MAGIC AND MYSTERY OF THE CHYULU HILLS

MAGIC AND MYSTERY OF THE CHYULU HILLS

one of the youngest volcanoes, the last eruption was in 1855. There are lava tubes — cylindrical passages hollowed out by hot molten lava — inside the hills, locally known as the Kisula Caves.

You can hike from the foothills to the caves, a trek of about three to four hours, but we chose to drive there instead. Then, armed with flashlights, we descended into one of the tube-like caverns.inside the hills is the locally known Kisula Caves.

Kisula Caves resemble a natural art gallery, with walls of different coloured rocks, rippling layers of sediment, cone-shaped stalactites hanging above and sections of rock wall where the lava has cooled off into rope-like shapes.

 

In some sections, the cave was completely dark and at other places sunlight flooded in through the sinkholes overhead. There were bones on the sandy floor, leftovers from leopards’ meals. Bats and baboons also inhabit the caves.

The Chyulu Hills rise to 2,188 metres, and the upper sections are covered by a thick forest where morning dew and moisture-laden clouds water the lush foliage.

Rain water in the Chyulus percolates into underground reservoirs and undergoes natural filtration for years before permeating through subterranean channels. The water merges with networks from Mt Kilimanjaro and feeds into watercourses such as Mzima Springs, some 50km away.

To the west is Shetani lava flows. Located about 5km before the Chyulu Gate of Tsavo West, Shetani (meaning devil in Kiswahili) is a flat treeless plain covered in dark rocks and sharp stones left behind by lava flows hundreds of years ago.

The bleak landscape of Shetani looked strangely beautiful under a clear blue sky and a palpable silence except for a strong wind blowing.ground at Shetani still moves because of continuing seismic activity, a disconcerting thought while standing on the path of a lava flow.

such that if you set a stone in a particular place and return a week later, the stone will have shifted.

This phenomenon, together with the living-memory volcanic eruptions, very likely added to the local mythology that gave rise to the name of the place