Discovering the Mathews Range

PHOTOGRAPHY : BRIAN SIAMBI

Wendy Watta discovers that a visit to Kitich camp and a hike up the beautiful chain of mountains in the Mathews Range is hardly complete without rope swinging like Tarzan into an icy rock pool.

For the fifth time this afternoon, a hitchhiker flags down our Land Rover Defender. This time it is a warden in green uniform with a stubborn white goat tethered to a short rope, and if it were entirely up to me, this is where I would have drawn the line and driven on. Brian, who is currently behind the wheel, however stops to let him into the back. So far we have picked up everyone from school kids, village elders, a pregnant woman and more. We are en route to Kitich Camp in the Mathews Range, a place so remote that there is neither network connection nor radio reception. Detailed directions from camp manager Emma Hedges are printed out on a piece of paper, and with no Google Maps for reassurance, these hitchhiking locals not only regale us with stories about their community but also confirm that we are indeed on the right road. The warden’s goat later pees all over our luggage.

After successfully maneuvering the car out of a natural ditch, we continue up the dusty underdeveloped road and the vast brown earth dotted by vegetation unusually green from the recent bouts of rains gives way to a colourful and vibrant Lolkuniyani market. It is market day, otherwise the place often looks eerily deserted, as we soon found out on our way back. A dry river bed, a shallow flowing river and several potholes later, the printed directions indicate that we are currently driving through the set of the White Maasai movie, but all we see are sparsely spread buildings.

“Are we close to the Mathews Range?” we stop to ask a group of shepherds who thankfully speak Swahili. They have no idea where that is, and I know I am about to nose dive into yet another European-whodiscovered-Kenya narrative. Turns out this beautiful chain of mountains which are 150 km long and stretch north to south are named after Sir Lloyd Mathews, a Welshman born in 1850, who joined the navy and went up the ranks, ultimately being knighted and appointed His Highness’ First Minister before dying of malaria in Zanzibar in 1901. Given his rank and the notion that his assistance was key for any mission into the mainland, a Count called Samuel Teleki who was on a Northern Kenya expedition named the range after Sir Mathews.

NOMAD MAGAZINE JULY/AUGUST 2018