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THE ULTIMATE A-Z DESTINATION GUIDE


ASTAnetwork’s website features a collection of destination features, insightful reports and enthralling travel blogs...


SNEAK PEEK


Kenya: walking the Trans Rift Trail


Ben Lerwill traverses Kenya’s Great Rift Valley the hard way On the third night, we sleep under the


stars, close to a river. Te evening is cool but comfortable, far removed from the thumping heat of the daytime. We’re flanked on both sides by green wooded hills, and when we arrive for the evening, local villagers approach us; friendly but curious to know what we’re doing. When I lie down, I listen to the drift of the current until it becomes white noise. It feels good to lie back and stare up at the night sky. I’m not yet halfway through the week’s walk, but my legs are tired. It’s taking


58 | asta.org


us a full seven days to trek from one side of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley to the other, but traveling any faster would seem wrong. Tis is, after all, somewhere that knows all about the gradual passage of time. Te valley, which stretches all the way from the Middle East to Mozambique, was formed between eight and 30 million years ago. Close to where we’re walking, hominid skeletons have been found that date back about seven million years. It’s partly because of this that it gets called the Cradle of Humankind.


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