Buffalo Corridor

Men don’t hold hands. They stand shoulder to shoulder, with hands on the shoulders like soldiers going to war, or rugby players ready for a scrum down.  When men hold hands, things are tough.  In the morning after spending the night in the company of the bamboos we held hands. When in trouble, the ego takes a beating and you submit fully, so we held our hands and prayed. Because when His people pray, He hears. We asked for two things; the sun and to find the way, and with that, we set out.

We had a small argument as to how we get out of the quagmire. Hehe. I love using this word. It embodies the situation, and shows the gravity of the mess you are in. My pal and the guard said we should follow the elephant tracks and go down. I said no, we need to go up. I mean, when you are down, the only way is up. Besides, once beaten, twice shy. They had gotten us lost the previous day, today was my day, my day to find the way. We found the tracks, but the guard insisted we go down. I almost objected but remembered he had a gun.

Talking of the gun, since I didn’t sleep the whole night. I had a cheeky thought. What if I creep up to where the guard was sleeping, pick up the gun and hide it in the bushes; then sit and wait for his reaction when he wakes up and doesn’t find it. You know. Just for kicks. I chickened out.

We followed the path downwards following. The path is so clear because when walking, the elephant does not leave anything in its wake. The bamboos we struggled with the whole night bowed when the elephant passed. As if say, ‘all hail the King.’ When we found a dead end, in what seemed like a elephant stable, I laughed, then added, “told you!” I love being right. You know when things go wrong and you remind people that you had told them. I can be that guy. It’s fun and annoying. And fun and annoying is good. I told them, “we have no choice but to go up.” They agreed.

On our way up, I could tell felt stupid going back up the same way, but you know how us men are, and I felt vindicated. Small wins! Hehe. We would spend the next hour walking with very minimal talk. You could tell everyone wanted us to find our way. And for the next one hour, we cut through the bamboo. This time it was not overwhelming. We walked until the bamboo was behind us. Again, the mountain is very interesting, a certain vegetation ends abruptly, no transition, you just get into some new vegetation, no ceremony. Finally, we could see some clouds meaning we were making progress, not yet out of the woods, but well on our way.

When we made our first stop, the guard was stung by a bee. Life’s interesting, we had walked the whole night and didn’t come upon a colony of bees, God does protect his own, yet when we found the light, our guard got stung. I almost laughed, not because being stung is funny, but because of what he said in a Kale accent, ‘heh, na kamenipata.’ But I didn’t laugh, because you know, Karma.

The vegetation here was subtle. Tree spread out like someone had planted them with some sort of accuracy. From that, you could tell that nature is respectful- personal space and all. Though different and fighting for the same resources, trees, shrubs and the grass co-exist. Something the humans can learn. Like we don’t have to all love each other but we can live in peace. 
We finally made it to the top of this hill which didn’t look familiar, but the far flung areas did. The sun was out. And the skies were clear. Prayer one had been answered. If it stayed this way, it was going to be a great day. Ever seen how a baby lights up when they see a familiar face? That cute face when they are teething and they have two small, snowy white upper teeth. That smile that would even make Id Amin mellow? That was us when we saw elephant hill. It was a long way out, but we now had a point of reference.Remember how when new in Nairobi and you happened to get lost, you were told to look out for some landmarks: KICC and Afya Centre are quite popular. We were to look out for Elephant Hill and Lake Naivasha.

We called Rafael the Don. He asked us what we can see around, if he had asked me, I’d have said something stupid. But he asked our guard, he answered with a straight face- partly because he wanted to get out of here and because he had a big bump on the side of his face. He might have smiled but you couldn’t tell.  “we can see elephant hill straight ahead of us, lake Naivaisha on our right…” in the background, I said, “and Wahinya standing behind you.” He didn’t find it funny, yet he could laugh when we saw the hyena tracks, then he would add “Na fisi ni mjinga, naona alikuwa ametufuata kuona kama tutaangusha mkono.” Like this guy laughs when he thinks of a hyena but doesn’t laugh at my jokes.

On the other end, Raphael asked, “can you see something that looks like a path?

Now squinting his eyes, and his palm placed over his eyes to cover his eyes from the bright morning sun, the guard said, “yes.” We could see an unmistakably straight path. It was so far and looked like that trail left by that plane we see once in a while which I am told is used by the metrological guys. When we were young, we were told that that’s what forms the clouds. Sigh! Growing up in the village was hard. But we serve a living God. Look at us now. HeHe.

“That’s a buffalo corridor, aim for that. When you get there, you will have found your way.” Raphael added, and with that, he hang up. It was a highway to heaven of some sort, but with mountains and valleys. Life always imitates nature. There is a way somewhere, but before you find it, you have to go through mountains and valleys to get there. At this point, we could handle the mountains and the valleys. All we needed to do was avoid the cliffs.

The trail was unforgiving. Some places were so steep that going down we had to do it in fours while maintaining our distance. In other sections, we needed to support each other up. If it was too steep, the guard would jump up then stretch out the gun and tell us, ‘shika, na usisike trigger,’ then he would pull us up. It was fun.

Some sections were heavenly, especially near the water ways. We could walk as we listened to the soothing sound of the flowing water. After walking for five hours, we finally found what looked like a trail, but leading to the big trail were smaller trails. Like small tributaries leading to the big river. These were buffalo trails and from following the trails, we learnt that buffaloes are intelligent animals. They follow the easiest route and when there is a river to be avoided, they walk very close to the water falls. Mostly, they use shallow sections not just for easy passage but also for drinking water. Out there, in the woods, life is hard, they do not try to make it harder.

At this point we knew we had found the way. We slowed down and took time to take in the scenery. The ranges spread out in the horizon, the different vegetation that grace range. The ashen white rivers in between the ranges.This time it was beautiful and comforting. And that’s how one feels when they interact with nature, comforted.

The waterfalls have this calming effect, the hills and the valleys are inviting, the clean, uncontaminated water is refreshing, but it is easier to enjoy them when you know where you are going.  But when lost, the hills and the valleys remind you of the many obstacles you have to overcome. The water falls remind you of the lurking dangers ahead. And the cold fresh water feels like a block of ice freezing every bit of you. You feel cornered. Overwhelmed by nature. But when not lost, you talk all that in.

When we finally found a path, there was a huge sigh, the guard suddenly said, “I knew we would find the way. Hatungepotea siku mbili.” We all laughed! The previous day he had panicked and begged us not to call anyone. He didn’t know who we are. Or who we knew. You know how these things work. Nairobi is all about knowing people and dropping names. Thankfully, we don’t know people, maybe people likes Georgie Wamutura, Mike wa pork and Jimmy wa Nduthi. If we called any of those, they’d have laughed and said, “Mwanaume ni kupotea na kukaa ngumu.”

Going up the cliff towards elephant hill takes everything from you. But nothing could stop us. But when you have been lost with no real food for over 24 hours,the ascent takes you out. But we threw everything at it, and it took us a only few minutes to go up. The trek back to the gate was the hardest. It is an all familiar route, but it took us forever. The sun was scorching, and my thighs were on fire. Friction issues.

We finally made it to the gate at around 3:30 pm. Knackered, dirty, cold, but fulfilled. The other guards laughed at us a good one and told us tales of being lost in the mountain as well. Every one of them had their story. The best one was how some guys got lost in some swampy area, then decided to sleep there only to wake up and find that the camp was 500 meters away from the camp. It was hilarious.

Thankfully, they had made some lunch and hot tea for us.

From that, we learnt several things, when lost, even in life, the only way is going up. Also, when lost, don’t lose your head because the legs will follow. Above all, guns are powerful, if you find someone with one, give way. We asked the guard to shoot one in the air to salute the buffaloes for their intelligence, cocked the gun and then smiled...

Image source:moneycrushers.com