A Trip to the Pool of Salt - Lake Magadi

My first visit to Lake Magadi will forever remain etched in my mind. The day started with all the child enthusiasm and excitement of a trip to anywhere, especially an exotic sounding place one hadn’t been to. To make it even more special we would be travelling by train.

Being in Kajiado was exciting enough. For me the desert–like environment was pure delight. I loved the vegetation; the short shrubs, umbrella trees, grassland everywhere, cactus, thorny bushes etc. But what I loved best was the endless sight of pure sand, sparkling in the perpetual sunshine. Having sand for soil, so clean, so white; no mud even at the slim chance of rain. Besides, the town and its environs was so sparsely populated that once you left the town centre, you were lucky if you met someone for miles. The expanse was divinely quiet and serene, with the occasional breeze bringing with it poetic whispers.

Of course, the Maasai, especially the Morans, could be seen here and there going about their purposeful walk to some place and women carrying jerrycans looking for water, while others carried traditional gourds full of milk for sale. I loved their milk, especially goat milk. It was so rich, so tasty.

Being such a virgin land, most travel was by foot, and unless you were travelling to a place near the road or railway station, walking was your best bet. It was always fun when dad took the whole family to visit so and so and we would take the refreshing walk while feasting our eyes on antelopes, gazelles and giraffes along the way. Luckily we never encountered any ferocious beast.

So when time came for us to travel to Magadi, the salt producing Kenyan lake, I was thrilled. Magadi Soda, we called it, due to its vast deposits and production of soda ash. And the journey did not disappoint. The train snaked its way along the rail, carrying various kinds of travellers, including those on a mission to fetch water from Lake Magadi – so dry was the Kajiado countryside. Fancy having to board a train to collect water!

The vast grassland revealed all manner of wildlife including buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests and the like. There was not a dull moment along the way.

Magadi itself was a sight to behold. We made the trip during the time when the water was condensing into salt, and the lake made a beautiful white ring (brownish in some places) along the town on its shores. A salt factory took over the industrial activity of the town, naturally.

But there was something else – a horrible stench that reached my nostrils with such vengeance I ceased to see or enjoy anything else hence. Dad explained it was the wettish salt, and that once it dried it wouldn’t smell so bad. Only that wouldn’t happen during this trip. I was stuck with the smell for today, thank you very much.

Add to the stench the unforgiving sun that blazed fiercely, and for me the visit was ruined before it began - the enthusiasm of that morning all but gone…. No amount of goodies, chilled water or drinks could cheer me up or take away the feelings of nausea and discomfort. While the others enjoyed their ice cream and everything else, I couldn’t bring myself to taste anything. Can’t they smell this? I wondered. But why engage others in my misery? At least someone was having fun…

For me the visit couldn’t be over soon enough. But dad did not bring us this far only to turn back without any adventure because of my qualms. The visit would run its course. Furthermore the train could only leave at a certain time. There was no place to hide, this small town existed primarily because of the lake and the stench was everywhere. So I brazed myself and bore my misery till it was time to return.

I don’t know how Magadi is like when there is no stench, but I’m sure it’s divine. For, besides that inconvenience, it sparkled pure white, from the lake to the sandy earth, bathed in sunshine like the rest of this region. No doubt a lot has changed since that visit. I’m sure your trip there will be jollier than mine.

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