SOURCE OF THE NILE 297 



The day folloAving my visit to Jack Lucy, I added 

 Joe Pedley, the former locust officer, and a new black 

 boy named Onyango to my safari. With Jones, 

 Austin, the new boy, and Maniki riding in one truck; 

 Pedley, Ali, the cook, the boy Masai, and myself in 

 the other, we left Nairobi on the thirteenth day of 

 April, 1929, for our long trek to the West Coast. 



We traveled over familiar roads toward the pre- 

 cipitous Kikuyu Escarpment, down the face of which 

 we gHded until bottom was reached in the Kedong 

 Valley. The long, dusty trail taking us via Naivasha, 

 Gilgil, and Nakuru to Eldoret, was well known to 

 us all. 



After passing Gilgil, the road shortly drops off the 

 plateau into a deep valley which gently slopes toward 

 Lake Victoria. From the rim of this escarpment a 

 marvelous panorama of wild beauty unfolds itself to 

 view. Below hes the ripphng waters of romantic 

 Lake Elmenteita, now covered with pink patches of 

 flamingos. The beauty of this lake and of Lake 

 Naivasha, with the volcanoes of Longunot and Suswa 

 towering behind it, have always appealed to me as 

 scenes symboUc of Africa. 



The second night out we camped at Turbo, twenty 

 miles beyond Eldoret. Joe had the camp awake at 

 dawn, and while the pishi was busily preparing break- 

 fast, I took a stroll through a near-by vale and shot an 

 oribi, 0. coitoni, a species of diminutive antelope 

 which we would now encounter in increasing numbers. 



When Mount Elgon, 14,140 feet, called The Weather 

 Prophet, lay before us, its summit was covered with 

 clouds that boded rain in large quantities, so we 

 hustled along as quickly as the abominable Kenya 



