Lake Magadi: Indeed "the world is wilder in all directions, dangerous and bitter, extravagant and bright"

It is a pity indeed to travel and not get this essential sense of landscape values. 

You do not need a sixth sense for it.

It is there if you just close your eyes and breathe softly through your nose. 

You will hear the whispered message, for all landscapes ask the same question in the same whisper.

'I am watching you -- are you watching yourself in me?' 

Most travelers hurry too much but the great thing is to try and travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, 

and not too much factual information. 

To tune in, without reverence, idly -- but with real inward attention. 

It is to be had for the feeling; you can extract the essence of a place once you know how. 

If you just get as still as a needle, you'll be there.

~ Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), Spirit of Place: Mediterranean Writings

Fredrick, my friend and favorite boda boda driver, standing next to a termite mound

Fredrick chatted with Kuntai. Sadly his responsibility was herding the family's livestock... instead of attending school. 

This river was like an oasis in the midst of a stark landscape. Fredrick wants to come back again and go fishing here.

Fredrick looks through my binoculars at all the pink Flamingos on Lake Magadi

I took this shot of the Flamingos through my binoculars

Such amazing colors on the lake!

Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including Flamingos.

Lake Magadi, a saline and alkaline lake lying in a basin, is just over 1,000 square feet in size. The water consists of a dense sodium carbonate brine, precipitating vast quantities of the mineral trona. In some places, the salt is up to 130 feet thick. The lake is recharged mainly by saline hot springs, with temperatures up to 190°F, that discharge into alkaline lagoons around the lake margins. There is little surface runoff in this arid region. During the rainy season, a thin (less than 3 feet) layer of brine covers much of the saline pan, but this evaporates rapidly leaving a vast expanse of white salt that cracks to produce large polygons.

A single species of fish (cichlid Alcolapia grahami) inhabits the hot, highly alkaline waters of this lake basin and is commonly seen in some of the hot spring pools around the shoreline, where the water temperature is 110°F.

A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape.

~ Rebecca Solnit (1961- ), Wanderlust: A History of Walking

You can see part of the Magadi Soda factory on the left, plus more birds on the lake

Magadi town is home to the Magadi Soda factory, owned by Tata India since December 2005. The factory produces soda ash, which has a range of industrial uses. 95% of the soda ash is exported, mostly to India and other parts of Asia. It's used as an ingredient in the manufacture of dyes, coloring agents, synthetic detergents, fertilizers, pulp/paper, and glass.

Magadi is Kenya’s only privately owned town where a company virtually owns, runs, and regulates the social and political lives of its approximately 1,000 residents. The town hospital, both the primary and secondary schools, the roads and streets, police station, gas station, and all the eateries are properties of the company. Tata Chemi­cals Company is Africa’s largest soda ash manufacturer and one of Kenya’s leading exporters.

The lake was featured in Fernando Meirelles's 2005 film, The Constant Gardener, which is based on a book by John le Carré. In the film, the shots are supposed to be at Lake Turkana.

The world is wilder in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright.

Go up into the gaps. If you can find them, they shift and vanish too. 

Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn and unlock a universe. 

This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. 

Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.

~ Annie Dillard (1945- ), Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Weaver bird nests, with the opening underneath

I gave these Maasai children some of my homemade cookies, a nice snack as they headed home from school

Photo at Kona Baridi, when we were almost home from our 8.5-hour adventure

There are women to whom nature has granted the gift of silent emotion, 

with the charm of perfect simplicity and truth.

- Sarah Doudney (1841-1926), English novelist

Many are shocked that I rode on the back of a motorbike 60 miles / two hours each way, especially to such a hot place. But I love the sun on my back and the wind in my face! Every day, year-round, the temperature at Magadi hits 90°F by 11am and usually stays at 95-100 all afternoon. (Contrast that to Ngong town's highs rarely reaching over 82°F.)

As Fredrick and I neared the lake and town on his bike, we both suddenly felt the heat at the same time. I live at 6,400 feet at Ngong town. Kona Baridi, where the elevation is 6,660 feet, is 9 miles from my house. From there, the descent is rapid. Eventually we dropped 4,500 feet in less than 50 miles - - down to Magadi's elevation of 1,950 feet. Magadi is the lowest point in East Africa's Rift Valley.

My Mom often reminds me that as a young child, I would say, "Gotta see. All the time gotta see." And that's exactly how I still am at 63; I want to see things with my own eyes! I had tried to reach Lake Magadi three times in the past few years, only to be foiled each and every time by different reasons. Fredrick and I talked about and planned this trip for a long time... and at long last, it happened. 

Wanderlust = a strong desire or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world