Day 7: Thorns in Heart and Soles

It was a day of thorns, in a spiky landscape. Tom took a rebound from Daniel that stopped him his tracks as the thorn stuck 1cm into his chest (followed by helpful comments from Daniel about the beauty of 2cm of padding). Daniel also trod on a thorn that our Samburu guide used his spear and teeth the remove, shunning the proffered pair of pliers.
And Emma had a very near miss at the end of the day:
It was spiny, but very few game animals. So instead, we enjoyed the birds (Eastern chanting goshawk, lilac breasted roller, grey headed shrike). And also the trees, many of which had beautiful fruits - either to eat or to see.
No plastic today! The Galana River that we have been on flows from the Athi River from Nairobi. The high water mark is full of plastic detritus. 50% seems to be shoes and flip flops (bizarrely), 30% PET bottles and their lids and 20% other things. But all hard plastic, we don't know what happens to the wrappers etc. But today, we were away from the river in an area very rarely (if ever?) visited on foot - so no plastic rubbish.

And then we came across the signs that we had made it across the Park. Firstly the old railway:
We were in the actual bit where the infamous "Maneaters of Tsavo" killed 10s of railway workers back in the late 1890s. That thought brought a quickening of the pace.

And then the new railway bridge:
So we have crossed Tsavo East! 105km walking so far, we have done 6 days and have 5 to go across Tsavo West. It is also the end of the first week for Daniel and Tom, a tough week ahead with more walking, then cycling further on up the hill to Nairobi. 

It's gonna be hot too - properly hot by the feel of things! 

Click here for a great little film of our route today on Relive. 

Comments

  1. Jo HechleFebruary 2, 2022 at 6:39 PM

    Congrats on completing your first week, chaps! Glad the thorns did not stop play.

    ReplyDelete

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