Kenya Photos - Equator, Samburu and Lake Nakuru

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At Mountain Lodge, a tunnel allows you to get very close to the animals in relative safety. The cape buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.

We were given a demonstration of the Coriolis force at the equator. Unfortunately, this was completely bogus. We were shown water flowing into a small hole in the center of the bowl. The guide showed us the water flowing clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and not rotating under the sign. However, he had the sense wrong - the rotation should have been clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere. He told us that in order to see the effect, we had to walk 20 meters north and south of from the equator sign to see the Coriolis force.

I carefully watched him as he demonstrated the effect to the next group of tourists. He walks rapidly away from the tourists to the north and south demonstration points, and pours the water onto the side of the bowl, thereby introducing the rotation when no one is looking. I tried to explain that he had the sense wrong, but he insisted he was right.

The famous equator sign in Nanyuki, and some of the members of our group.

Shiyana standing on the equator at Nanyuki. There are two equator signs here - the well-known sign seen on the left, and another sign about 40 meters to the north. The real equator seems to be about half way in between, and about 20 meters to the north of the sign seen in the background.