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Descent into the Rift Valley
December 5, 1997
Ray Chisholm
We had a long soaking rain last night. It was not like the usual downpours we have in the Kenya Long Rains which send a deluge for 15-30 minutes and then abruptly stop. I could hear the steady drumming on the tin roof of my house in Kabarnet all night long. By dawn the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing. The mountains and the forests were startling because the air was so clean and pollution free and clear. Everything in the semi-desert area had turned the brightest green I have ever seen. The air was so crisp and scrubbed that each breath seemed to help clear old cobwebs from your lungs.
Every morning I look forward to watching the sunrises over Morop Mountain as I leave my house and travel to the Kimao Dam site. Kabarnet, at 7,000 feet above sea level, is nestled on a broad plateau on the west side of the mountain range and Kimao Dam is about 2,000 feet lower on the east side, on another plateau of the Rift Valley. The dam is only about 30 kilometers north of the equator. This morning’s sunrise was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. On the distant horizon were long dark narrow clouds that were still bringing rain to Nairobi. The sun had turned their edges pink and gold and white. Overhead were high fleecy clouds that were a beautiful orange, red, pink, and lavender. They were constantly changing as the sun crept higher on the horizon.
As we crossed the mountain pass towards the dam and the small crossroads town of Marigat, one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen unfolded before me. The sun was bursting through the clouds on the horizon. About 2,000 feet below us were white fluffy banks of clouds nestled like soft fluffy cotton in the valley below. The clouds were curled around the peaks and had settled into the valleys. In the distance you could see the water of Lake Barango starting to glisten as the first rays of the sun reached its surface. I made my driver stop so I could go to the edge of the cliff and attempt to capture some of the beauty with my camera. I always regret that a camera cannot capture all of the beauty and the breadth of the sky that you can see with your eyes.
Reluctantly returning to the car we quickly descended around the hairpin turns and into the Rift Valley to the construction site. At the dam everyone seemed to be standing around in awe and quietly looking at the changes the cleansing night rains had given. As I arrived they reluctantly began to drift to their duty stations. And we began another day’s work on the dam. The dam which will store the bountiful rains during the rainy seasons and help extend the short growing season and bring drinking water to this semi-desert, beautiful area in the Rift Valley of Central Kenya.