About 560 kilometers from Nairobi, four white Toyota Land Cruisers veer off into a barren region. The cars zip over dunes as if there are jet skis on the Indian Ocean. A rock looks so natural in the space that you might swear you have seen it much earlier than that.
There is a caravan of camels crossing the sandy paths, leisurely. Welcome to the Chalbi Desert, a new wild adventure that is drawing loads of Kenyans to Marsabit.
Stephen Karanja, an ardent traveler, is one of the few travelers who have experienced the thrill of a barren region safari and chasing dunes in Kenya.
He says his hobby in desert surroundings grew due to the fatigue of conventional trips to Maasai Mara, Amboseli, and Mombasa. When he saw the possibility of going to the Chalbi Desert, he booked with African Suburbs Adventures, a tour enterprise that organizes overland tours in less-overwhelmed paths.
On the day of the experience, the group left Nairobi at 4 am and then stopped over on the equator in Nanyuki. On the stretch among Isiolo and Marsabit, they climbed atop the Ololokwe Rock from where they noticed the snow-capped height of Mt Kenya protruding from clouds earlier than sooner or later arriving at a Kenya Wildlife Service in Marsabit at around noon.
Here, they left the Overlander that had their tents, mattresses, and even cooking paraphernalia for the chef they’d introduced alongside.
They got into Land Cruisers to traverse the barren region street towards Chalabi. They wore hats, sandals, and shades because the adventure ahead turned into going to be warm and dusty.
“When you get there, the view can handiest be described as extremely good. The are many dunes, and it’s far as in case you are in any other international. Even the snapshots we took there are fantastic,” he says.
Dune racing
For years, well-heeled Kenyans traveled to Dubai to head on desolate tract safaris; however, now the tide is transferring to Marsabit, an off-the-crushed-tune vacation spot. Despite the sophistication of Dubai, Kenyans who’ve finished both wasteland safaris say they are unrivaled. Besides dune racing, in Marsabit, there may be the thrill of locating a picturesque oasis with palm trees in the center of nowhere and interacting with locals, learning their way of life.
“On the way to discover the dunes, we got a chance to meet and talk to the humans residing in the area. They even let us see their homesteads and their manyattas,” Mr. Karanja says.
Cost of travel
A journey to the Chalbi Desert costs approximately Sh25,000 to Sh90,000, depending on the range of days paid for and accommodation, while a Dubai trip includes a wilderness safari level from Sh60,000 onwards.
“I paid about Sh20,000 for three days; that is not even half of the delivery fee for Dubai,” Mr. Karanja says.
From Nairobi, the adventure to Marsabit on an overland truck takes 8 hours. After the safari, vacationers sleep in tents by way of the threshold of the desert. The subsequent day they go to Lake Paradise, which has nothing aside from wild animals that roam occasionally. Sunset is an ideal backdrop as the group sits using a campfire.
“The nice issue is that you meet human beings you’ll never begin to satisfy. You build a campfire, and it is counseled that you do not go to bed early,” Mr. Karanja says.
Game pressure
On the ultimate day of the experience, the visitors take an early morning sports flight in Lake Turkana National Park.
“You do not get to peer all the huge five-game; however, we were lucky due to the fact we trailed a lion that changed into hunting an antelope, and we took a video,” he says.
The founding father of Gadget World, an employer that deals with smartphones, evolved love for dunes and rocks while he visited Mambrui Village and Marafa Depression in Malindi.
“I got a chance to race on dunes on a dirt motorcycle. When I went swimming, the dunes were right next to the ocean. They are breathtaking. When I took photos, my friends asked me why I went to Dubai without them,” he says, including that Marafa Depression, a sandstone canyon popularly called Hell’s Kitchen, is also very lovely. In the canyon, temperatures can rise to 50 degrees Celsius.
Lamech Magaki, the founder of African Suburbs Adventures, says a wilderness safari enjoy in Marsabit is different from Dubai.
“In Marsabit, you may have a combination of the natural world and wasteland safari, which makes it very unique,” he says. So far, he has organized journeys for approximately eighty visitors, frequently locals.
“Last 12 months, we started out doing overland truck tours. We wanted human beings to find out new activities. We first commenced by taking humans to Turkana, but it became high-priced due to the lengthy distance, which meant that we had to charter planes. We decided to do Marsabit as an alternative and determined Chalabi, a destination that is gaining popularity because the county is advertising it,” says Mr. Magaki.
For an adventure safari in northern Kenya, he advises touring in February, March, April, May, November, and December. The excursion employer organizes excursions to Chalbi Desert, North Horr, Loiyangalani Desert Museum, and a swim in Lake Turkana.
“We cannot promise you a costly and clean adventure. The temperatures occasionally rise so high, and the terrain can be awful, especially after driving off the tarmac. But this is what makes it amusing,” he says.
