 'Was
your mom on the mountain on her own?'
asked someone in the back.
'No,
there was a group of people from around
the world and they had guides and
porters from a local tribe. The Wachagga
grow coffee and bananas but some of them
work on the mountain as well.'
 'It
usually takes six days to go up to the
top and down again on the Marangu
route. Trekkers stay in sleeping
bags in mountain huts at night. The
first two days are uphill through rain
forest, and then across meadows on the
slopes of Mawenzi.'
'Are
there any animals?'
interrupted Lizzie. She loves her pet
bunny.
 'Kenya
and Tanzania have all kinds of wildlife,
like elephants, lions, zebras and
rhinos. There aren't many animals to see
on the mountain,'
I answered 'but if you're lucky and
look closely at rock piles you might
spot these cute little guys. They're
called
hyrax
and they're the size of a large rabbit.
But the special thing about them is
their nearest animal relative. Bet
you can't guess what it is.'
 They
tried. They came up with all kinds
of creatures from aardvarks to warthogs,
but no-one got it. So I had fun
telling them that the small hyrax is
cousin to ... the
elephant.
Would you believe they have the same
kind of feet with nails, and their brain
is like an elephant's too? Wonder
if that means they never forget?
'Do
they live in those rocks?'
asked Lizzie.
'This
kind does. They hang around clumps
of rocks and you have to look hard to
see them. There's another nocturnal type
that live in trees, called tree hyrax.
They croak like frogs and scream a lot.'
What
do you get when you put a boy hyrax
and a girl hyrax together?
'Amir,
we don't want to know!'
It
was the end of class but the teacher
asked me to continue in the next
geography period. |
