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| Wajir Airport |
Sometimes back, my colleagues & I took what I
would could call an air trip – like a road trip only that this time it was
above the ground. It was an exciting day, coz I covered quite a big chunk of
Kenya on this day. More so the larger Northern part of Kenya.
The journey started at Nanyuki, where we took off
in the De Haviland in the morning. We flew to Wajir high level. It’s always
exciting to feel the turbulence especially when going through a cloud. It is
however a calmer as compared to the Y – 12. The Buffalo is just like riding in
any other mode of transport in the sense that, you have the noisy regions, the
less noisy ones, the less turbulent ones, & since this particular one did
not have a pressurized cabin, temperature varied from a region to another.
I chose to stay at the farthest end on this day. I
am not afraid of flying. I say this because in most of the movies I have seen,
the exits always have a story to tell… at first I was seated near 3 of the
exits. The main rear exit, the side door & the emergency exit was opposite.
However, the temperatures were so low I couldn’t take it! The higher we went
the cooler it becomes. It was so real! I moved seats to a window seat just next
to the wing & I had a perfect view of the area below.
The greener regions of Laikipia are very
beautiful; the flower farms of Timau, the barley plantations & the hills
forming the base Mount Kenya are a great sight! The much there is to see in the
ASAL region in the north, are beautiful land formations, that I couldn’t
capture perfectly because I was using a poor camera, but it was a beautiful
view up there. Also the communal lands and villages were another sight to
behold. The clouds were like these beautiful bunches of cotton that you would
love to swim in or sleep on, or something of the sort…
After like 45 minutes give or take… We arrived at
Wajir Airport. Here we were hosted to cold drinks, goat meat & some chit
chat before moving on. By the way, water in Wajir is salty like crazy &
here its either you get used to it, or live on bottled water & sodas for
the rest of your stay. As for soda, the more you drink, the more dehydrated you
get & in the long run, the unhealthier you get. Wajir is a busy airport
mostly used by regional carriers, humanitarian groups, non governmental organizations,
private airplanes and the military/ government. It was a busy day and we
happened to see a few of the planes coming in and leaving.
We refueled and again got airborne. This time we
crisscrossed the north and ended up at a place called Ileret. It’s on the
Northern Eastern shores of Lake Turkana. Before we landed we circled the lake
near the border to Ethiopia and then landed on the airstrip at Ileret.
Ileret is among Kenya’s most remote regions. It is
hot & humid like crazy and most of us removed some top clothes to t-shirts.
I didn’t get much time to look around but the much I was good enough. For
starters the fish here is amazingly cheap. It goes for Ksh 30/- at the time
that was the price. Keep calm, for this fish is not the small idea of a fish
you have in mind. The size is what retails at Nairobi around Ksh 700/- &
over in an up-market meat store. Again this is not fish that is developed in a
lab & full of growth accelerating hormones like the one’s we have nowadays
in stagnant water ponds around the country. It’s sweet & natural, and it
doesn’t smell as much as the fish I have come across. So far the Lake doesn’t
have pollutants. That’s among the reasons why the fish is so good.
However, vegetables are the most expensive of
commodities here. One tomato was retailing at Ksh 25/- at the time Green
veggies are rare but they do come once in a while & at that time, there was
a shortage of Maize in the country, the 1kg packet of maize meal was retailing
at Ksh 150/-.
A colleague of mine had called in advance & we
were treated to a buffet of sorts, with Goat meat, fish, cabbage (I don’t know
where from) and Ugali. It was a tasty
meal. The sweetest of goat meat is that from goats from the arid areas… That’s
among the reasons why the likes of Ole-Polos, Kikopey & other regions surrounding
dry areas are popular meat joints.
I haven’t mentioned the catch of Ileret. My catch
that is… Bare chested women are real, and it’s not a big deal. It’s however an
insecure location but there is security from the disciplined forces deployed in
the area to maintain peace.
We then returned to our plane at the airstrip
where we took off for Nanyuki again. This time we flew low along the shores of
Lake Turkana & the much I can say about it is, I will go there again! We
then flew to Nanyuki where we refueled again and then flew low level to Nairobi
in 30 minutes give or take. It was fun.
Here are some of the photos I took. Their quality is not as good but they still okay. I am working towards getting a better camera, for better shots.
Here are some of the photos I took. Their quality is not as good but they still okay. I am working towards getting a better camera, for better shots.
NB
- Here is a business Idea. If one was to get a
refrigerated truck, ferrying vegetables to lake Turkana and bringing down fish
to Nairobi wouldn’t be such a bad idea… It’s the first idea that struck my
mind.
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| The Ground... |
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| On the ground - Wajir |
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| Deep Northern Eastern Kenya |
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| Turbulence is felt most at such a point! |
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| The Clouds |
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| The Larger Timau |
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| One of the engines that's keeping us up here |
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| Above Central Kenya |
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| Flying above Kirinyaga on the way back |
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| Above the outskirts of Nairobi |
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| Above the outskirts of Nairobi... You can See KCA top right |
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| Starting the Decent towards Eastleigh Airport. |
Hi. Same Old Drama, Different Day. This blog is about me and others, nature, life, blah blah and why everything I like is great even the hurting - still great. If you disagree with anything you find on this page, Well. . . You are probably right..
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