Longonot is a beautiful young stratovolcano rising above the Kenya rift valley. The crater floor measures about two miles (3.2 Km) from east to west. The northern crater rim reaches an elevation of 8,583 ft. (2,617 m). According to local legends Longonot erupted in the 1860’s. When I climbed the volcano in 1967, steam was issuing from a few spots on the inner wall. The entire crater interior was heavily vegetated so that walking was difficult, and the stories that lions were there was frighteningly . Real Mount Longonot is a dormant stratovolcano located southeast of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, Africa. It is thought to have last erupted in the 1860s. Its name is derived from the Masai word oloonong’ot, meaning “mountains of many spurs” or “steep ridges”.
Mt. Longonot is protected by the Kenya Wildlife Service as part of Mount Longonot National Park. A trail runs from the park entrance up to the crater rim, and continues in a loop encircling the crater. The whole tour is only about 8-9 km long but very steep, so that the round trip of park gate – Longonot Peak – park gate takes around 5 hrs hiking. The gate is around 2150 m asl and the peak at 2780 m asl but following the jagged rim involves substantially more than the 630 m vertical difference. A forest of small trees covers the crater floor, and small steam vents are found spaced around the walls of the crater. The mountain is home to various species of wildlife, notably zebra and giraffe and buffaloes (droppings on the rim) and hartebeest. Leopards have also been reported but are extremely difficult to spot.
Mt. Longonot is 60 kilometres northwest of Nairobi and may be reached from there by a tarmac road. The road was re-done by the EU and is now excellent, reducing travel time from Nairobi to around an hour. A nearby town is also named Longonot. The Longonot satellite earth station is located south of the mountain.
The Maasai people of East Africa live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley on semi-arid and arid lands. The Maasai occupy a total land area of 160,000 square kilometers with a population of approximately one half million people. However, many Maasai see the national census as government meddling and often miscount their numbers to census takers. This part also they called Land of Massai because, the Maasai society is comprised of sixteen sections (known in Maasa as Iloshon): Ildamat, Irpurko, Irkeekonyokie, Iloitai, Irkaputiei, Irkankere, Isiria, Irmoitanik, Iloodokilani, Iloitokitoki, Ilarusa, Irmatatapato, Irwuasinkishu, Kore, Parakuyu, and Irkisonko, also known as Isikirari (Tanzania’s Maasai). There was also once Iltorobo section but was assimilated by other sections. A majority of the Maasai population lives in Kenya. Sections such as the Isikirari, Parakuyu, Kore and Ilarusa lives in Tanganyika.
