In the news
Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:38 am
You know when someone well known is in the news and you think: "Oh, that's interesting/sad/whatever", last night my ears pricked up at the announcement on the news that Richard Leakey had died - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59855445 Why? Well I happened to meet him almost 40yrs ago to the day.
We'd been climbing on Mt Kenya and were now sight seeing and visiting Meru National Park (this is one of the areas where the Adamsons were based for "Born Free") and we'd got our 4WD stuck so two of us headed to the park lodge to get help. A youngish lad picked us up at the gate and drove us up to the lodge. There was a group on the verandah, "This is my mother and father who manage the park and this is Richard Leakey" so we sat there chatting and having tea waiting for the staff to finish their siesta before heading back to rescue the others. Richard Leakey headed back to Nairobi and we went to recover the other two in our group and the vehicle.
What happened next felt a bit like an intro to a movie. While the vehicle was being repaired (we'd got stuck in a river) the four of us had a beer with the guy and his parents. Part of the discussion was about poaching, the reason Richard Leakey happened to be there as it was shortly after he introduced the shoot to kill policy regarding poachers, and while we were chatting the son got out an assault rifle and began to strip it down and clean/check it.
"Going out tonight?"
"Yeah, there was a group of Somali poachers spotted last night about 25km away."
Apparently Somali poachers were the main problem and could travel 40km through the bush on foot at night. It was now night and we were on a lit porch, sitting ducks! Also because of the shoot to kill policy there was no travel/movement in the park after dark and we were about 10km from our hotel. The next question was jaw dropping, the father asked:
"Do you need any helicopter gunships?"
We were in the middle of a bloody war zone!
Eventually our vehicle was fixed and they radioed round all the rangers and staff to say that a group of four tourists were heading from the lodge to the hotel and not to shoot them. A bit of a butt clenching drive back
We'd been climbing on Mt Kenya and were now sight seeing and visiting Meru National Park (this is one of the areas where the Adamsons were based for "Born Free") and we'd got our 4WD stuck so two of us headed to the park lodge to get help. A youngish lad picked us up at the gate and drove us up to the lodge. There was a group on the verandah, "This is my mother and father who manage the park and this is Richard Leakey" so we sat there chatting and having tea waiting for the staff to finish their siesta before heading back to rescue the others. Richard Leakey headed back to Nairobi and we went to recover the other two in our group and the vehicle.
What happened next felt a bit like an intro to a movie. While the vehicle was being repaired (we'd got stuck in a river) the four of us had a beer with the guy and his parents. Part of the discussion was about poaching, the reason Richard Leakey happened to be there as it was shortly after he introduced the shoot to kill policy regarding poachers, and while we were chatting the son got out an assault rifle and began to strip it down and clean/check it.
"Going out tonight?"
"Yeah, there was a group of Somali poachers spotted last night about 25km away."
Apparently Somali poachers were the main problem and could travel 40km through the bush on foot at night. It was now night and we were on a lit porch, sitting ducks! Also because of the shoot to kill policy there was no travel/movement in the park after dark and we were about 10km from our hotel. The next question was jaw dropping, the father asked:
"Do you need any helicopter gunships?"
We were in the middle of a bloody war zone!
Eventually our vehicle was fixed and they radioed round all the rangers and staff to say that a group of four tourists were heading from the lodge to the hotel and not to shoot them. A bit of a butt clenching drive back