Lake Turkana: where life is a constant battle to survive

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 15

Lake Turkana: where life is a constant battle to survive

NZPA-AFPKoobi Fora, Kenya The area around Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya, must be one of the wildest and most inhospitable regions in the world, yet there is ample proof that human beings and their ancestors have lived there for millions of years. Traces of their existence were first discovered by accident in 1968 by Richard Leakey. They spread over an area of 1000 square km around Koobi Fora on the east shore of the lake, formerly known as Lake Rudolph. Since that first discovery, subsequent expeditions have found more than 6000 fossils, 200 of them forebears of mankind. They include the already known Australopithecus, but also what were to be dubbed Homo habilis and Homo erectus, which date back two million and 1.5 million years respectively and have given a clearer understanding of human evolution. Mr Leakey is now director of the,National Museum of Kenya, which has a permanent team working in the area. All the sites are included in the Sibiloi

National Park, which is one of the least-frequented and hardest to reach of all Kenya’s 30 parks. Situated more than 600 km north of Nairobi, on the borders with Sudan and Ethiopia, Sibiloi is not absolutely impossible to reach by road but a light aircraft is strongly recommended. “A vision of hell,” wrote the Hungarian Count Telleki von Szek, the first white man to reach the shores of the lake in 1888. He named it after the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Rudolph, who was to die in a suicide pact with his mistress two years later in the hunting lodge of Mayerling. The region is a lunar desert of solidified lava flows criss-crossing vast areas of shining sand which are swept by violent and changeable winds, carving ridges and ravines out of the low hills. The horizon is limited by the silhouettes of ancient volcanoes which seem to float in the heat haze rising from the ground. The daytime temperature rarely falls below 40 deg. and regularly exceeds 50 deg. The lake, of an unreal

green colour which has also given it the name of the Jade Sea, is crystal clear but its waters are undrinkably brackish. It is a paradise for aquatic birds, particularly pink flamingoes and pelicans which take off and land like great coloured clouds. Their cackling is the only noise to break the silence. Ibis, cranes, egrets and European birds migrating for the winter are also common. The lake teems with fish, including tilapia, tiger-fish and above all Nile perch, one of which caught at Koobi Fora set a world record of more than 110 kg. Specimens of up to 50 kg are commonplace. Hippopotamus and crocodile also inhabit the lake. Although large, they are only dwarfs compared with their prehistoric ancestors: one fossil lizard jaw found at Koobie Fora came from an animal more than 10m long. Other reptiles and insects abound, attracting naturalists from all over the world. As well as spiders and scorpions, the area is home to some of the deadliest snakes in the world, including

horned vipers and mambas, whose poison has no known antidote, and cobras, which killed two American scientists in the 19705. In the middle of this wasteland, the park of Sibiloi covers an area where life is not totally impossible for man. And yet Its only vegetation is scattered tufts of grass parched by drought ana spiny bushes devoid of leaves whose species is unknown. One expert said, “They have to be seen flowering to be identified properly, out that happens rarely and as yet no botanist has been lucky enough to see it” Some other bushes are astonishingly green. Their spine-studded leaves have the consistency of leather, and are often deadly poisonous or anaesthetic. Hundreds of nomads, fleeing the drought have recently invaded the park with their goats, threatening to cause irreversible damage to it They have forced the wild animate to congregate on the lakeside near the Koobi Fora archaeological site. Zebras, long-necked antelopes, kudus bigger than a horse and every possible

variety of gazelle graze on ‘ the lake shore together, an ■ easy prey for the lions and ,f . leopards which have never been so well fed. Turkana is a hostile environment for men, yet the region is populated by ; nomads of different ethnic origins. Inter-communal feuding and cattle-rusfling is a tradition, but the survival of these people today . depends largely on outside aid, especially food and medical supplies provided particularly by religious missions. One people, the El-Molo, the smallest ethnic group in Kenya, are not nomads. They live at the south-east end of the 260 km long lake, fishing and hunting crocodile. Two decades ago their numbers were down to less than 100, but the arrival of food aid has saved them . from extinction. Their num- • ber has increased to several ! hundred. They have also • learnt to demand a fee from the rare tourists who visit the area and want to take ; pictures of them.