You just gotta take the good with the bad

Don’t they say truth is stranger than fiction? Because the past few days have been some of the most bizarre in my recent memory. I'm on the mend from the recent attack on the mean streets of the Mosh. Going through bureaucratic hoops, filling in Police forms, required to have a Govt Hospital Doctor look at me (to verify amongst other things that I did not get injured while committing a crime..) etc I’m pretty upbeat about it all, stitches are healing nicely, no gangrene yet
;-) Everyone here, from staff, to people on the street have been really cool about it. Moshi is such a sleepy little town, it’s certainly not the norm. But I think some martial arts may be on the cards when I get home..

So anyway, before all that, wifey and I had planned to go chill with our kiwi volunteer peeps in Arusha. We decided to do the 6 hour trek from Arusha to Lake Natron near the Kenyan border. Lake Natron is home to thousands of flamingos. Plus we would get to see the (still active) volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai (Massai for ‘Mountain of God’).

After collecting camping gear and loading up the 4WD we set off early Saturday morning. Saw giraffe, zebra and gazelles on the drive. I was excited to be driving through the Great Rift Valley, we had the immense escarpment of the valley on our left as we headed towards the lake.

It’s pretty empty out there, especially once we passed the last sizeable Masaai village and were out alone in the wilderness.

Unfortunately sometimes things just go a bit haywire. Some kilometres past the village trying to avoid an animal and on loose gravel, our land rover fishtailed...which would have been okay but we had a culvert on our right side. We ending up rolling into the culvert. A few tense moments followed making sure everyone was okay and existing a vehicle on its side. We were all unhurt, bar a few cuts and bruises. The vehicle is diesel powered so no real risk of a fire, which is always a bonus. What was a concern was that we were in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone reception on a road that was not heavily used by traffic. A nice Maasai tribeswoman who had seen the crash came up to give support.

We were ready to start hoofing it the long way back to the Maasai village when another vehicle turned up. It was a tour guide with a French guy who’d worked in Wellington for a year or so (he really liked Petone) whose career was in vehicle accident insurance. Like I say, you can’t make this stuff up. The next while was spent carefully unloading a teetering landrover and using the other vehicle to try and get it on its chassis.

Our vehicle soon was stuck on an angle on a rock and would not budge. More and more Maasai (including a lot of kids) were slowly leaving their herds in the distance to drift over and see what was going on. They were fascinated by our cameras and the blonde hair of one of the kiwis (‘Simba’ they said to each other about her lion locks). A Maasai woman fashioned a little ring out of a gold toe ring she was wearing for Franatee.

As fate would happen, two more vehicles turned up: a motorcycle and a carload of burly Tanzanians. Soon everyone was hacking away at rocks, grabbing rocks and pitching in. Lots of different languages-English, French, Swahili, Maasai-all flying around.

I noticed one of the Tanzanians stretched out his hands over the vehicle to pray and with one final push and pull we got it free. One side of the vehicle was pretty wasted but we were elated to get it (upright)on the road again.

We thanked everyone profusely (the Maasai loved all the food we gave them as a thank you, that we had taken to go camping). We set off in a convoy taking the damaged vehicle back to Arusha. I did like the Police roadblock that stopped one of our cars, while our-shall we say- less than roadworthy landrover trundled through!
So back in Arusha, cleaned up and the ‘Rift Valley Survivors Club’ had a drink. Or two. Yes, we dodged a bullet methinks, but that’s life. You move on, you learn, you adapt. I have been reflective about mortality and spirituality lately. And keen to chill out for a bit!