On the Kenyan side, there are salt caves that are frequented by elephants. Uganda's Mount Elgon National Park was established in 1992 with the hope of attracting enough tourists to help support the local economy and encourage the preservation of the ecosystem. New plots of maize and casaba appear. More acres of forest are lost. Sam also told us that the Porters and Guides Association was working hard to develop the mountain as a tourist resource.
Guides spend one to two years as porters, then train for three months before becoming guides.
He suggested we hire a guide for the group and a porter for each of us. I've got to admit a certain reluctance to pay someone else to carry my pack up a mountain. But now I was being told that the conservation of an entire mountain depended on whether I, and others like me, were willing to fork over a few bucks. With an environmentally sound reason to not have to haul my own pack up a 13,000-foot volcano in the middle of Africa, I cheerfully agreed. Work Outdoors at GORP Jobs Click Here.