The Elephant Cave

January 6, 2014 (Monday) The birds are up and so are we!  We’re going into the mountain today so we want to get an early start. Theresa has packed us a lunch and Kelvin is especially excited as he wants to go exploring in the caves.  Mount Elgon is an extinct volcano that sits high on the border of Kenya and Uganda. “Wagagai” is the mountain’s highest peak which is in Uganda.  Mt Elgon is the largest of Kenya's mountains and its slopes cover a large range of land in both countries.

The trees bounce with life around us and we watch the black and white Colobus monkeys glide through the air to the next tree.  There are also Blue Monkeys and others enjoying the shade of the trees around us. Little Rehan loves the outdoors and enjoys the view from my shoulders!

The road ahead is lined with baboons and as we quietly walk toward them they scamper into the forest. They enter the forest but they are not far, we can hear them walking beside us just inside the tree line.

Antelope gracefully graze as we watch and the bushbuck are too numerous to count.  A little rock hyraxe hears us coming and shows himself in the rocky slopes. Duikers jump quickly through the bushes and then they are gone.

 

We hike to Kitum cave ('Place of Ceremonies' in Masai) and the rain forest around us gets thick with vines and huge trees that tower above us. The forest sounds an alarm that visitors have arrived and the trees start to shake around us.  Monkeys show themselves and playfully swing from tree to tree.  

This cave has crystalline walls and it is like no other as elephants use this cave to get salt. It is the only place in the world where elephants go underground to scrape the walls for salt. They return to the cave when it gets dark to satisfy their need for salt. The walls show the marks from the elephant tusks that have been hard at work breaking pieces of the rock to eat. They have come here for hundreds of years and perhaps even longer.  The cave goes 700 feet into the mountain and as we walk away from the entrance of the cave darkness takes over. With the flashlight we look into the deep crevasse beside us and see the skeleton remains of a younger elephant caught between the rocks. This cave has also been used for generations by the Mt Elgon Maasai for their ceremonies.

There is darkness all around us but as we turn toward the opening of the cave the light filters in exhibiting beauty in its natural form. There is a stillness inside the cave and the noise of bats hanging from the walls above us is the only sound that can be heard. In 1980 and 1987 two people contracted Marburg virus/Ebola and died after visiting the cave.  Richard Preston writes about these events in his best-selling book The Hot Zone.

The next hike is up, up and up to the Makingeny Cave but it is so worth the walk. The magnificent trees that own the forest grant us relief from the sun. The trail narrows and we stop and rest a bit. Soon the sky opens in front of us and the forests yields to a massive wall of white rock.  Water flows from the top of the rock to the earth below. A cave is nestled in behind the waterfall and it is event that it has welcomed many animals.  Foot prints of different animals are left on the cave floor, lots of bushbuck and even that of a big leopard.  

It wouldn’t be right if we left this area without just getting a little wet or maybe even a lot wet!  The waterfall invites us to come closer and the cool mist fills the air.

From a plateau, Elephant Bluff, we sit and relax while scanning the land below us.  The farm land is rich, the trees of the forest are thick and the sound of a water wall speaks softly in the distance.

Psalm 9:1-2 “I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”