Baragoi marks the end of the forbidding Elbarta plains, as the road now climbs into ravine and mountain country, fantastically green if there's been rain. Some 30km from Baragoi, a track to the left towards Nyiru, signed by a red gas cylinder, leads to Desert Rose Camel Safaris, which organizes luxury camel treks of six days or more in the surrounding luggas and hills and up to Lake Turkana, with vehicle back-up and two nights at their Desert Rose Lodge (FB over Ksh16,000/$215).

 

There's a positive jungle all year round at the oasis village of SOUTH HORR ( horr means "flowing water"), wedged tightly between the Nyiru and Ol Doinyo Mara mountains. With its pleasantly somnolent atmosphere, ample shade and relaxed herders lounging under the trees, it's a great place to bunk down for a night or three, and making friends is easy despite the language barrier. There are a few cheap hotelis and cold drinks at Nhiro Serima Bar , but only rarely beer. If you stay the night, you've a choice of half a dozen basic B&Ls (all under Ksh500). There's good, dirt-cheap camping at the Forest Department Campsite , located up a rough trail to the left of the road a kilometre before South Horr. Facilities consist of long-drops, an askari , and a river for drinking water, bathing and washing the dust out of your clothes. This site, a short walk from South Horr village where most vehicles stop, is a good base for meeting up with supply or mission vehicles in hopes of a lift north.

Well worth a visit in the village itself is SALTLICK (Semi-Arid Lands Training and Livestock Improvement Centres Kenya), which concerns itself with supporting the local pastoralist Samburu communities via honey-production projects and cash-crop experiments involving the Senegalese acacia gum tree; it's a mine of information on Samburu culture. For a more intimate experience, you might try asking about the camel market which is held on occasions a few kilometres south of the village at a roadside well.