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Stuck in the Mud

THE STORM clouds continued building ahead of us. Behind us more storm clouds were building up.

Now the soil had absorbed most of the rain from last night, the ground was safer to drive along. This morning we had travelled along the main road even though most of the road seal had been eroded off leaving the road base below exposed. I had noticed large sections of dirt road along the side of the main road this morning, and now I understood why. Most of the way back along the road Joseph followed the dirt tracks. They wound around the scrubby trees indicating they had been formed out of necessity but so many people had driven along them that they were now in far better condition than the main road. The seal on the main road was nothing more than rubble. No wonder so many vehicles break down here.

Joseph mentioned there were about six very wealthy families who lived around this area. They controlled everything here. They owned Masai Mara Park and made an absolute fortune out of it. They drove specially built vehicles that could travel along the very rough roads at high speed. Their suspensions were extremely well built for it. Everyone else here survives at their expense. They own incredibly large houses hidden away from the road.

Eventually we reached the junction to the dirt road. There was still water in large puddles on the side of the road, but much of the dusty road was now dry. It was a bit of a challenge getting through with Joseph avoiding the puddles where possible, but after a few minutes the welcome sight of the camp grew close.

Joseph was careful to park the van on some fresh grass at the top of a small rise to minimise any chances of getting bogged.

After a quick afternoon tea I returned to my tent. I could hear the peels of thunder nearby and heavy rain started falling. Perhaps the rainy season was setting in early. I hoped we could get out tomorrow as I had a flight to catch to Kilimanjaro airport in the afternoon and the mountain to climb over the following week. If the weather was going to be lousy then there would be a serious risk of me not being able to reach the summit for my fortieth.

The storm got worse, and I wanted to get out of the claustrophobic tent. So I walked across to the main hut. It was locked up so I went around the back and sat in one of the rather uncomfortable wooden deck chairs in the huge deck watching the storm from there. I imagined Joseph was in his tent reading recovering from the very long drive.

The view outside was unbroken apart from the old sofa with the bees nest which had been removed from the hut and placed upside down in the grass about fifteen metres away. The sofa was very old and had clearly seen better days.

After about half an hour a group arrived in a large truck. Now this will get the camp alive. They briefly rested before Luke and Samuel led them in the walk I had done yesterday. The difference was it was raining heavily, and they were all rugged up in their rain gear, including Luke who was no longer wearing his Masai cloak. The rain necessitated proper wet weather gear.

The truck was parked about twenty metres away and soon they realised it was bogged in the soft soil. For ages they tried to get the truck out of the boggy ground but the wheels kept sinking deeper into the mud.

They left and the tempest continued. Eventually the dining hut was opened again and I entered. The lounge was free of the sofa with the bees nest, but it was very dark in there. I ended up returning outside until dinner was eventually ready.

The first course of dinner tonight was a very nice vegetable soup. Well it tasted nice anyway in the total darkness. I was served my soup just as Joseph arrived. The other group were returning from their sodden walk around the Masai village area. They returned to their tents to get changed into fresh clothes.

After soup we had our main course consisting of a mince stew, boiled vegetables and a few other nice things again served up in the almost total darkness. We had just sat down when the other group arrived. One Spanish speaking woman who was obviously the tour leader approached Joseph.

The truck that her group had travelled in was seriously bogged now and they needed another truck to either get it out or to transport her tour group from here. She told Joseph “we will pay you money”. She wanted him to drive her back to Nairobi to pick up another truck. He wouldn’t have it. He said there was a high probability that our van would get stuck in the mud on the way out. Given all the rain that had fallen here since we had returned from Masai Mara, I was not at all surprised.

She then returned outside to meet the driver to find another way of getting the truck out of the mud. They used a few boards apparently and did eventually manage to get it free.

It was still raining quite heavily, so we waited for about half an hour after dinner for the thunderstorm to break just enough for me to hurry back to the tent. There were large puddles out the back of the lodge now making it rather difficult, but once I was back on the gravel path to the tent it was all good.

Torrential rain started falling again just before I reached the entrance, so I didn’t get too wet. Fortunately there weren’t any lions in my porch, so I unlocked the padlock and entered the tent. There was a little bit of power, so I managed to download all my photos from the camera onto the computer before putting the battery on charge. Hopefully it will be fully charged before the power goes too dim.

Heavy rain continued to beat on the roof of the canvas of the dark tent until I fell asleep about half an hour later.

Torrential rain had fallen for most of the night, so getting out along the very muddy had will be very much touch and go.

I got up and packed up. Thankfully the inside of the main tent was perfectly dry again, although the toilet seat was once more quite wet from the rain getting in the back. I cautiously opened the front of the tent, and was relieved there were no lions or other predators there that had taken shelter in the night. Luke had been correct the other day. Humans are the dominant species. Everything else fears us.

Joseph and I jumped into the van and he drove off, almost immediately we started slipping and sliding in the mud. He was really worried this time. The rain from the other night had only wetted the surface of the sponge soil. Two nights of rain in a row meant the water had now penetrated deep into the soil. Now we were seriously at risk of bogging down in the two kilometre dirt track back to the road.

We were slipping and sliding all along the road. It seemed to take an eternity. Somehow though we managed to reach the seal without either getting bogged or going off the road. So far as I was concerned, we were safe now, meaning I had a guaranteed passage to Nairobi Airport. Joseph wasn’t so sure though. We still had twenty kilometres of potholes to get through. Then I remembered all the broken down vehicles we had passed on our way in the other day. Successfully reaching the Mara Road did not necessarily equate to a guarantee of successfully returning to Nairobi.

The van bumped and lurched over the potholes of the Masai Mara road as we headed back towards the town. It wasn’t as bad as the potholes in the section of road between the turnoff and Masai Mara yesterday though. This was quite tame in comparison, with some of the potholes filled in with sand.

Fortunately we did make it back to Nairobi and I was able to continue my journey onwards towards Kilimanjaro.

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