(this little guy busted into my volcano shot)
After breakfast, we took in the local geography. As said, distant mountains and the Rift Valley escarpment while Lengai broods in the middle. You could clearly see ash on the side of the volcano near the top. People can climb Lengai if they want. Our driver had taken some clients up there when it had started one of its periodic eruptions (‘it roared like a lion’ he said) Ulp. One look at its steep sides and I was out..
(2 kiwis and 1X volcano)
We went to a local village and followed a local guide to a huge waterfall hidden in a rocky gorge. Had a wonderful hour or so swimming, scrambling up slippery rocks, getting under the waterfall and generally a good old time. Except for that one part where I got sucked near the side into an undertow and couldn’t surface for a few minutes…um.
After lunch (during which our driver visited a friend who had had a leg burnt off when he went through a thin crust on top of magma on top of Lengai…) we headed out to Lake Natron proper.
(the view back to Lengai and the Rift Valley wall on the right as we trudge along)
It’s a soda lake, meaning no swimming or drinking, and packed with flamingos that enjoy the algae that thrives on the mineral conditions. A very important breeding site for the Flamingo. We drove then trudged out over a muddy moonscape to get as close as we could to the hundreds of resident flamingos. Such a remote, surreal lake populated by these pink oddities.
We were picking up cellphone signals from Kenya as we trudged back to the vehicle…to find that local Maasai souvenir sellers had set up a gauntlet back to the car. I have no idea where in that remote lunar landscape they all appeared from, but I bought a fetching man bracelet, while Kat grabbed a (permanently affixed?) ankle ring.
Kiwis in da house!
(to be concluded.)
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