The Great Safari

The Great Safari

“Where do we wash?” asked Lisa. “Over there behind those trees.  There is water in the river, just take one of the tubs and do a sponge down” “But what about the crocs?” “What?” “You know those big reptiles that bite your legs off.” “ Oh don’t worry about those,”  said Ben, “ you won’t find any here.” Where do you find them?  Lisa asked herself. They had already crossed the Grumeti  River , near Nairobi which was swarming with crocodiles. There could easily be crocodiles here too.

 She had had her doubts about booking for a 26 week  safari through Africa, from Cape Town to London  but she was heartbroken. Mark had come home to their flat one evening and putting his belongings in a suitcase while she looked on in disbelief, said,  “I am moving out, now, tonight, I have to go back to Melissa, she needs me.” Melissa was his ex wife and after two years together   with Mark he was walking  out on her. She wanted to throw herself on the floor, or at the walls but knew it would not change anything.  A pain killer would not help, talking to her friends would not help, trying to get drunk would not help. There was no way to avoid the anguish.

Doing something different might help her through the bad time. This was different alright!

Ben was the young driver and his girlfriend Henrietta also of the party, was a very good cook. When they stopped at a village, Henrietta would take the big baskets from the truck and walk to the villages to find fruit and vegetables. “I will be back shortly,  so get ready to start peeling and chopping for the supper tonight.”  Scooping  for water in a river potentially infested with crocodiles was not all of it .  They also had to do chores!

There were twenty-eight people in the Overland truck, of varying age and sizes. Most of the passengers were well in their forties or fifties and she could not understand how people of that age could decide to go on a journey, which was so devoid of human comforts.  Lisa noticed one male passenger who was more or less her age. She reckoned he was about 30 years old. Of the twenty-eight people,  Ben, Henrietta and two helpers were included

“Here are some spades, one each,” said Ben handing them around. “What are they for?” asked Trevor one of the middle aged passengers travelling with his wife, Eva. Eva was a dainty women with wispy hair and a plaintive look on her face. “These,” said Ben, “are for you to dig a hole, when we stay  where there are no ablution blocks and you have need of a toilet.” “ Oh No!  How terrible! I wish we had never come.” said Eva. “ Well, we will soon have left civilisation, as we know it, behind.” answered Ben. “There will be ablution blocks in some of the camps but in very few of them. If you had wanted a luxury holiday you have made a bad choice! We guarantee however, that it will be a wonderful experience and we hope, lots of fun!”

Seated close together in the 16 ton truck, the travellers were jostled around, going over the bumpy roads which were full of enormous potholes and ditches, sometimes hitting their heads on the roof of the truck.

There was limited food on the truck, because it took up too much precious space. Henrietta avoided buying monkey and bat meat which, was eaten in most of the African countries they would be travelling through and relied on the small fridge in the truck for storing beef and chicken which they had brought along.

They stopped in the Maasai Mara National Park,  which hosts  the Great Migration,  one of the Ten Wonders of the World. They missed the migrating wildebeeste in the Masaai Mara but were expecting to see the herds when they got to the Serengeti .

In Serengeti  they had to pitch their own tents. Lisa was struggling to tighten the guy ropes for her tent and making a truckers hitch for this purpose, when she heard someone say, “ can I give you a hand? My name is Blake, I am pretty good at these knots.”  “Thanks, I am afraid I am struggling with the whole set up, never having been camping in my life before.” It was the young man she had noticed nearest to her in age. Lisa did not introduce herself and did not engage in any further  conversation, although she had to admit to herself,  that  he looked very presentable and had a nice friendly smile. She hoped he recognised this behaviour as a snub.

Blake shrugged his shoulders, thinking he did not want to get involved where he was not wanted. He went back to his own tent which he was sharing with Mike, a visiting tourist from Australia. “ I see you got the cold shoulder over there,” Mike observed. “ Maybe you should keep trying, she is a good looker. If I was twenty years younger I would try my luck.

“ I am not keen to get myself put down, I think maybe leave her alone, which seems to  be what she wants. I have had a few set backs  in the dating scene lately and I have no wish to get more of the same.”

Lisa and Blake avoided each other after this.

  After the first two days in Serengeti, one of the older passengers said he was in a great deal of pain, he was not used to digging to make his own toilet in the middle of nowhere. “We are going to have to go to Ngorongoro where there is a guest lodge and ablution blocks for campers. Pack up your tents and belongings by 8am tomorrow and we will move on.” The holiday makers looked at Ben , some with undisguised anger on their faces. “What nonsense to spoil everyone’s holiday because of someone having digestive problems!” “We spend all our time putting up and taking down tents!” said  Trevor, the spokesman for the group.

  “I am afraid there is no alternative,” said Ben

 They travelled North to Kigali in Rwanda and then on to Kampala on the edge of Lake Victoria.

In the camping site north of Kampala, Ben walked across the plains looking for the right spot to take photographs of a colony of flamingos. He fell into the anthill before he saw it. He could feel and see instantly that his left leg was broken. It was twisted into an unnatural position and the pain was intense. He gritted his teeth and felt for the flare in his shirt pocket where he always kept it. Taking it between his fingers he set it off hoping someone from the camp would see it. It took an hour to find him by which time he was slipping in and out of consciousness from the pain.

Blake found him and between him and the two other helpers from the truck they managed to get him back to camp. Blake called Lisa to come and help. “I think I noted that you have nursing experience. We need to do something to relieve the pain and get him to the nearest hospital.” “Who will drive the truck?” “ Well  I do have a heavy duty driving licence from a few years back, when I did a year of long distance  truck driving, to earn money for my studies. But the immediate concern is Ben and his injury. Come, have a look.” Henrietta was wringing her hands nearby.

Lisa took one look at Ben’s leg and said, “we need to straighten the leg which will be very painful for him.” “How do we do that then? “ “First give him a few strong shots of whiskey and explain what we are about to do and then we must plan to get him to a hospital. We need to find a suitable strong plank or stick that we can bind and bandage on to the leg.” Blake and Lisa looked at each other over Ben’s head. Ben was moaning softly. Their eyes met. “ Do you think you can stand by and help and advise?” “Yes ,” said Lisa. A meaningful look passed between the two. They set about the procedure. Ben was fortunate to be almost unconscious. They did the straightening of the leg swiftly and then bandaged it to the support they had found.

The next thing was to inform the other travellers what had happened and how they planned to continue. It was no use going back over the road they had come.  They must press on to where the nearest hospital was . North of Kampala, they asked, in one of the  villages, the way to the nearest hospital and were directed to a mission hospital 30 km away. It took 2 hours to travel over the road to the Mission Hospital where they had to leave Ben in the hands of two young, Afrikaans speaking doctors. They  hoped that arrangements would be made to fly him back to Cape Town.

Blake took over the driving. All the travellers without exception, voted to carry on to London. In spite of all the hardships they had endured, they felt that  to retrace their route back the way they had come was to much to expect.

They arrived in London 26 weeks to the day from their departure from Cape Town. They had learned a great deal about Africa and about themselves. Lisa and Blake had become fast friends and the future shone with the hope of new beginnings.