African meanderings - Part 6 — Long Walks, Organics & African Stuff

The driver slowed as we approached a small clearing among the tangle of tall, thick sisal plants. We stopped and scanned the area with our lights looking for the tell-tale signs of animals’ eyes reflecting back. No luck. The driver put his foot down, and we careened off again to another clearing. Again, no joy. We headed off at high speed to another clearing. Still nothing.

As we sped along, we turned a corner and came to a crushingly abrupt stop as one of the Landrover wheels crashed into a deep hole carved out by an aardvark. The hole was over one metre deep and very wide. John and I were nearly cut in half as we were propelled forward in our “trap doors”. Our spotlights and guns flew from our hands and landed on the track ahead of us. Dimitri had hit his head against the windscreen but said he was OK, the driver wore a seat-belt so was fine too.

Dimitri told me to stand guard with the rifle and spotlight, while the three of them got the Landrover out of the hole. He said to keep my eyes peeled as there were leopards and lions around. As it was pitch black, it was quite unnerving.

Jacking up the front of the Landrover, they were able to fill the hole with the soil that had been dug out. Within an hour, we were back on the road again.

After two more hours of bouncing and crashing over potholes, John and I were beginning to feel very tired. It was now four o’clock in the morning, and we had to get up early the next day. Helen was taking us up to Nairobi by car to get our plane home, via many of Tanzania and Kenya’s Game Parks.

Dimitri called out “This useless is, we home go now!” and told his driver to turn around and return. Just as he did so, John spotted a small herd of impala, about a 150 metres away, and transfixed them with his spotlight. We came to a slow stop, and Dimitri whispered, “Duncan, you have rifle, kill, shoot now, shoot quickly, shoot, kill!” I loaded my gun, while John held the animals mesmerized with his spotlight. I set the range and took careful aim. I slowed my breath and steadied my rifle at the heart of a large, handsome male. “Shoot, quickly Duncan,” Dimitri hissed. “I am,” I said, through gritted teeth. As I gently took up the slack on the trigger, a tiny voice suddenly popped into my head and whispered, “Are you really going to do this, Duncan? Look at that beautiful animal. Are you really going to just.... kill it?” In that split second, I quickly took my finger off the trigger, lowered the rifle and turned to John. He grunted and looked at me with an expression of disbelief. “Well, are you going to shoot it or not?” he exclaimed. I looked at him and replied “I just can’t do it, mate. You have a go, eh?”

With a quiet “whoop!” John gleefully snatched the rifle from me, and I took his spotlight. The herd had gone back to eating grass again, seemingly unconcerned. I couldn’t watch, so I turned to look at John instead. He was utterly transfixed and focused. I tried to understand why he would want to shoot this beautiful animal, just for fun. He steadied himself on the roof of the Landrover and took aim, fingering the trigger gently. His breathing slowed, and I could almost hear his heart thumping rapidly in his chest. I waited for the explosive “Crack!” of the rifle. There was none. “Why for you waiting then? Kill, shoot!” Dimitri squealed in exasperation.

Time seemed to freeze. Then John quietly turned around, unloaded the rifle, put it down and just looked at me. He didn’t need to say anything, we both knew what had just happened.

We sat in silence as the Landrover bounced its way back to Helen’s house. Meanwhile, Dimitri kept shaking his head and mumbling to himself in Greek. John and I thanked him for the experience, had a nightcap and went to bed.

If you would like to go back to the beginning of our adventure, start here - https://duncangoeswalking.squarespace.com/blog-pages/africa-meanderings-part-1