I had arrived
mid-morning for the last stint of the season at our Fig Tree bush camp, hosting
3 elderly Roman Catholic sisters, missionaries from the USA, who were staying
for 2 nights in our tree tents. One of the ladies walks with a stick so we knew
it was going to be a challenging couple of days… getting in and out of a game
viewer is tricky enough for the fully-mobile, let alone climbing up and down
treehouse steps 3 or 4 times a day.
Anyway, they set off
on their first sunset game drive around 430pm and shortly before sunset we got
a radio call from David, their guide, saying they were at the hippo pool and
the vehicle was pumping smoke from under the bonnet, could I go with the second
vehicle to swap cars. No problem I said, I wasn't entirely sure which pool he
meant as there are several in the area and all are imaginatively referred to as
hippo pools, so I set off for the closest and found no-one. I was now on the
wrong side of the water, so when I found them at the next pool, I had to take a
short journey around the pool to reach them. Their vehicle was no longer
smoking, but we switched anyway in case it was something serious. I set off
back for camp, leaving them to enjoy their sundowners. I hadn't got more than a
mile when I found myself half way up the far side of Savannah crossing with
what felt like a snapped accelerator cable. The last place I wanted to be stuck
was back down in the bottom of the gully, so, with no handbrake, I stuck it in
gear and switched off the engine. The vehicle held half way up the steep side,
the roof was almost level with the top of the gully, but sadly not high enough
to be seen by any passing vehicle.
The replacement
vehicle I had swapped with David had no radio in it, so there was precious
little I could do except run back across the gully and see if I could catch his
attention across the grassland - so I jumped from the vehicle, quickly flashed
my torch up and down the river bed for Leopards, and ran… in my haste to leave
camp, I had only brought my flip flops, which broke on the rocks after the
first two steps, leaving me bare foot clambering up the far side of the gully -
but it was all to no avail; David had already set off using a different road.
Bugger. I called the camp, and waited
for David to return with the guests and receive the news that it was his turn to rescue me.
It was getting dark
fast, the Tsetse's were swapping shifts with the mosquitoes and the nightjars
were starting their evensong. Despite the slightly serious situation I was in,
I was treated to a spectacular lightening show both in front and behind which
lit up the gully and surrounding trees.
The puku started an alarm whistle in front of me and I swung the torch
back and forth a couple more times, desperate not to waste the battery, but
keen to see what they might be concerned about. I could only run the engine and
vehicle lights if I held the foot brake down at the same time and since I was
not entirely sure how long they would take to find me I didn't want to risk it
unless absolutely necessary.
Not sure how much
time passed, but there came the sound of a distant vehicle behind me and I
turned to see lights bouncing in all directions through the trees… it could
only be David heading back to camp with the guests. I thanked the gods that
he'd chosen this direction to return. I turned my torch on once more so that he
could see me and my stranded vehicle now blocking his way through the crossing
and climbed out into the darkness to meet him on the other side.
After some fiddling
around with the cable under the accelerator pedal I was off again and gingerly
picked my way back to camp, stopping only to watch a genet foraging by the
roadside and listen to the lions roaring in the woodland. Where else in the world could a near disaster end in pure Magic?
