22nd of February, 2018.
Apart of the fact that the truck can not go over 70, everything is fine. It took me more time to get in Tsavo that I wanted, but at least I got in there.
Aadam and his friend are nice. They teach me a little of Swahili and pay me lunch and a bottle of water.
When we finally get where it supposed to be the entrance of the park, according to my calculations, I think that it is strange that the Man Eaters Camp it would be located on the right and not on the left as I had seen in the map before. Aadam’s friend asks around and people confirm as this being the place. Because of that, he takes a boda-boda, puts my backpack on it and pay the driver. I say goodbye with a lot of thanks to my friends and they keep their ways to Mombasa. Not that the boda-boda did on purpose, but the entrance it was actually about two hundred metres. I would never took a motorbike to bring me in such short distance.
At the entrance of the Park, I talked with a ranger and I got very sad for be right: the camp it was forty kilometres ahead and yes, it was at left. The gate also was at right as this one, OK, but the camp it was at left.
Very disappointed for have to take another lift when I could simply keep going with my friends, I ask the boda-boda a ride back to the road where I would start to hitch again.
At the beginning, I am just making signs to the cars because I want to get in there faster. But the trucks keep making “what are you doing” signs for me until one of them stops. I tell them where I am going and they take me.
The driver is also going to Mombasa but he is giving a lift to a young man who would stay just a few kilometres before me.
They are also nice and friendly and get worried about me when I tell them I might make wild camping around the Park.
On our way we see elephants for three times. The first two they were kind of close but the driver could not stop the truck. The last one, when he finally could and I finally took my camera, they were far and in a difficult place to took pictures. Now they are just in my memory. Not grey as I always imagined but the Kenyan orange / red land, which covered all their bodies.
When I finally reach the right gate I am confused again. Luckily, a nice and simple guard, instead of a ranger, approach to help me. He tells me that it is the right place and the Man Eaters Camp it is just around five kilometres walking from there. Of course the camp is just a lodge in the area where they used to sleep during the bridge construction. The guard tells me that the cave where the lot of bones were found it is in the right side and that was far. To go there I would need to pay for the Park and for a ranger. We talk for a while and he strong advises me not going walking to the camp or even to the original bridge because the wild life could be dangerous. I thanked all his help and before I left I said something like let’s pretend that I never being in here, OK?
When I take the road it is twenty minutes to six. The sun would go away around seven o’clock. I have to reach the camping site, take pictures, explain my situation and them make my camping (if they allow me) or leave and look for a hidden place. The fact that I thought it would be nice to make camping near the road and have a chance to see more elephants in the early morning; the already mentioned fact that the camp it is just something created now, with a “nice” name, in the area where they used to camp; and finally, the fact that I passed for the original bridge when I was going there and taking some pictures made me even a little more late, made me decide not to go to the Man Eaters Camp and put my tent under the original bridge. Then, everything would be settle and I could spend a whole night beside the bridge. Just so you know, this bridge is the one from the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, from 1996, which has a great importance in my life plus it is a great movie! The meaning of the word Tsavo, in the title of the post, I’ve got from this movie.
I decide to make a thorn fence around the tent and put some leaves around to disguise. Just in case. It takes me more time than I imagined to do that, because I am being so careful to not cut my fingers because of the pain, but mainly because I do not want any tiny smell of blood attracting animals. So at the end the fence is not that big or strong.
It is so hot and I am dirty and sweating as never before. I have just two small cakes, which would be my dinner and breakfast, and my water is probably tap water which I asked to the nice guard in the second gate. I take out my clothes, put my mattress on the floor and try to sleep. I haven’t even eaten. Of course it takes me a long time to be able to take a nap but when it happen, I am awaken by my fence moving a lot. I already have a plan in my mind in case that happened: I would put first the boots, then the hoodie which Amrah gave to me in Rabat (stronger in the chest); then I would tide the other hoodie in the left arm and my plaid shirt in the right one, everything to protect me from the bites and claws. Swiss knife on hands and a piece of wood inside the tent and I was ready to fight for my life. I am really confused about what I should and could do: should I just hurt the animal a little bit and hope it would run away? Or should I admit I am in nature, with a serious risk of life so kill it would be acceptable? If I had to do it, should I go to the Park and explain the situation? Should I leave the place and the animal? Or should I throw it on the river, to clean my path and then leave the place?
I know you might me thinking I am crazy. You are right, I am. But that has nothing to do with this kind of situation. And if you ever find yourself under the same one, you will remember me.
Nothing touched the tent.
I do not remember at what part of the night I ate one cake. But I think it was after waking up with the old train passing in the original bridge, which made me also fear for my life, thinking that the bridge would crash and I would have a ridiculous death after all, by a train / bridge crash and not a wild animal. Aidan Hartley, in his book The Zanzibar Chest, would call this “late night hour stupid fear”.
But if I was so terrified, why had I chosen a water source to make my camping? Even after have seen some fresh elephants paw printers earlier in the other side of the river? Because even being a water source, it is too close to the road and the noisy railway. And because I wanted to be near to the original bridge as I already told you.
Well, as you can already imagine, I survived. No more surprises at night and I survived.
In the morning I could not even leave my tent as soon as I wanted because it is too dark to check out. When I finally did, there is nothing. I looked for the paw prints and found nothing but a single one, which was small with claws and could be from a feline. I was stupid enough to not take a picture.
In the road, no elephants. I decide to try only sign for cars for the first half an hour and then everything. Just after five minutes, a pick-up stops. After explaining my situation, the guy got all confused and could not understand. For some reason I was not trusting on him one hundred per cent, so I was just saying something like ‘it is OK sir, if you do not feel comfortable you can go. Somebody else will stop.’ But then he said to be already concerned about me and decided to give me a lift. He was not just going to Mombasa but actually right just beside the building where I was going.
Sammy it is a professional driver from a county near Nairobi and is going to pick up his boss. Being the same age as me and married with two kids, he is surprise and pride of my journey.
During the way, he tells me a little about Kenya and in two hours he is dropping me two blocks away from the Tulia’s House Backpackers in Mombasa.
