Visit Nyangatom Ethiopia for Warrior Nomad Trail

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Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia
20th – 30th December 2022

The Overlanding truck used to move from Moroto in Uganda to Kangaten to Ethiopia
Team Members: Lokutae Brian
Ichumar Peter

Summery:

The Ateker peace Caravan is an initiative that was started by a group of Youth from Karamoja in Uganda, Turkana in Kenya, Nyangatom in Ethiopia and Topasa in South Sudan in the year 2018 to promote Peace through exchange visits to these various regions and conducting activities like Community dialodges, traditional performances and other active engagements like sports with the major of connecting these people since they shared similar culture and all belonging to the Ateker culster

The Ateker Peace Caravan attracted the attention of Kara-tunga since its vision and mission perfectly merged with those of Kara-tunga to promote Peace and tourism by connecting these less visited part of the world to the rest through its initiative of the Nomad Warrior Trail and in 2021 Kara-tunga participated in the Caravan to visit the Toposa and Jiye of South Sudan.

In 2022 Kara-tunga participated too in the Caravan that was aimed at going to Ethiopia through Turkana land in Kenya to visit the Nyangatom.

ITINERARY

20th Dec 2022
The whole group met at Karamoja Safari Camp for a briefing on the expectations and also get to know each other. The Overlanding truck also arrived on the same day from Jinja. It is advisable to exchange all the Ugandan currency to Kenyan currency or preferably deposit it to a VISA account to be withdrawn in Kenyan current using an ATM in Kenya.

21th Dec 2022
The team was flagged off by the Moroto RDC at 9am to head to Lodwar in Kenya covering a distance of about 250km through Lokitanyala border crossing and Lorengkipi.
The drive was 5 and a half hours through the some ragged dirt road crossing various dry river beds. The road was also passing the rift valley sloping all the way to the hot Turkana landscape.
The group spent the night in Lodwar club camping in tents in the sandy compound of the facility at no fee due to the earlier negotiation with the owner but usually they charge a camping fee of Ksh 500. Lodwar club has no accommodation facilities in case one wants to upgrade but has a bar and restaurant for any food and drinks.
Lodwar is very much developed town and you can get all the necessary services and goods there.

22nd Dec 2022
The team had an early morning briefing from the Caravan team leader to get ready for the 450km journey to Kangaten, Ethiopia together with other Caravan participants from South Sudan in a convoy.
The Team was delayed by the Turkana County governor who was supposed to flag of the entire teams from Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan.
The team departed Lodwar at 2pm through Kalokol which is an ideal birding destination. The road is dirt and sandy for about 100km along the shores of Lake Turkana which is the world’s largest desert lake.
After covering a distance of about 200km, it was dark and we opted to spend the night at Lokitaung (Lucky town) which was one of the Italian bases when trying colonize Ethiopia.
Just before Lokitaung, the truck got its first puncture luckly there were 2 spare tires aboard.
We spent the night at Burundi Glabra guest house with accommodation, bar and restaurant facilities. They offered single rooms at Ksh 1000, doubles at Ksh 1500, twin rooms at Ksh 1500 and camping at Ksh 500. The rooms were budget kind but habitable in an enclosed compound. Rachael (+254705696444) was in charge of guest house as the manager.
Due to an abrupt checkin and the little man power a the guesthouse, they weren’t able to prepare dinner for the whole team which they say is done in advance so they refered us to Christine restaurant for breakfast in the morning.
The second option was St. Patrick Guest house but it was not in operation at the time. Lokitaung is a small trading center with few shops that you can get bare necessities. It is the last town you can get fuel and mineral water.

23th Dec 2022.
Breakfast was ready and served at the agreed time. There was a delay at Lokitaung because the truck had to swap few tries to new positions.
The team left Lokitaung at 9:30am heading for Kangaten which was a distance of about 250km of dirt rocky road through some centers like Kokuro, Liwan (where the remains of Turkana boy were discovered), Meyan and Kibish.
At around 2:30pm after crossing Meyan center, the truck got a second puncture in one of the dry river beds due to the heated up lose stones.
The replacement took close to 2 hours there after we departed for Kibish which was about 80km away. Kibish is a border town with barely no shops apart from a few shops that you can buy water and soda. There is a Kenyan police post also doubling as the border check point there after the next border crossing point is 15km away on the Ethiopian side called Balala. Both crossing points are not well developed immigration points so don’t expect to stamp in and out on the passport.
After Balala the road is dirt for about 10km where you will meet a well paved tarmac road for about 30km all the way to Kangaten.
On arrival to Kangaten at around 8pm, there was an arranged ground for camping where we set camp. Dinner was prepared at Yeshi Hotel which is the only accommodation facility in Kangaten. The facility has a bar and restaurant with commonly Angera being served which is a traditional Ethiopian delicacy.

24th Dec 2022.
The Ateker Peace Caravan organizing committee provided breakfast and lunch for all the days. A dialodge was organized at the camping ground to gather and bring together all the Ateker cluster members. Different performances from some of the groups were show cased and also speeches from the elders and organizers.

25th Dec 2022.
After breakfast the team headed for a traditional Nyangatom homestead will others went to church to celebrate Christmas day in the morning hours and football matches were organized for the afternoon part of the day by the organizers for the different groups of people from the different countries to verse each other.

26th Dec 2022
The first half of the day was occupied by the Akiriket ceremony spear headed by the Nyangatom elders and co-headed by other elders from Karamoja, Turkana, Toposa and Lango were all the Sub-tribes in Karamoja were each offered a burnt oxen.
After the Akiriket, the groups moved to some tourism sites. One of the sites was an irrigation farms along the Omo River that grows vegetables like onions, greens, green paper and tomatoes and is run by the government. The other site that was visited was a hot spring.

The team had a defrief of the past days and brain stormed on the depature time which was agreed for 3am and waking up at 2am to dismantle the camp since the truck didn’t have any spare tires on board so as to cover enough distance before the lose stones on the roads and river beds heat up and puncture the tires.

27th Dec 2022
The team departed Kangaten at 3am to hit the road for Lodwar in one single attempt. At around 5am after covering an average of about 100km the truck got a puncture in one of the front tires just on the outcast of the Ilemi triangle. The overland driver rode on a boda to Lobul which has a catholic mission in the hopes of getting one of the punctures tires fixed but all in vain.
The team members spent the whole day hanging around the truck and interacting with locals passing by.
After many hours of coordination, tires were ordered at 2pm all the way from Lodwar which arrived to the truck’s location at 8pm on a Landcruiser with the mechanics. It took them an hour to fix all the tires and the truck was good to go by 9pm.
We drove for about 2 hours to Kokuro and looked out for a safe place to camp for the night. We spent a night at the police post where we were welcomed and given water to bath and cook by the police officers.

28th Dec 2022
After breakfast the team departed Kokuro at 9am for Lodwar through the sandy dirt road along Lake Turkana. There was a brief stop at Kalokol for refreshments and visit to the beach and fisher men villages along the lake.
At 4pm the group successfully arrived Lodwar town where the truck broke down with a mechanical fault in the gear box.

29th Dec 2022
The team organized to have a town visit of Lodwar including the statue of Christ the Redeemer located on one of the hills overlooking Lodwar as the mechanical error in the gear box is fixed.

30th Dec 2022
The team departed Lodwar using Land cruisers from SAPCON which is one of the organizing and supporting organizations to the Ateker Peace Caravan Kangaten Chapter based in Lodwar. Because of the rising concerns from some of the team players to head back home and seeing that the truck was taking long to be fixed decided to ask support to transport the team back home to Uganda.

CONCLUTIONS
The over roll trip was a success where the final destination was reached and back
Most of the attractions are not developed and need more scrutiny to dig out more information.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The truck has to carry more spare tire in such long trips.
The journey from Lodwar to Kangaten should be cut into two days to avoid traveling during the hot hours of the day and prevent tire punctures

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