Caving in

Anna and I are generally cautious characters. We usually play it safe and stick to what we know. But occasionally we step out and take a risk. It was one such time that Wednesday morning. Rather than choosing to climb the popular and well-marked Mt Longonot we decided upon Mt Suswa, a double-crater peak with caves on its lower slopes. There are no marked roads to Mt Suswa, which is surrounded by private Maasai land. The only way to get there is to ask for a guide in one of the surrounding villages. We summoned the courage and asked some guys hanging out at a cobbler’s shop. It took us a few goes before we successfully communicated our request and one of the men took us to a general store. He didn’t speak any English and we little Swahili, but we got the idea that we would need to wait for the store owner to return and sort us out. Indeed, the store owner spoke excellent English and arranged for her younger brother to be our guide. Their family lives and farms up on the plateau between the two crater rims. Rueben must have been around 18 years old and had just finished primary school (Year 9 in NZ). He hoped to go to secondary school soon and guiding helped pay the school fees. In fact, he dreams of studying to be doctor to help care for Kenyans that live far away from any doctor surgeries or hospitals.

Parked on the precipice

We had no idea that we would drive for the next 1.5 hours on narrow, rutted, potholed and sandy dirt roads, up and over the outer crater wall. Without the beast we would have been stuck. We parked at the bottom of a ravine that marked the beginning of the inner crater and hiked up spotting some gazelle and rock hyrax along the way. Once we reached the first peak we realised we wouldn’t have enough time to reach the summit and visit the caves. After admiring the view we turned back. On the way to the caves we stopped at his brother’s inkajijik (house). It was so dark inside that I nearly sat on the baby! At just a short walk from their house, Rueben also showed us how they condensed steam from thermal activity into pure drinking water – a saviour in times of drought.

Summit of Mt Suswa in the background

Reuben and the water condensation device

The caves were created by volcanic activity and still display evidence of their past. They are now home to thousands of bats and baboons by night. As we approached the entrances we bumped into a group of Moran Maasai in their full colourful dress (possibly coming back from cattle rustling?). Down we went into the dark abyss armed with a windup torch and a clip-on book light between the three of us. From the onset these caves had our olfactory senses under heavy assault. First it was the Baboon Parliament (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00639mr), where baboons come to sleep at night and then it was the foot deep guano as we got closer to the bats. It was bad enough having to crawl through the stuff at certain points but when it started getting down my shoes and into my open blisters, I was not a happy caver. We explored the various rooms and caverns for a couple hours before returning to the fresh air.

Baboon parliament in the caves

Weird lava twists that look like tree roots

We dropped Reuben at the main road, wishing him all the best for his schooling and began the long journey back to Turi. As usual we didn’t give ourselves enough time and it was getting dark. My glasses lenses had also been etched by the dust, limiting the visibility even more. As we hoofed it home, I joined the ranks of crazy Kenyan drivers, performing manoeuvres that would cost me my license back at home. Anna feared for her life on a couple occasions (e.g. oncoming truck over-taking another truck on a blind-corner with a cliff to our left) and we tried not to think about the warning they gave us just before we left about the potential for carjacking roadblocks. But we made it back safe and sound even though we got lost on the last stretch. We were both relieved to be back at the Johnsons that night.