Summer 2018

On August 5, 2018 by keirobyn

[August 2018]  We had a busy summer, in a good way.  Zoë and I did a trip to western Turkana.  Then, we all had a 4 day stop in Dublin.  A month in Madison, mixed with trips to Detroit, Minneapolis, and Glacier National Park.  Finally, another trip to northern Kenya including a quick trip to eastern Turkana.  Fun!

On our way back to the US, we stopped for 4 days in Dublin.  Our first time to Ireland.  We got an airbnb right in the middle of Dublin, which was great.  The stopover was included in the flight price,  which was great!

Zoë and I took the train from Wisconsin to Glacier National Park and spent a week hiking and camping in the backcountry.  Beautiful!

Notes about hiking in Glacier:

  • You don’t really need a car when you get there, if you are ok with hitchhiking, which seems common in the area.
  • Half the campsites are available to book far in advance (starting March?) and half are only available from the permit office 24 hours in advance.  Unless you know exactly what you want to do, it’s probably best to just get them 24 hours in advance so you can find out about the trails and camps that are closed due to snow or grizzlies.
  • The very end of July is probably best.  When we left on July 20th, it was warm, but some passes were still closed due to snow. We were told that the fires start in August, so the very end of July is the sweet spot.
  • There is a public campground outside the gate in West Glacier which is very convenient.
  • maps.me seems to have most of the trails in the park.

After returning to Kenya, we headed up north for a week, to Namunyak Reserve (north of Samburu).  The weather was relatively moderate, so we also visited the western side of Lake Turkana.  Because Turkana is normally so hot, Robyn had never been and was keen to visit.

Getting out of our first campsite in the Kitsch area of Namunyak.

Notes about Namunyak and Loiyangalani:

  • We mostly used the Kenyan Camper’s blog post for information about Namunyak (https://thekenyancamper.com/2017/02/15/namunyak-conservancy-mathews-ranges-samburu-kenya/)  It’s very helpful, but a few items are worth clairifying.  As far as I can tell, there is no set ‘Kitisch or Debrazza’ campsite in Namunyak.  The rangers we were with took us to a different Kitsch campsite (which about destroyed our car to get into and was completely grown over, though still in a nice spot).  They did not seem to be aware of any semi-established deBrazza campsite with drop pit toilets or anything else.  In any case, they said the road to see the deBrazza monkeys was not passable, so that is worth checking on before you go.
  • Regarding the Kitisch area, I think the best place to camp is 1km past the high end Kitsch Camp (which is in both google maps and maps.me).  They have a great spot on the river.  However, you can only use it if they do not have guests.  It was rather expensive (3000 KES pp?), but worth it and somewhat negotiable.  I’d suggest calling the camp.
  • The Namunyak Tourist reps mentioned a campsite called Oldonyo Uasin, which supposedly is very beautiful, on a river and has shade.  It was booked when we were there.
  • The Northern Rangeland Trust (which covers Namunyak) number is 0701 295 357.
  • In South Horr, the Samburu Sports Camp (not the exact name) is a good place for both camping and rooms.  It also seems to have the only fuel pump in the area, though it does not always have fuel.
  • For me, the best place to camp in Loiyangalani is Palm Shade Camp.  They have good grass to camp on and sufficient shade.

A couple of other pictures from the summer.

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