Road Trip Kenya Style

On Friday, following a great Thanksgiving dinner with all of the missionaries and volunteers, I joined Cody and Roland for a "men's" road trip, Kenya style.  We headed out of Nairobi toward the famous Rift Valley.  Since it is still the "short" rainy season, it was a cloudy day, so the view of the valley was more like a view of the clouds in the valley.

The bottom of the Rift Valley is barely visible between the clouds we are looking down on.

We left the valley to climb the Aberdare Hills, on our way to Mount Kenya.  We chose a route through the national park of the same name.  Here is a couple of pictures of the road.

One of the better portions of the road

Roland and Cody with the car after we were "lifted" out of mud by about 10  guys

Since the first route was not available, we backtracked to the main highway and proceeded to go around the park.  We did stop to ask directions from a local.

"I could have told you not to take that road!"

Along the way we crossed the equator, for me the first time in my life on the ground, flying over it just isn't the same.  So we stopped at the sign and let an entrepreneur show us the local impact of the Coriolis effect.  The first video below shows the effect on a piece of grass when we were about 60 feet north of the equator.  As the water flows out a hole at the bottom of the bowl, it rotates about the hole, moving the piece of grass.

Notice the clockwise  rotation of the grass.

The next video shows the motion of a piece of grass when we were about 60 feet south of the equator.

Notice the counterclockwise rotation of the grass.

Finally, we moved directly over the equator and repeated the experiment.  This time you will see that the piece of grass does not rotate at all.  The slight movement is due to the wind.

So there you have it: conclusive proof that I was on the ground at the equator.  Never had I imagined that I would have this opportunity in my lifetime.