The Rift Valley

The Gelada Baboon is a species of Old World monkey found only in the Ethiopian Highlands, and at up to 4,500 metres above sea level, this vegetarian is the highest dwelling primate and the most sociable of monkeys on earth.

Living underground and coming out only at dawn or dusk to grab grass and take it promptly back to its burrow is the specialised grass-eating Giant Mole Rat. It is almost the exclusive prey of the Ethiopian Wolf.

The Gelada Baboon has never met the Ethiopian Wolf, thanks to an event, 13 million years ago, when Africa’s equivalent of the Grand Canyon formed; a natural crack in the earth's crust which shapes and defines the entire east coast of South Africa, lined by mountains and supporting specific and unique creatures.

And so, as inhabitants of either edge of the great Rift Valley, the Gelada Baboon and the Ethiopian Wolf remain distant strangers.

The very northern margin of the Great Rift Valley contains Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression wherein lies the Erta Alè, Africa’s most active volcano and the world’s only permanent lava lake; geologically still in its infancy. In contrast, further south sits the four-mile high snow-covered peaks of Kilimanjaro, one of the oldest volcanoes on earth. 

Along the Rift-Valley lies a long-chain of mountains – all volcanoes. As the name suggests, the valley lies between two rifts (east and west) in the earth’s crust along east Africa, enclosing a central plateau.

Here, Mount Kenya is endowed with unique alpine plants. With sudden squals comes snow. The Highland Rock or High-Mountain Hyrax is unique to this region. It has evolved an exceptionally dense fur to cope with the cold. The size and shape of a rabbit but with albeit very small ears, the Hyrax has toes, teeth and bones similar to an elephant; and it basks in the sunlight to store energy during the day. And here too lives the Augur Buzzard, a 55–60 cm long African bird of prey typically residing at about 2,000 m altitude (but up to 5,000 m), and its adjacent savannah and grassland.

At an elevation of 4,000 metres, the furry covered Giant Ostrich Lobelia attracts high-flying sunbirds with rich supply of nectar. A little further down the slopes at some 3,000 metres above sea-level, the Side-Striped Chameleon is found; above the altitude of most reptiles. Aligning its body at right angles to the sun, it absorbs heat like a solar panel and its body temperature increases by 30 degrees Celsius within minutes. It is fiercely territorial.

Forty miles to the west of Mount Kenya, at a height of two-and-a-half miles, stand the Abadares Mountains, home to a medium-sized spotted African wild cat, the Serval. At the higher altitudes the cat's are black; to help adsorb heat on bright cold days.

Unique even amongst the herbivores, elephants can process almost any plant. They migrated freely to and from Mount Kenya a century ago but now are restricted in their movement. And here too is found one of only a hundred remaining individual Mountain Bongo. This extremely shy and secretive antelope spends its days in dense shady forest yet has not been able to escape the effect of human pressure on its habitat.

A miniature rift valley lies at Mount Soussia as steep 500-metre cliffs rise from its grassy crater. The Maasai (Masai) are a 500-family large Nilotic (specifically Upper Nile and tributaries where most Sudanese Nilo-Saharan-speaking people live) ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are amongst the most well known of African ethnic groups due to their distinctive customs and dress and their residence near the many game parks of East Africa. Here, cattle are the measure of a family’s wealth. With the six-month dry season devoid of permanent streams or lakes the Masai need to preserve a constant supply of drinking water; they have developed a system of metal pipes that condense the steam rising from the volcanic vents. A unique circular mote encloses a larval plateau two miles across. This part is sacred to the Maasai and no hunting or grazing is allowed. A vast network of empty subterranean passages a total of 6 miles long are formed from a single underground larval flow.

Most baboons roost on tree-tops to avoid night-prowling leopards and the lions. Here however, they head into the underground chamber - the “Baboon’s Parliament”. The entering baboons cross the largest colony of Mastiff Bats on their way out - females who have just given birth flying out to feed for the night. Their pups remain packed tightly together for warmth as the females catch insects and return home to roost. Mum’s track down their own infant by location, and finally by using an ability to pick their infant's unique cry and own scent. As mammals they depend on their mother's milk. The baboons leave the cave at dawn.

Five-hundred metre sheer cliffs of Mountt Cololoufway face high winds rising from the valley below. The Rüppell's Griffon Vulture, considered to be the world's highest-flying bird with confirmed evidence of a flight at an altitude of 11,000 metres (36,100 ft) above sea level, thrive along the Rift Valley's steep walls which create fast up-draughts or thermals that they use to climb; soaring to seven miles high with scarcely a wing flap. And yet nothing escapes them from below. A clear pecking order is none more paramount than when vultures feed off a carcass.

The Serenghetti grasslands, home to the world’s greatest game-herds, sits approximately one mile above sea-level and border Tanzania’s most active volcano, the Oldoinyo Lengai, where one can climb up its steep slopes to visit the steaming, bubbling top of the crater. Oldoinyo Lengai is the Maasai language for "Mountain of God".

Ash from God's mountain falls onto the surrounding savannah creating a dense fertile soil too hard for tree roots but great for grass. The Serenghetti supports the largest herd of wilderbeast on earth. And further south, as the east and west rifts converge, lies the alpine grasslands of the Ketoona Plateau.