A small desert in the rain-shadow region of Mount Kilimanjaro the Chalbi Desert, Kenya, is composed by both an ancient lakebed and rocky and lava regions. The preserved fossils within the desert have been critical to the understanding of the Quaternary climate in East Africa.

"We were able to collect good aeoloian sands. The area is generally hot with temperatures in the field of about 30 degrees C at 8.00am and with untarmacked roads, so on average we were going slowly at about 30-40 km an hour, the tyres suffered and we had to fix 2 tyre punctures, generally most vehicles travel at night and very early morning to avoid the problems that come with high temperature. Thankfully on the second day the temperature was cooler at about 34 degrees C at 1.00pm" Dr. Lydia Olaka, University of Nairobi