so following the Maasai's indications, I carried on on that unmarked track
till a 'big' village. A lone track, no way to miss the village he said.
Though I thought I was going too much to the north, instead of
west... and of course at the village, they all pointed backwards! I just can't
believe there can be so many tracks in this remote area. What's puzzling
is that I didn't even see any crossroads or something similar. But there were
some forks. Drivers want to avoid a bad patch of track and make a little
detour to avoid it, more drivers do the same and it looks like a new track.
Maybe I got confused by such a fork and missed the good one, though the guy
didn't mention any... Big lesson confirmed, don't trust too much what the
locals say and confirm as much as possible whatever they say and ask for
details even if you feel like talking to kids, or vice versa.
Anyway this village being a dead end, I went backwards to a forest
10 miles back. Another puncture made me rethink my plan, the pump
is really not pumping hard at all, my tyres stay soft, lack of pressure.
this pump is going to die on me, I'm afraid. I don't really want to be stuck
with a flat tyre too far. There will be even less cars further than here,
reasonably close to the big road. I need to go back anyway, and nevertheless
the useless indications I got.
so I pitched my camp here, full view of Mt Longido.
I had decided to sleep under the stars, no tent. A bit breezy but I thought the
tent folded comfortably under the thin mattress would overweight the wind.
That evening I still couldn't light a fire! Dried meat, cheese,crackers,
nuts, dried fruit, juice. I wrote a few notes, fixed the puncture, pondered
hand pump bad luck... The sky without light pollution is incredible, the black
is very deep, the stars are brighter, the contrast is higher, and there are way
more faint stars to be spotted. A lot more than in polluted skies around cities.
The Milky Way and some star clouds were also clearly visible...and I felt
asleep quite quickly. At some point I woke up, instantly alert: a hyena
was laughing loudly very close! Hard to judge but it looked between
100 and 200m! I've never been so quick to pitch a tent. Forget the nice
comfy layer under the mattress. Animals rarely attack tents. Famous
last words! I listened to the hyena who came closer still laughing. Then
the tone changed, and another hyena came around. I fall asleep and woke up a
few times that night. Obviously still at it, those hyenas were busy in
social activities. In total I counted nearly 10 different growls, screams
and other vocal exercises. One of them being unmistakably a coital grunt.
After that things became quiet. except for some ant eater who came
to scratch the soil a few meters away from me. He fled when I opened the
tent of course. And another thing walked around, stopped, sniffed...left
the place after 5 min. No clue what it was. Now that happens all the time
in the bush. Nothing special there, specially that I don't wake up easily.
Mt Longido, sunrise. On the left, the second slope is Mt Kilimanjaro
after breakfast, raisons, cereals, dried bananas, dried
mangos, powder milk, juice, I packed my things, tried
to inflate again the back tyre. Since I couldn't I decided
to go home, towards Longido...sad.
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