take off for Lake Baringo. Without any preamble the road climbs to the summit of the Great Rift Valley then drops us down into the valley floor with a thud. Leaving behind the rain and greenery we have now landed in the arid tribal lands of Northern Kenya. Welcome to the Great Rift Valley. Running from Israel to Mozambique, the rift will in time push the massive chunk of Africa to its east off of the continent and into the Indian Ocean. Where we will be when that happens? Maybe colonizing Mars. One can hope.

At Lake Baringo the shore is cluttered with drowned trees and the ruins of resorts, boat docks and houses. The lake has risen to bury 100 meters of land and everything on it under water. Where men herded their cattle, they now guide birdwatching boats for tourists like us. The rise was gradual but inexplicable, caused by water seeping up from the Rift, aided by heavy rains and climate change. The lake is still lovely but the only way to see the shore is from the water, there’s no beach to walk along. Birding is good as the boat can maneuver into shallow coves and hidden places. The guide procures a couple of fish from a local and we chum for Fish Eagles – the eagles know the boat has a treat and they put on a show. Two other couples are camped with us and we all sit down one morning with our maps to share road information and stories, then everyone goes off in different directions. Our direction is to Lake Turkana, and back in time we go.