Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site

Forget ancient ruins, Olorgesailie is deep in earth time. About 67 km southwest of Nairobi, through Karen and Ngong and down the escarpment on Magadi Road, it's a multi-layered anthro-paleo-geological wonderland, with over a million years of human history.

While I was there the campsite was converted into a field lab by a Smithsonian archeologist who was researching the dietary habits of the early humans who wandered this landscape, which goes back to 1.3 million years!! ... namely, homo erectus, and later, the you and me's of modern humans, homo sapiens. What's been left behind by the erectus were an (unknown) thousands of hand tools: handaxes and other prehistoric gadgets, most of them in situ for visitors to see today. Around 320,000 years ago, home slice sapiens moved in, and the tools, stones, and modern ways of people began an new era of inter-group trade and more diversified toolkits. In 21st Century Kenya, this land is part of the vast region of Maasailand. What a gem!

Mt. Olorgesailie, an ancient, extinct volcano last active 3 million years ago. It's eruptions of alkaline volcanic ash, along the same from Mt Longonot and Mt Suswa, are credited with preserving the hominin tools and fossils found here today. The mountain holds cultural significance for the Maasai, once a place for gatherings of area and distant village elders. For hikers, there's a trail to the top, about a three hour ascend and descend.

Where we camped is below the museum site - which is a fine museum, btw - by a dusty foot track by roughly 300 meters, ... just far enough away from the electrified musuem to make it feel like sticks-and-stones camping, but close enough to walk to the museum for a morning tour of the site and use the dug-out loo in between. It was 600 KES for the night, and if you so desire, and play it right, you can camp outside the 'developed' area around the museum (where the official campsite is) where there are a few bandas and permanent structures for staff. If you want to call someone and ask question, call Jeremiah, 0796543459.

After a night of fire and stars, we took a tour at the museum led by a national museums guide from Meru, a good chap. The circle walk is about 40-50 minutes.

After the tour, I bought some Maasai beads from the lovely ladies outside the museum and meandered back to the camp spot, packed up, and drove back up Magadi Road to Olipolos for lunch, about 35 minutes away. By evening we set the tent up again at Bunduz camp for a night of stargazing with the crew from The Travelling Telescope, gazing at galaxies 30 million light years into the past. After standing on ground where million year old feet once tread and eyes that saw the same stars... the whole thing reminded me that time isn't a river, but a star map waiting for us to blot some ink onto it before poof... we're gone, and the dark turns over a new page for someone else. A grand weekend in Kenya... a land of endless wonder.

At Bunduz Camp with the Travelling Telescope