Secrets of the "island of no return"

Although covered with lush vegetation, there is not a single animal on the island of Envaitenet, and the mysterious disappearances of natives, immigrants and members of scientific expeditions have remained a mystery to this day.

On the great salt lake Turkana in Kenya (formerly Rudolf's Lake), the fourth largest in the world, there is a small island Envaitenet, whose name translated from the language of the African tribe Elmolo means "irreversible". It has been uninhabited for several centuries, despite its natural benefits, and the local population of the lake shore does not even want to step on its soil, believing that it is haunted. The reason for their decision can be considered justified, given the numerous indigenous legends and several written testimonies regarding the inexplicable events on this kind of gem of nature.

The haunted island and the people who inexplicably disappear after entering its soil are first mentioned in writings from 1635. According to these data, Envaitenet was inhabited at the end of the 16th century by several indigenous families, whose settlements sprang up at high speed in the middle of a beautiful natural environment. True, upon arrival, the settlers were very surprised by the unusual circumstance - on the island, namely, there was no animal world - only lush vegetation of bright emerald shades and brown stones.

At the same time, the sounds that the islanders heard every night during the new moon were in fact eerie screams that alternated with prolonged sobs and usually lasted from a few minutes to an hour. In the following years, certain parts of the island became inaccessible to people: broken branches, which lay intertwined next to the trees, eventually hardened like stone, forever preventing the curious from approaching.

However, of all that is mentioned in the writings from the 17th century, the most frightening are the descriptions of the consequences of encounters with apparitions that often appeared to villagers at night in the form of ghostly human-like beings, after which the unfortunates would fall into a trance-like state of consciousness.

The ghost victims then lay motionless on the ground for hours, and after "waking up" each of them would have an accident: they inexplicably suffered severe injuries, became crippled, died from poisoning by fish they had eaten countless times, or from sepsis due to harmless cuts. , drowned in a calm lake, even though they were excellent swimmers… Some of them felt unbearable muscle pain, severe headaches, food disgust for a long time and often lost their sight. The children disappeared before the eyes of their mothers and were never found, and the women gave birth to baby freaks who would soon die and whose bodies, regardless of the tropical climate, would mummify in a matter of hours.

The first mysterious case, about which there is documentation in the archives of the local police, was recorded in 1935. At that time, there was an ethnographic expedition on the lake that studied the customs and life of the Elmolo tribe. It was led by the English researcher William Fush, who was especially interested in the haunted place, on whose orders two members were sent to the island - Michael Shefflis and Brian Dyson.

For a few days, everything was normal: every night, the two of them called their colleagues at the agreed time with light signals, but the messages suddenly stopped arriving. Fush and the team were very worried about the unusually long absence of their friends, about whom they did not receive a single piece of information for two weeks, so three more members of the expedition went in search of them. When they arrived, they were horrified to find that there was not the slightest trace of Shefflis and Dyson's stay on the island. Moreover - there was no indication that people were staying there at all!

Only then did it become clear to Fush that there was something in the legend told to him by the natives. Once upon a time, several families from the Elmolo tribe decided to seek refuge on the island from attacks by neighboring warlike nomads. Soon after their arrival, the newly arrived islanders built villages, engaged in hunting and fishing, and often visited old residences to exchange their goods for leather and milk. Life has been quite common for some time, and the newly settled population was even occasionally visited by relatives from the beginning. However, over time, relatives' visits became less frequent, and the islanders appeared less and less on the other shore, only to suddenly stop coming altogether.

Sensing that something strange was happening on the island, the inhabitants of the nearby coastal hamlet of Loinglani went on a raft to Envaitenet to scout. Arriving there, they were stunned - they were greeted by completely deserted villages, extinguished fireplaces and rotten food scraps. In the empty huts, everything was in place, there were no signs of fighting or the emergency evacuation of the inhabitants: there were intact bows and arrows, dishes and clothes in the corners of the huts. Where did more than thirty people go missing? The question has remained unanswered to this day, and since then no one has even wanted to step on the island, let alone settle it, not wanting to provoke fate.

Despite everything he heard from the locals, Fush was determined to solve the mystery of the tragic disappearance of his friends. A plane that flew over the island for several days was soon handed over to the local authorities from the nearby city of Marsabit. The leader of the expedition promised a big monetary reward to anyone who brought any news about the missing members of the expedition, so more than two hundred locals soon arrived on Evaitenet, who literally overturned every stone. However, none of them found any trace that would at least to some extent shed light on the cause of the disappearance of the team members.

All these "miracles" for centuries disturbed the members of the Elmolo tribe, who, frightened by scary stories, moved from the shores of the lake to the forests to be as far away from the island as possible, and in the 1990s, listening to incredible testimonies about the "haunted island" and the mysterious disappearing people, two private expeditions from the Netherlands and Germany went there.

Both, however, disappeared without a trace, and these were the last attempts to solve the mystery of Envyitenet, the "island of irreversibility", which still arouses curiosity and excites spirits.

There are also records of mysterious fires on the island caused by the outpouring of lava, which sometimes inexplicably erupted from a hidden crater and flowed down the cliffs of steep cliffs, leaving behind fires and desolation. Also, the same written sources mention corridors that reached deep into the bowels of the earth where, according to legend, lived the giant Ut Usumu Tong Duraj, who spat fire and caused epidemics of deadly diseases.

If the stories of Elmol are to be believed, from time to time a city rose from the fog next to the island, whose walls and towers shone in the eclipse, illuminating the night sky over the Envaitenet, and then descending to the ground. The scene was reminiscent of a handful of gems in bright rainbow colors, scattered across the starry horizon. It is said that a strange pulsating sound came from the city - like a funeral song that would start with gentle melodies and then turn into a furious scream causing mental confusion.