The next morning we cooked up a big fried breakfast to get us ready for a days work digging the car out. The guy from Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) came round and took us down to the site in his Land Cruiser. He had already dropped some manpower off beforehand, in total we had well over twenty people. With the amount of people it was obvious that we would get the cars out, but it was also an accident waiting to happen as organising the team proved to be pretty difficult.
First up we had to free the Land Rover facing down hill and well and truly stuck in the side gulley. The KWS guys had some sand ladders so we thought we should try them first, they can be pretty dangerous, when the wheels get traction they can get spat out the back at shin height at a great speed. We did our best to explain but everyone was too excited to listen. First go and the sand trap wedged itself in the embankment, everyone saw the force that they hit the dirt and became more aware. We decided it would be better to push and pull the car instead, so we attached a cable to the rear bumper with a team pulling it up and away from the embankment and the rest pushing from the front and sides. The driver over compensated for the side gulley and skidded a bit close to the side. When the car slipped the guys pulling up hill fell over the drop into the valley, but managed to keep hold of the cable and could climb back up. Close! but still no injuries. After a bit more pushing and pulling we got the car out, and then the same for Brendans Land Cruiser.
We said our thanks and spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking a nice long game drive. I never saw the elusive leopards despite the tracks which were tantalizingly close. For our last night in the lodge we sat out in front of the water hole with a few beers, watching a lonely elephant drinking and cleaning. Eventually the Elephant was joined by a large herd of Buffalo who were grazing on the grass only about 4m away. We watched in amazement at these huge beasts who were aware of our presence but quite contented grazing away.
On our final day we drove up to the moorlands at the top of the hills, the road passes some pretty impressive scenery which changed from semi-rainforest to dense bamboo forest and then up to the almost English looking moorlands. On the road we got fake charged by a buffalo and an elephant trumpted right in my window.
After some slightly dodgy map reading we found the first of the massive waterfalls and Brendan decided upon at bit of fly-fishing just up stream. Not being much of a fisherman myself I sat down and caught some rays instead. Much to his credit Brendan did catch some trout, but they were a wee bit small (sorry Brendan).
We opted to take a different route back to Ol Pejeta, which passed across the top of the moorlands. At the junction there was a ‘road closed’ sign knocked to the ground by an elephant, but we all agreed to try the route anyway. It may not of been the most sensible option but it was damn good fun. The road was very tough and we had a few moments in the mud, which was confounded further by the constant rain. Eventually we found the reason why the road was closed, a section which was being worked on and was in a real mixed state of disrepair. Brendan managed to get across without any real problem and we made it to the gate, unfortunately banging into the side verge on a particularly slippery section, we hit it with some force but the Land Cruiser is a tough beast.
The guy at the gate was pretty surprised to see us as I don’t think anyone had passed that way for months, infact during our entire stay we only ever saw a couple of other people. We arrived back on Ol Pejeta all feeling pretty knackered, and what do you know we end up getting stuck again, in some real boggy tractor tracks. So it was onto hands and knees to dig out the worse of it and then padding out the tracks with branches and dryer soil. After a bit of work we freed the car and got back to the house, where we all collapsed feeling shattered. It was a fun little trip, not a particularly relaxing holiday for Sandra and Brendan but awesome fun for me. (Thanks again guys!)
