After a
late arrival in Nairobi, safely delivered by Kenya Airways, it was an early
start with Malika Fettak (Biosphere Expeditions’ expedition leader) to pick up two
4x4 vehicles. This being Kenya, we checked the 2.4 liter Hilux very carefully
but, it would transpire, not carefully enough. Our first challenge was to get
to the Enonkishu conservancy on the edge of Mara, an estimated 6 hour drive. To
do this one has to descend the escarpment into the rift valley: which must be
one of the most dangerous roads in Africa. Impatient trucks overtake on blind
bends in the badly pot-holed road, or even on the unpaved verge. Olive baboons
snack on discarded corn cobs. As a driver one can only snatch glimpses of the
tremendous views over the rift valley.
It was in
this convoy of vehicles, that the battery light in my vehicle first lit up on
the dashboard. Concerned, I turned off the headlights, unplugged the cell phone
charger and turned off the radio. The battery light went off, but by the time
I’d descended the escarpment it was on again, and not much further the ABS
brake warning light was on too. The car was clearly struggling. In the next
major town, Narok, I headed straight for a garage that looked like they did
batteries. As expected, the car was dead. Being a hire car, getting permission
to change the batteries was a saga, but permission was given to change one of
the 2 batteries.
Ages later,
back on the road, the rain set in. Tropical rain. But within 10 minutes of
lights and busy windscreen wipers, the check battery warning light was back on.
It was clear the vehicle was not going to make it to the conservancy. We were
still on the ‘good’ tar road. The next town seemed very far away, knowing you
are driving on road with crazy people but hardly able to see out the window. The
car died as we were trying to find a safe place to leave it in the next village.
I climbed in with Malika, we arranged for the car to be collected by the hire
agency, and we continued.
The road to
the conservancy would be the next adventure: mud puddles in a track mostly
washed away from the rain. At a small stream crossing a Toyota passenger transporter
was stuck. Lots of people all around. We wondered how to pass. A tractor arrived
and pulled it out. I got through without a problem. But the rain continued, and
it was dark. We discovered the car lights had no ‘high’ beam, so the road was
illuminated maybe 20m in front of us. The final stretch to the conservancy the
road was literally a river, it felt like a boat would be more suitable for this
section of the road. Luckily we encountered no elephant or other wildlife in
the road. Almost there, with the camp but meters away, I finally got stuck in a
what looked to be puddle but was a deep hole. A fortuitously passing local
ranger managed to free us.
The next
day in the camp was all about setting up, organizing equipment. We didn’t want
to go out. Rebekah, the conservancy manager, told of a male lion that had
breached one of their cattle bomas the previous evening. I got to grips with
the local birds. The broken car was delivered in the evening.
Day 2, it was
decided I needed to learn some of the routes in the conservancy. Neither of the
vehicles would start! But Jimmy, the magical handyman, sorted out the poor
connections to the battery. There was water everywhere. Roads were more an idea
than a reality. We navigated chasms, dongas, mud, cross country. Mud flew from
spinning wheels. But we saw Cheetah, and much wildlife: it was all concentrated
on the highlands to escape the flooded grasslands.
Day starts
to the sound of hippo in the Mara River. We drink coffee while bushbabies
scream in the riverine vegetation. We must leave early to get to Nairobi to do
shopping and pick up another vehicle. We leave camp at 7am. We assist one
passenger car stuck in a puddle. The next crossing a truck and a tractor are
stuck. Eventually another tractor arrives and pulls out the stuck tractor. We
get through again. Then we hit a traffic jam of Maasai on motorbikes on their
way to market with chickens or other produce . What is normally a small stream is
in flood. Fast flowing water extends for 200m across the road. I do some
birding with a crowd of local interested children. They learn the word
‘binoculars’. Malika is stressed: how do we get to Nairobi? After an hour we
learn there is another, longer, route to the north of the conservancy. We
navigate our way out the queue.
The tricky
crossing with the stuck truck. Malika is driving. Entering the stream we slip off
the track, deep into the river. Water is coming through the door. I climb out
the window to strip to start pushing out. Up to my groin in water, there is a
crowd of people to help; we rock and push the car out. 2nd attempt,
Malika makes it. By 1:30 pm we are back at the camp we’d left earlier that
morning.
We head
north, the road is deceptively good. We learn we are on the wrong road, and are
pointed up a muddy path in the direction of the village we need to get to. We
are told the road is bad. It is terrible: vehicles do not use this, and we slip-slide
our way north, there are many ‘nearly’ incidents. Camel Trophy would think
twice about this route. An eternity of mud later we get to the tar road. It is
4pm and we still have 6 hours to Nairobi… up that dangerous road, in the dark.
That was the first of many off-road adventures.
