Great Rift Valley Viewpoint
The cache, a small screw-capped camo-container, is hidden in one of the numerous curio shops located in wooden shacks perched precariously on the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley (GRV). From here there are stunning view across this amazing geological feature as far as the western escarpment some 40km away due west. Other key features which can be seen are Mt Longonot, a dormant stratovolcano (22km NW), Mt Suswa, a huge dormant double-cratered shield volcano (30km WSW), and the Longonot Earth (Satellite) Station (13km WNW).
The cache is hidden just a short walk up the road from PeCeh's Earth Cache GC4PK40 Great Rift Valley Eastern Escarpment whose cache description provides fascinating information on the geological background of the GRV.
Note: Please take care when moving around this area as you are on the edge of a very busy road !
Some GRV facts:
- Also known as the East African Rift Valley
- ~20-35 million years old (figure varies with source!?)
- Continuous geographical trench ~3,500-6,000 km long (again depends on the source of info!) from northern Syria
to central Mozambique
- Produced by the gradual splitting of the African (tectonic plate) into two new separate plates (Somali & Nubian) - see graphic (in gallery)
- Continually sinking - will eventually form a sea!
- Has a western branch (the Albertine Rift) of 1,200 km and 30-50km wide running north from Lake Tanganyika (2nd deepest lake in the world at 1,470m) to Lake Albert
- Lake Victoria lies between the two branches.
- 30-100 km wide
- Altitude: -395m (the Dead Sea) to 1,830m (S Kenya) asl
- Diverse landscapes with fertile farmland, flat, arid plains and uninhabitable desert
- Steep escarpments up to 3,750m high
- 30 active or dormant volcanoes including Mt Kilimanjaro, 100s of hot springs
See here for a detailed description of the rift valley, its mountains/volcanoes and lakes.
For a series of wonderfully-filmed BBC Documentaries on the GRV, summarised here, go to:
Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart Episode 1: Fire
Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart - Episode 2: Water
Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart - Episode 3: Grass
Many thanks to Deborah Muchina of the Maasai Curio Shop for kindly agreeing to my placing of the cache there.