Mini World Adventure Part 3

In Kenya,we were looked after by our main sponsor Compair Holman’s who were based in Camborne but had branches all over the world. We were put up in the Jacaranda Hotel and the cars were left at their workshops where I had more time to complete repairs before we set off south. 
We were also joined by our second cameraman and The Reverent Roger Royal from Save the Children Fund.

We had a fairly major problem to overcome first, and that was the Border with Tanzania was closed as both countries were in dispute. We spent several days at various embassies trying to get permission. Eventually we took the matter into our own hands and drove west into the Masai Mara National park hoping we could cross at the very small border there. 
In fact this turned out to be one of the most enjoyable sections of the whole journey, driving for mile after mile through the African plain with the wildlife almost in touching distance.

The list of animals from Elephant, Giraffe, wildebeest, all sorts of Gazelle, water buffalo warthogs, Hyena  cheetah, Hippopotamus, Ostrich,  vultures and although we didn’t see we certainly heard the Lion.! 
The road was single track and late one afternoon we came to a small river, The cameraman said it would be a great place to do some shots of the cars splashing through the water.

 So he set up the camera in the reeds and asked us to drive quite close together across the stream and of shot. We ‘revved’ up the cars and I followed Tony through the stream, unfortunately just the other side was deep sand and both cars became stuck fast, it was a dried up river bed and like being back in the Sahara. 

The sand went on for about 60 meters through 5 foot high reeds, we tried to move the cars but the only option was to dismantle the small bridge about 100 meters further on and take the wooden planks back to the cars to drive over the sand. By the time we had planned and starting taking the bridge apart it was getting dark. We set our tent up between both cars and cooked our evening meal. It does seem crazy now looking back but this was the road between Kenya and the Tanzanian border and we are completely blocking it.

We were also warned not to camp out at night and just as it got dark, which happens very quickly near the equator we started to hear the roar of a lion, Our fearless cameraman ran to the car shut the doors and locked himself in, still can’t understand why he locked the doors?  We got ourselves into the tent, but our sleeping bags were in the cars, the roars got louder as the lion approached obviously coming to the stream for water. We spent a cold nervous night without a lot of sleep and at first light got to work extracting the cars. As soon as we cleared the sand we had to rebuild the bridge and by late morning where on our way again.

We reached the border mid afternoon and caught the guards by surprise as they were fast asleep, I don’t think they had many people crossing. After we woke him up we had to explain how to complete the’ carnet-de-passage’ for our film equipment (this paperwork is to prevent high value items being sold in the country) and in fact we completed the forms and stamped the Carnet.

After passport control in Tanzania, again a sleepy guard in a small hut we were into the Serengeti Park the road then climbed to Ngorongoro crater arriving as it got dark. This park has one of the highest levels of wildlife per square km in the world, we stayed in the lodge edge of the drop. When we woke we were shrouded in mist and very cold but as soon as the sun rose and burnt it off we were rewarded with the amazing view of the old volcano, teaming with animals. It was here I saw a child playing with an old coat hanger made into a circle and a stick, it was quite humbling knowing the demands of children at home for the latest ‘must have toy’.

We drove on through Tanzania, it was not the friendliest of countries and in fact the cars had stones thrown at them several times. It was incredibly poor especially in the countryside. One of the coldest nights of the whole trip was whilst waiting for the border crossing here.