Above: Dry lower slopes of Mathews Range
From the archives: 6 September 2013
Published: in The East African Nation newspaper
Part 1 of 3
September 1887. Count Teleki and Captain Ludwig von Hoehnel left Ngong near what is today Nairobi to trek across northern Kenya in search of a huge lake. The local Samburu called it Empasso Narok (the black lake), Teleki renamed it Lake Rudolf in honour of his friend the Austrian prince and in independent Kenya, it became known as Lake Turkana after the people who live around it.
Enroute, Teleki diverted to Lake Baringo while Hoehnel went in search of another lake called Lorian. He didn’t find the lake but instead came across a mountain range the local Samburu called Ol-doinyo Lenkiyieu. As for Lake Lorian he learned from the hunter-gathers called the Wadorobo, there was no lake but a swamp that the Uaso Nyiro River emptied its floodwaters during the rains.
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