v2#9

I suppose that maybe, it's sort of an interesting coincidence that Africa's tallest mountain, and Africa's biggest lake are so close together (note to hydrology geeks: they are not in the same watershed). If you could charter a plane from one to the other, you could probably make the entire trip in a couple of hours. There are however, significant contrasts between the two. For one, Kilimanjaro is tall and pointy, Lake Victoria is flat and not so pointy--except in the afternoons, when the wind tends to whip up the shallow waters. Both are under severe enviromental pressures, although not for the same reasons. There are so many tourist hiking up and down Kilimanjaro that the porters are now having to pack the poo off the mountain (that's right, you heard me!). Lake Victoria also suffers from an influx of various pollutants, but since there are no porters around, green algae is performing more or less the same function and the water is a cloudy pallid green for as far as the eye can see. Please don't get me wrong, in spite of man's worst efforts, both mountain and lake have somehow managed to hang on to their dignity. In fact both are stunningly beautiful.

Lake Victoria in the evening