Lake Magadi offers more than soda ash

Tourists enjoy the healing properties of the Magadi hot springs.

I have never held locomotives in high regard. My last trip on a train was a lunatic experience, literally. The engine broke down and I had to use alternative means to my destination.

Thus, it was with a pinch of salt that I boarded a train to what would be a salty destination, Magadi town, the filming location for Fernando Meirelles’s film The Constant Gardener. Although in the film the shots are supposed to be at Lake Turkana, they are actually at Lake Magadi.

My visit to the town which is located southwest of Nairobi was also sabbatical of sorts given that my primary school teachers said the area produces soda ash, which is one of Kenya’s most important export commodities.

The lake is also the source of salt. My teachers did not mention that Magadi town is one the most scenic retreats in the country.

The road to this otherwise wonderful place is horrible, and makes the two-hour drive feel like an unending nightmare.

To avoid the nightmare, I, together with like-minded travellers decided to travel by train on a trip organised by Lake Magadi Adventures, the touristic arm of Tata Chemicals Magadi which is Africa’s largest soda ash manufacturer and the second largest producer of soda ash in the world.

Joining in the trip was the honorary secretary to Nature Kenya and birder extraordinaire Fleur Ng’weno and her daughters, Amolo and Bettina.

After bus transfer from the capital, we boarded the train at Kajiado to the wonderful lands of Lake Magadi.

An earlier visitor described the passenger cars thus: “the cars are a time capsule of the 1920s: straight-backed bench seats, sturdy windows that pull up to open or push down to close, held fast with worn steel pins that springs once made easy.”

The uneventful ride occasioned by several stops to savour the ever-changing scenery and wildlife took approximately four hours.

We checked in at the Magadi Sports Club and Lake Magadi Tented Camp, which are stuck stark in the middle of a stunning albeit scorching wilderness.

Tata Chemicals Magadi owns more than 220,000 hectares and the resourceful Lake Magadi is in the heart of this chunk of land. The township is actually an island inside the salty lake and it is accessed by road and rail via causeways.

There are several alkaline lakes in Kenya: Lakes Bogoria, Natron, and Magadi, which are all similar to one another.

Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Rift Valley. The saline-alkaline 32-kilometres long and three-kilometre wide lake is the most mineral-rich of the soda lakes.

It occupies the lowest level of the vast Rift trough and its bed consists almost entirely of solid or semisolid soda. It acts as a sink for seasonal streams. The geography and geology of Lake Magadi is such that it is among the few places on earth where trona (a naturally occurring mineral that contains sodium carbonate compounds) can be found at the surface.

Magadi’s high temperatures and long sunny days cause the solution to evaporate, leaving behind a rich concentrate which gives rise to more trona. Thus, the trona deposit in Lake Magadi is constantly renewing itself, naturally.

Rainfall in and around the Rift Valley drains underground and is heated. The hot water dissolves chemical compounds of sodium that occur in the underground rock strata and the solution comes to the surface in the form of hot, mildly alkaline springs which can be found all around the edge of the lake.

This natural basin on the ground with bubbling hot waters was our highlight after sundown as we bathed off Mother Nature’s healing springs.

It is, unfortunately, too hot to venture out during the day. The water is believed to have medicinal value and can cure ailments such as skin rashes, pimples and acne. It  can also eliminate dry skin conditions and also helps in strengthening the bones. After a few hour’s worth of massage, I can attest to this.

Lake Magadi is a popular destination for many wild animals as it is situated between Masai Mara and Amboseli National Parks. However, very few animals actually have any contact with, or live in, the lake itself.

Game that can be encountered include giraffes, wildebeests, Somali Ostrich, Beisa Oryx, Zebra, long necked antelopes, the Gerenuk. Other wild animals which are rarely seen during the day include the hyenas, lions and elephants in the Shompole conservancy.

The lake is, however, a popular destination for wading birds such as flamingos, heron, pelicans, and spoonbills.

The birds congregate in streams of fresh water that run into the lake because the water brings in large amounts of different foods.

Bird Rock, a place where birds congregate each morning only for felines to fell them is one vantage point to make sightings.

Fleur, who coordinates regular morning bird walks was kind enough to share her sightings.

There is only one species of fish that can be found in the lake itself. Tilapia grahami, a type of small tilapia, have adapted to living in the harsh conditions, and are normally found in the lagoons on the lake’s periphery.

When the algae is in full bloom, the waters of Lake Magadi run red. This incredible sight was amplified by an exploration of little Magadi, a detached part of the main lake.

On our way back, we went through Kamukuru Centre with its evergreen mathenge trees; to Esonurura which has several iron sheet kiosks, and rushed past Ole Tepesi market that opened up to other attraction of Mt Olorgesailie and the intriguing 50-acre archaeological site on Magadi Road.

World renowned as the “factory of stone tools” it  has a number of Acheulean hand axes and the largest stone tools.

At the museum, one can take a walk to see the actual site and the items that were discovered here.

Birds at bird rock and hot springs, Magadi

Ducks & geese

Egyptian Geese

Cape Teal

Flamingoes

Lesser Flamingo

Storks

Yellow-billed Stork

Marabou Stork

Ibises & spoonbills

African Spoonbill

Herons & egrets

Great White Egret

Little Egret

Pelicans

Great White Pelican

Pink-backed Pelican

Stilts & avocet

Black-winged Stilt

Pied Avocet

Plovers

Blacksmith Plover

Chestnut-banded Plover

Sandpipers & relatives

Common Greenshank

Little Stint

Ruff

(there were several other sandpiper species, but it was too dark for identification)

Birds of Magadi Sports Club and nearby tented camp

Falcons

Lanner Falcon

Pigeons & doves

Speckled Pigeon

African Mourning Dove

Namaqua Dove

Nightjars

Slender-tailed Nightjar  (heard at night)

Mousebirds

Blue-naped Mousebird

Barbets & tinkerbirds

Black-throated Barbet

Larks

Fischer’s Sparrow Lark

Bulbuls

Common Bulbul

Chats, wheatears & flycatchers

Spotted (Morning) Palm Thrush

African Grey Flycatcher

Sparrows & petronias

House Sparrow

Chestnut Sparrow

Yellow-spotted Petronia

Weavers & relatives

Red-billed Quelea

Large birds seen on visit to Little Magadi     

Ostrich

Ostrich

Flamingoes

Lesser Flamingo

Falcons

Lanner Falcon

Bustards

Kori Bustard

Barbets

Red-and-yellow Barbet

Observed by Fleur Ng’weno, 22-23 August

Names from Checklist of the Birds of Kenya, 4^th Ed, East Africa Natural History Society, 2009.