Mt Elgon which is also called the Masaba mountain was once Africa’s highest mountain, far exceeding Kilimanjaro’s current 5,895m. Millennia of erosion have reduced its height to 4,321m, relegating it to the 4th highest peak in East Africa and 8th on the continent.
Mt Elgon is home to the Bagisu with the marginalized Ndorobos forced to dwell deep within the forest of Benet.
The Bagisu, also known as the BaMasaba, consider Mount Elgon to be the embodiment of their founding father Masaba and refer to the mountain by this name.
At 4,000km² Mt. Elgon has the largest volcanic base in the world. Located on the Uganda-Kenya border it is also the oldest and largest solitary, volcanic mountain in East Africa. Its vast form, 80km in diameter, rises more than 3,000m above the surrounding plains. The mountain’s cool heights offer respite from the hot plains below, with the higher altitudes providing a refuge for flora and fauna.
Mount Elgon National Park is home to over 300 species of birds, including the endangered Lammergeyer. The higher slopes are protected by national parks in Uganda and Kenya, creating an extensive trans-boundary conservation area which has been declared a UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve.
A climb on Mt. Elgon’s deserted moorlands unveils a magnificent and uncluttered wilderness without the summit-oriented approach common to many mountains: the ultimate goal on reaching the top of Mt. Elgon is not the final ascent to the 4321m Wagagai Peak, but the descent into the vast 40km² caldera.
The mammalian fauna of Mount Elgon is poorly known.The most common secies,or atleast the most visible to hikers,are blue monkeys and black and white columbus.A small number of Elephants are residents of forests and several montane moorland endemics.
Mt. Elgon National Park
Mount Elgon National Park is a national park 140 kilometres (87 mi) northeast of Lake Victoria. The park covers an area of 1,279 square kilometres (494 sq mi) and is bisected by the border of Kenya and Uganda. The Ugandan part of the park covers 1,110 km2 (430 sq mi) while the Kenyan part covers 169 km2 (65 sq mi).[1][2] The Kenyan part of the park was gazetted in 1968,[3] the Ugandan part in 1992.[1]
Elgon's slopes support a rich variety of vegetation ranging from montane forest to high open moorland studded with the giant lobelia, groundsel and heather plants[5][6] The vegetation varies with elevation. The mountain slopes are covered with Elgon olive (Olea capensis subsp. macrocarpa) and Pouteria adolfi-friedericii wet montane forest. At higher elevations, this changes to olive and Afrocarpus gracilior forest, and then an Afrocarpus and bamboo Yushania alpina zone. Higher still is a Hagenia abyssinica zone and then moorland with heaths Erica arborea and Erica trimera, tussock grasses such as Agrostis gracilifolia and Festuca pilgeri, herbs such as Alchemilla, Helichrysum, Lobelia, and the giant groundsels Senecio barbatipes and Senecio elgonensis.
The botanical diversity of the park includes giant Afrocarpus, Elgon olive (Olea capensis subsp. macrocarpa), African juniper (Juniperus procera), pillarwood (Cassipourea malosana), elderberry (Sambucus adnata), pure stands of Afrocarpus gracilior and many orchids.
Of the 400 species recorded for the area the following are of particular note as they only occur in high elevation broadleaf montane forest: Ardisiandra wettsteinii, Carduus afromontanus, Echinops hoehnelii, Ranunculus keniensis (previously thought to be endemic to Mount Kenya), and Romulea keniensis.
