Ol Donyo Lairobi

At the western end of the [Ngata Kiti] valley is a big granite rock called Ol Donyo Lairobi, home of the rare lammergeyer or bearded vulture. In the mid-1960's the Conservation Unit tried to fence off the valley to allow the Masai cattle more grazing and to keep out the wildebeest. A five-stranded barbed wire fence was erected across the valley and up the hills on each side; but the futility of this experiment was amply illustrated in 1964 when the normal ebb and flow of the migrating herds came up against this fence. I was sitting on the hills that day, watching the wildebeest advance across the plains in long lines. When the great army reached the fence, the animals paused and spread out along its two-mile length. There was a cloud of dust, a swirl of movement, and suddenly the fence was down in a dozen places, with the wildebeest pouring through.