Day 21

Raining all night made the decision to leave even better founded. Collecting the traps when we went for our last check and bringing them back to the car at 4:30am. This was the start of a long day. Rain tapered off a bit but was always present with longer or shorter showers. After breakfast we started to pack our camp up and loaded our car. It all went very smoothly, in spite of the weather conditions. It is a joy to work with experienced field staff!

Simon is a happy camper in spite of weather!
(Photo by Andrew Perkin)

After kicking off as much mud from the shoes as possible (about 1 kg per shoe) we started our journey. With 4-wheel drive on we slid down the first section of the road, still on it though, and the adventure begun! What once looked like a road, or forest path, was now more of a trail of red mud paste. Trying to cross a small creek on a log-based “bridge” with dirt on top the car started to slide towards one side of it. The fall wouldn’t have been long, just a meter or so, but it would’ve meant that the car would be lodged and impossible to get up without some serious winching or crane lifting it.  However, with a joint effort from Said, Habibu, Andy and a local guy’s pick ax Abeid managed to drive the car safely over.

Having some problems crossing a creek. Car seems to slide
to the right...(Photo by Andrew Perkin).

Next major obstacle was a part of the “road” that now had disintegrated into a field of mud. If you didn’t know that it was a road here you would never had guessed it by the look of it. After careful planning of which line to take, diff-lock on, Abeid went for it! Some sliding and a tail-end of the car making a long uncontrolled swivel we got out of that too. Not your ordinary car ride exactly but it got us from point A to B and it did that safely.

Said (right) seems to think: Is this a road I see in front of me?
Abeid thinks so and is running back to the car
(Photo by Andrew Perkin).

The rest of the road was actually road and the long journey to Dar es Salaam could continue. Returned to Andy’s house around 8pm. A long longed and needed shower made all the difference. What was that smell? Hmm, it’s the clothes I just wore…

Andy get some company by Simon's foot -
it was a long journey!