An eight-person team is mountain biking through Africa on an archaelogical expedition in search of the origins of man and to find out why so many of Africa's animals are disapperaing. Follow along here as they update their diary.

October 9, 1998
Web posted at 2:10 PM EDT

CENTRAL ISLAND, Kenya -- As the team archaeologist, I was less than thrilled when our online collaborators sent us to Lake Turkana's Central Island. The Island is famous for being the home of 20,000 crocodiles. Some of these crocodiles are reported to weigh 2,200 pounds and have a taste for human flesh. I should have figured that kids would vote for us to go where we'd be eaten!

On our way to visit the crocodiles, our Turkana guide took us to a fossil site where he has helped dig up fossils of our earliest ancestors. Near this spot, scientists recently found the jaw and leg bones here of a fellow called Australopithecus anamensis, which means "southern ape of the lake." This was a highlight for me, since I found four million year old fish, pig, and crocodile fossils!

After reaching the island, we climbed up to two crater lakes, watched some distant flamingos, and hiked down. Hot, tired, and a little bored, we went for a swim. Once we hit the water I spotted a big, old crocodile. It was the size of a kitchen table and floated by too close for comfort! Needless to say, my swim was over.

October 8, 1998

LODWAR, Kenya -- Sometimes it's difficult to understand how different our lives are from the lives of other people.

Take, for example, Ekomwa Ekukoit, a handsome boy who lives in a remote Turkana village in northern Kenya. For him, life is hard and food is scarce. His only possessions are a stick, sandals made out of truck tires, and a simple wool shawl. Ekomwa and his brother spend the day tending their goats. Most nights, they drink only milk before going to bed. On special nights, his mother kills a goat and they have meat for dinner. Their favorite part of eating the goat, though, is drinking the blood.

"It tastes like liquid meat," he says, smiling. "It's good."

At age ten, he's never been to school, nor does he intend to go.

"Don't you miss going to school?" I asked him.

"No. I like tending goats," Ekomwa replied. "When I grow up, I will marry, live in my village, own many cattle and be a rich man."

To marry in a traditional Turkana village, you must pay at least 50 cows to the bride's father. I ask Ekomwa where he is going to get cows to pay the marriage price.

"I will take them from the Pokot tribesmen to the south," he tells me.

This seems like stealing to me, but I know it has been a Turkana tradition for hundreds of years. Without animals, many Turkana can't live. It's a matter of survival.

Flat Tires and a Turkana Village

October 7, 1998

TURKANA DESERT, Northern Kenya -- In a fit of early expedition giddiness, we decided to bike off-road. Our path took us over rocky, sun-baked earth that is so hot that walking barefoot would give you second degree burns. It took precisely seven minutes to get our first flat tire. It took only an average of five minutes for each of the 69 flat tires thereafter.

At midday, we reached a tiny village. A tall, dark, string bean of a man wrapped in woven wool and leaning on a walking stick welcomed us into his small, domed hut. Hanging in the tangled sticks overhead were all his worldly possessions: a bull's horn for water, a wrist knife, one battered aluminum pot, and a horn for drinking camel's blood.

I thought about how different my life is from his. I barely survived a morning in this desert heat and he has lived in this scorching desert all his life with virtually nothing. Had he ever eaten a hamburger, seen a skyscraper, watched television or even heard a radio?

Day 2: African heat takes its toll

October 6, 1998

LAKE TURKANA, Kenya -- Today, here in the northern Kenyan desert near Lake Turkana, the temperature peaked at 112 degrees Fahrenheit! Our bodies have had some difficulty adjusting to the heat and dryness. People who live here, the lean Turkana who wear "modified mohawks" and light cotton clothing (if any clothing at all) have had thousands of years to adjust to the heat.

Minnesotans, on the other hand, don't handle it so well. This morning, Dan awoke to a raging headache, chills, nausea, dizziness and general malaise. These are classic symptoms of heat exhaustion. Luckily, the gallons of rehydration solution he's been drinking seem to be working. I'm happy to report that approximately 10 hours after Dan got up this morning, he is feeling much better.

AfricaQuest team sends their first report from the Rift Valley

October 5, 1998

The team wonders whether a group of biking explorers really belong in this rough, hot land

LOKICHAR, Kenya -- It's already 92 degrees which means by noon, it'll be 120. We clearly don't belong here. We've traveled to the Turkana desert at the northern extreme of Kenya's Great Rift Valley to begin our expedition. It's one of the hottest places on earth, an area where tribesmen still raid for cattle and highway bandits kill for money. With the exception of thorny trees and prickly bushes, the landscape looks much like the Martian images sent back by the Pathfinder. Except it is quite a bit cooler on Mars.

So why start an expedition here? Somewhere, not too far from our camp, lies a stretch of desert strewn with recently exposed, four-million year old volcanic rock. Among that rock are fossils. Last April, a paleontologist named Meave Leakey has announced the discovery of the remains of the oldest known human ancestor, Australopithecus Anamensis. What factors that caused those early ape-like creatures to change over time to become intelligent, Internet-using people like you and me? It's still a mystery.

My guidebook tells me that this region is also home to Grevy's zebra, gazelles, and baboons. These species, like many in Africa, survive here but their numbers are decreasing. But in the last twenty years, forty percent of range animals have disappeared, that amounts to about 412,000 animals. Populations are continuing to decline at a rate of two to three percent per year. Why? Scientists have yet to answer this question.

Over the next six weeks our team of cycling photographers, archaeologists, and biologists will collaborate with you to help illuminate these mysteries. We'll bring you to the remotest places on the continent, create the opportunity to interact with the best scientists and the people who call Africa home.

Click here to read the diary from Week Two.

Click here to read the diary from Week Three.