no ALONG THE RIFT VALLEY TO BARINGO part ii 



charged by rhinoceros. They lay asleep until awakened by 

 the noise we made, and then, frightened and muddled, they 

 charged wildly in all directions through the scrub. Twice they 

 broke through the line of porters, but the men managed to 

 dodge them, and the only damage done was to the loads. 



In the afternoon we emerged from the valleys on to a 

 plain where the scrub was thinner, and I went on ahead to try 

 to find water and a camping- place. Suddenly, without the 

 slightest warning, I found myself on the edge of a precipice 

 1 900 feet in height. For some hundreds of feet the cliff was 

 absolutely vertical. A few yards away from where I stood it 

 actually overhung, as the wind had cut away the soft beds of 

 ash below the lava that formed the summit. The change was 

 so startling that for a moment it made me feel giddy. When 

 the porters came up they were as surprised as I had been, and 

 we all stood along the edge of the cliff and admired the 

 extraordinary view before us. At our feet, at the base of the 

 precipice, lay a long narrow lake, in shape something like 

 Windermere. The opposite shore is formed of a series of steps 

 and terraces which rise one above another to the summit of 

 Doenyo Lugurumut. Beyond this ridge is the valley along 

 which runs the trade route to Njemps, and beyond this again 

 are the undulating foot-hills and the dark gray scarp of the 

 plateau of Kamasia. The view was certainly the most beau- 

 tiful I had seen in Africa. As a rule, except at sunrise and 

 sunset, the colours were disappointing ; but here the lake itself 

 was of an exquisite blue, broken by the green of dense growths 

 of alga, or by pink where vast flocks of flamingoes floated on 

 the surface. The colour effects on the shore and on the islets 

 were as striking by the contrasts as by the brilliancy of the 

 tints : here and there a glittering tract of sand, or a dazzlingly 

 white deposit of sinter around a hot spring, interrupted the 

 sombre brown hue of the acacia scrub. 



We were all so fascinated by the landscape, with its wide 

 expanse of view, its striking contrasts of colour and form, that 

 it was some time before practical considerations forced them- 

 selves upon our minds. Then we realised that the view was 

 not without its drawbacks. The precipice that gave it to us 

 barred our progress and drained the plateau dry. Water was 

 absolutely necessary, so we started off in different directions to 



