RAY NESTOR (1888-1989)
Mount Elgon (4,321 m -14,177 ft)
Uganda - Kenya
In Mount Elgon in the far
The mountain
Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of eastern Uganda and western Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai" (4,321 m -14,177 ft), is located entirely within the country of Uganda. Elgon is the seventeenth-highest mountain of Africa. Its vast form, 80 kilometres (50 mi) in diameter, rises 3,070 metres (10,070 ft) above the surrounding plains. Its cooler heights offer respite for humans from the hot plains below, and its higher altitudes provide a refuge for flora and fauna.Mount Elgon consists of five major peaks: Wagagai (4,321 m -14,177 ft), in Uganda ; Sudek (4,302 m -14,114 ft)) on the Kenya/Uganda border ; Koitobos (4,222 m -13,852 ft), a flat-topped basalt column in Kenya ; Mubiyi (4,211 m- 13,816 ft) in Uganda ; Masaba (4,161 m - 13,652 ft) in Uganda.
Although there is no verifiable evidence of its earliest volcanic activity, geologists estimate that Mount Elgon is at least 24 million years old, making it the oldest extinct volcano in East Africa.
Other features of note are: The caldera (Elgon's is one of the largest intact calderas in the world) ;
the warm springs by the Suam River ; Endebess Bluff (2,563 m - 8,409 ft) ; Ngwarisha, Makingeny, Chepnyalil, and Kitum caves . The cave contains salt deposits and it is frequented by wild elephants that lick the salt exposed by gouging the walls with their tusks. It became notorious following the publication of Richard Preston's book The Hot Zone in 1994 for its association with the Marburg virus after two people who had visited the cave (one in 1980 and another in 1987) contracted the disease and died. The mountain soils are red laterite. The mountain is the catchment area for the several rivers such as the Suam River, which becomes the Turkwel downstream and drains into Lake Turkana, and the Nzoia River and the Lwakhakha River, which flow to Lake Victoria. The town of Kitale is in the foothills of the mountain. The area around the mountain is protected by two Mount Elgon National Parks, one on each side of the international border.
Mount Elgon and its tributaries are home to four tribes, the Bagisu, the Sapiinjak, the Sabaot and the Ogiek, better known in the region under the derogatory umbrella term Ndorobo.
The watercolorist
Ray Nestor was born in India in 1888. He came to Kenya in 1912 as a surveyor and was between 1932 and 1950 farmed at Kipkarren where he did most of his paintings. Ray Nestor modesty as a printer stood between him and the wider recognition of his work. He never courted publicity being content to record his impressions of a fascinating country and its diverse peoples for his own satisfaction and that of his friends. In all his time in Africa, Ray Nestor was seldom without his paints and sketch book, alert to capture the fugitive moment : an old woman in her beads and bangles drawing on her long pipe ; a dhow in full sail beyond the coral reef outside Mombasa harbour ; the stupendous view from his farm house over down and forest, rolling away towards Mount Elgon;
a pair of rhinos threading their way through the bush under the snows of Kilimandjaro. These sketches are what they claim to be, with all their freshness sponteneity. Ray Nestor died in England in June 1989.
