The water constantly changes colour as the desert light shines down at different angles, azure, then jade, steel-blue in the morning light, green and dark as the dust clouds roll in, soft turquoise shot through with purple when late afternoon brings short relief from the heat of the Northern Frontier District. At midday, our thermometer registered 40degC in the shade, at midnight it stood at 28degC. Malicious winds raging at gale force sweep down from Mount Kulal, the 2 300m high peak east of the lake. There is a brief period of calm around dawn, and another in the evening. The shores of the lake are rocky and barren, the beaches strewn with lava under which thousands of scorpions and carpet vipers nest. The lake has the largest population of Nile crocodiles in the world, and the water is harsh and alkaline, barely drinkable.
Dust storms rip through, making cooking an ordeal.
The heat tormented us until we resorted to showering fully clothed, then sat in our steaming garments as the blown dust turned to mud on our faces. That night we lay huddled as the gales blasted down, bending the poles of our rooftop tent and setting the Land Rover rocking. Turkana is a compelling destination, one of the wildest, most remote places in East Africa, a place of awesome beauty and bewildering contrasts. It's a hell of a place to be. Copyright 1999 by Tony Weaver.