Strolling through prehistory in Nandi County

20 million years ago, the ancestors of the modern apes swung around the forested plains and valleys of the Kavirondo area in western Kenya.

“The fossils were buried under ash when Tinderet erupted,” states Micah Ogembo, the man in charge of Songhor Prehistoric Site in the midst of sugarcane fields, tea and coffee. The horizon is lined by the Nandi Hills and in the far end, Tinderet the volcano. The fiery lava from the wizened volcano gorged out two gulleys and buried whatever was around – like the mammals, reptiles and vegetation.

So far, since excavation began in 1932 by the famous fossil finder, the late Louis Leakey, there are some 236 fossils unearthed which include 63 of the hominoids and the pithecus (ape-like).

Ogembo leads the way along narrow paths to the sites excavated picking up tiny fossils of dikdiks and snakes for people to see. The ape fossils reveal the species that lived here before Homo sapiens stepped in around 250,000 years ago – that’s how recent we are compared to the site we are on. Yet within no time we’ve altered landscapes to change the climate and cause a global crisis.

“The site takes us to the Kenyan Miocene era,” continues the fossil expert. Standing atop a short hill, he talks about the ape ancestors found on site like the Progalogan, the Koiteopithcus, Proconsul africanus and Thangwapithecus,

Chatting under the shade of a stoic fig tree, the white settlers arrived in the area in 1900 – first with the Uganda Railway that is today’s Kenya railways. The vast uncultivated land was a magnet for introducing modern agriculture with sugarcane, tea and coffee taking root.

A few kilometres away, but this time on a hill, we’re at Fort Ternan Prehistoric Site overlooking the tiny town of Fort Ternan named after the railway engineer who engineered the 1903 tunnel through the hill and the then longest steel bridge in East Africa. The bridge’s been overtaken by many longer bridges since. Major Ternan was killed in 1904 during a Nandi rebellion led by Koitalel arap Samoei, the community upset that their land was being grabbed for the iron snake.

The site is the only-known home of the Kenyapithecus wickerii, excavated by Louis and Mary Leakey between 1958 and 1961. The Leakey team also unearthed remains of a four-tusked woolly elephant and a short version of a rhino dating 10 million years ago.

“The woolly elephant means that it was very cold,” tells John Langat the guide as he leads us higher up the hill where the fossils of the elephant, rhino and the ancient ape were found. “The Kenyapithecus is a cro-magnum,” explains Langat. “The same homonin like the Kenyapithceus is the Ramapithecus found in India.”  The Indian version was found in New Delhi, the mega-city of millions of Homo sapiens today.

Stepping inside a simple room that serves as a safe place for the fossils, Langat points to the elephant bone fossil, a rhino tooth and shells found on site.

“The fossilized shells mean that the lake was much higher then,” continues our guide who is actually the guard at the prehistoric site. At this point we are about 50 kilometres from Lake Victoria, which boggles the mind.

From our vantage point on the hill, Langat points to the cairn that is the burial site of the Nandi warriors killed during a battle resisting the white people building the railway on their land. The metal bridge shimmering in the distance was constructed at the time in 1903 as was the tunnel for the steam locomotives.

The rest of the day is spent sight-seeing in Fort Ternan with Langat like crawling into the Colonial Cave that was an armoury built by the white settlers in 1939 to safeguard their weapons; walking through the train tunnel built through a nearby hill with notches hollowed out on the sides of the walls for pedestrians to step aside and be safe from the train passing by. “The person cannot hear the train standing here because the noise is absorbed by the walls,” tells Langat.

Then it’s off to the 1903 metal bridge standing on towering columns, its length painted on it – 268.4 metres. Stepping on to it, we walk along the pedestrian’s pavement to the opposite end and back. By today’s standard, it’s a fraction of the 2,785-metre-long Athi Super Bridge constructed in 2015 on the standard gauge railway. 

The Sereng River on its way to Lake Victoria looks like thin stream from this height. It’s a breath-taking half-kilometre walk overlooking the hills and valleys of Fort Ternan.

Our last surprise of the day is the hot water springs in a forest glade for bathing on River Lulu.

Fact File 

Fort Ternan is 50 kms from Kisumu and the same from Kericho. It’s sugar-cane, tea and coffee area. Buy the freshly ground coffee in town from the nearby Kipkelion coffee mill. Stay at Kweisos House, Nandi Bears Club or at the budget-friendly hotels.

If you can, explore the country by rail, hopping on and off at the stations en route.     BY DAILY NATION