Looking south from the bed of the lake we can see the holy mountain and the rift valley escarpment.

The mountain is 9650 feet high (2895 metres). The base is about 4000 feet above sea level (1200 metres). Only a climb of about 1600 metres, but over a short distance, so very steep, as you can see from the picture.

The mountain is streaked with white that looks as if a giant bird has been circling and depositing its load onto the mountain. The streaks are in fact lava flows.

All around the mountain you find black rivers of rock from what must have been very spectacular eruptions and flows in the distant past. These flows are very difficult to cross by vehicle.

We saw that some local people were trying to create ramps to aid the passing of vehicles, though I fear these will be washed away every year when the rains come.

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