A Company Town
On the shore of Lake Magadi is the town that exists due to the presence of the Magadi Soda Company. You have to check in at the guard station to enter, where you essentially state your business (tourist, traveling to Shompole, visiting the Hot Springs etc...) and they’ll check your car (for what I’m not sure, but they never had a problem with us taking rocks or water samples...). Resources are limited in Magadi, and I don’t believe there are any tourist hotels. There are however several clubs that have a limited selection of food (I tried the fried chicken and chips, aka french fries, at the Flamingo Club which was pretty good, bear in mind I was VERY hungry at the time) and amazingly cheap drinks. Like, 70 ksh for 500mL of beer. My favorite, which we called the Maasai bar, is located on Duka Hill Rd and has a community swimming pool (which is open to residents only). They have a large thatched roof with open air seating which often gets a refreshing breeze. And they didn’t seem to mind us bringing our own picnic lunches with us, but we always bought drinks and tipped well.
There is a gas station in town if you need it, and they can repair tires and the like.
You need permission from the company to drive on their salt pond roads, however no permission is required to drive on the causeway across the lake (just heed their warning that driving on the trona is dangerous and they will not help recover your car if you get stuck)
This is a shelter found next to the golf course on the way to the Hot Springs. Before we found the Maasai Bar, we’d picnic here.
1° 55.846 S
36° 16.999 E
UTM: -9786349.3
197757.00
A: Guard gate where you state your business and sign your name.
B: (blue building) Magadi Co offices
C: (red ‘X’) Guard gate for the work area. Here you need specific business with a specific person to get in-
D) (blue building) Office buildings behind the Work Area gates, where the staff scientists work.
E) Gas station
F) ‘Maasai Bar’, limited menu, beer, soda and shaded sitting area.
F-G) Flamingo Club, but I didn’t get an Exact GPS point for it. They also have a limited food menus, beer and soda, but they also have basketball courts, pool tables and both indoor and outdoor seating.
G) Private Magadi Company club.
H) Another gate, which, during 2006, was a toll gate to get to the Hot Springs- There was a car charge plus a per person charge.
I) The Magadi Golf Course!
Note: This image is an ASTER image, which has better resolution than the Landsat, which is what was used for the other maps
Causeway
