The "very, very beautiful" Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest peak, is now little more than "small pockets of ice and snow", says veteran guide Charles Kibaki Muchiri. "We expect the glacier will continue becoming smaller and smaller," he says, adding that in "some years it will disappear completely." His observations are backed by some scientists who fear that one of the continent's only mountain with glaciers will be ice-free as early as 2030. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES