Envaitenet – The Island of No Return
The legend of the Kenyan island of Envaitenet is one of those cases which utterly intrigues, but which is frustratingly lacking in detail. The small island sits on Rudolf Lake (named after a crown prince of Austria), and in the language of a local tribe Envaitenet means “No-Return”. It has long been considered to be a cursed place.
The story goes that the inhabitants of Envaitenet frequently came to the mainland to trade goods, but then one day, inexplicably they stopped. Concerned, two local men decided to travel to the island to find out what had happened. When they got there they found the place completely abandoned. All they found were burnt-out huts, and decaying fish. The two men were quite understandably rather freaked out by all this, and returned to the mainland vowing that they would never go back there.
In 1935 the English explorer Vivian Fush went to the area on a geological expedition. Two of his party, scientists Martin Sheflin and Bill Dayson left to visit Envaitenet. They were never seen again. Fifteen days after the men had set off a search-party went after them. There was no sign of the men on the island. A plane was even flown over the island, but no trace could be found.
You would think that this should be a pretty easy case to solve. All it involves is a party to travel to the area, and try to suss out the history of the place, and to see if there have been any strange happenings in the 80 years since the two scientists disappeared. This is one of those times I wish I was a Lottery winner. It would be well worth investigating.
