MOUNT KENIA FROM THE SOUTH WEST. (See page [349].)
(Distant about 30 miles.)
It rained hard during the night, but cleared up again at sunrise, and we resumed our march over the grass-covered downs. At midday we reached yet another ravine, the largest we had seen so far. Its sides were clothed with the same forest, but the undergrowth was thicker than usual. Not finding a place to cross the ravine, we threaded our way through the jungle in a direction parallel to it. It was extremely hard work, we having to cut our way with knives and axes for considerable distances. The simés of our Wakamba proved exceedingly useful at this work. The undergrowth was loaded with raindrops, which soon drenched us through, and at this considerable altitude (over 8000 feet) it was very cold in the shade, which rendered us still more uncomfortable in our soaked condition. Finally we found a Wandorobbo path, which led us to the bottom among some of the wildest forest scenery I ever beheld. A river flowed at the base, but we could not discover its name. It rained very hard in the afternoon, so we camped in the cedar forest on the opposite summit of the ravine.
The next morning we found many of the sheep had died during the night from the cold and exposure. After a short march we reached the Ngare Nanuki (Red water), wrongly spelled on the map as the Ngare Nyuki, and we crossed and camped on the further bank. No game was to be seen on the road, so we were compelled to kill ten of the sheep for food for ourselves and the men. The next march took us to a large river, called the Sirimon, which we crossed, though not without some difficulty, as the swift current swept the sheep away, so that the men were compelled to stand in the water and hand them across. The cedar forest on the other side was exceedingly beautiful, but the weather was very cloudy and uncertain, and this circumstance detracted somewhat from our enjoyment of the scenery.
We camped on the further bank of another stream, half an hour’s march beyond the Sirimon. We were then at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. To the south of the camp a huge cloud bank indicated the position of Kenia. Presently this cloud bank showed signs of dispersing, and I took the camera out into the open in the hope of obtaining a photograph of the peak of Kenia from its northern aspect. For over an hour I waited patiently while the cloud bank swirled hither and thither, at times disclosing a small portion of the peak in a most tantalizing manner; but just as I was beginning to despair of getting a chance before the light failed, the clouds parted for a moment, and to my great delight I secured the coveted exposure, which, though yielding a far from perfect negative, was as good as I could expect under the circumstances.
We were compelled to kill more of the sheep for food, as no game whatever was to be seen; the effect, I suppose, of the rinderpest. We saw thousands of skulls of cattle scattered over the plains of North Kenia, the remains of the vast herds of the Masai, who at one time used this stretch of country as a grazing ground. Some few of the remains were no doubt the tracks of parties of Masai elmoran, who, from their settlements at Kinangop and Naivasha, used this road on their raiding expeditions to M’thara, Munithu, and north-east Kenia generally.
On the following day, which on consulting my diary I find to be the 2nd of November, 1900, we started at eight o’clock in the morning, and an hour later reached a small stream. Crossing this without much trouble we marched for another two hours, at the end of that time reaching the upper waters of the Waso Nyiro.
The Waso Nyiro has always been supposed to rise in the Aberdare Range, and to flow in a north-easterly direction till it is joined by the Ngare Nanuki, and then to flow northward. This is a mistake, so far as it is supposed to rise in the Aberdare Range, as the Waso Nyiro really rises in the western side of Kenia itself, the comparatively small and muddy stream hitherto supposed to be Waso Nyiro being merely tributary to it.
At the spot only a few miles from its source, where we crossed the Waso Nyiro, it was already a fairly large and deep stream, with a very swift current. It lies at the bottom of a large ravine, which we were at first unable to cross, but after searching the crest for an hour we discovered a broad elephant path which took us down to the bottom, across the river, and up the other side. At the crossing-place the Waso Nyiro flows over dark coloured rock; the water was icy cold and most remarkably pellucid. Objects such as small stones, etc., in the bed of the stream, were surprisingly distinct; and but for the swiftly flowing current that distorted their outlines a little, it would have been difficult to believe that they were being viewed through from four to six feet of water. Taking this into consideration, I am in no way surprised that it is called the Waso Nyiro, literally clear water. Till that time the name had seemed to me to be somewhat of a misnomer, as the Waso Nyiro, for the 140 odd miles of its course that we had traversed, was a yellowish muddy stream, which belied its name.
The Masai from Gilgil and Naivasha, in their raids on North-east Kenia, most probably used the route we were then following—as instanced by the bones of the cattle—and would cross the river at the same spot. With their gift for appropriate nomenclature they, to my mind, could not do otherwise than name it the “Clear water,” in the same way as they named the Ngare Nanuki the “Red water,” on account of the apparent colour given to the water by the red gneiss rock over which it flows in that part of its course which lay on their route to and from North-east Kenia.
The Waso Nyiro rises on the west of Kenia; and, on reaching the base of the mountain, turns sharply north, being then joined by the stream which drains the eastern face of the Aberdare Range, and further on by the Ngare Nanuki.