‘How’s the weather in the southern hemisphere?’ Ben asked. We crossed the Equator just north of Kisumu so we felt obliged to get the token tourist shot.

A man with a bucket and some water beckoned us over for a demonstration. We knew he was just after a few shillings but let him show us what he had.

‘You see that? That’s the Equator line,’ he said and pointed to a line made of bricks. He walked a few metres north of the line and pulled out some matchsticks for us. He poured water in a pail with a hole on the bottom and told us to toss in the matchsticks. They swirled in a clockwise direction.

Then he walked a few metres into the Southern Hemisphere and we did the same. The water swirled in a counter clockwise direction. Then he walked and stood directly on the equator and did the same. There was no swirl at all. Interesting. As the water was pouring out one of my colleagues said to move into the Northern hemisphere and supposedly the water would start swirling clockwise. Nothing happened.

A fun show but hardly science. The Coriolis effect just isn’t strong enough to determine the direction of swirl. This charlatan probably just had some technique of pouring the water to determine the swirl direction. But it was worth a few shillings to see the show and take a break from a long drive.