In fact it wasn’t till early afternoon that Harry was able to track his uncle down and put forward the idea. He was pleasantly surprised about how receptive Jim’s response was.
“How will you keep your drone powered out there Harry? I seem to remember it doesn’t have that long a battery life once it’s in the air.”
“Well you know we have a solar charger and because we have a spare battery we should be able to land it, change packs and get it up in the air again pretty quickly.”
“Are you up to flying it in rough terrain like that? If it goes down in some thick trees you might well never see it again.”
Harry did his best to maintain a calm expression as he knew Jim had a good point. “I won’t pretend I haven’t thought about that but I have been out working on my skills and am fairly confident. We will be flying it comfortably above the tree line, partly to get the widest angle view but also to disguise the sound of the motors.”
“OK Harry but just for three days and promise me you will take care of Ana. She has settled in so well but never forget what she has been through. If there is any chance you are putting yourselves in danger you are to return to camp straight away.”
“Of course Jim. Thank you and please don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Harry stopped by to see the camp chef Raymond on the way back to his tent. He was always happy to see everyone and his face broke into a huge grin when he saw who had entered his little kingdom.
“I know I’m being a pain but would you be able to put some basics in a cold box. Ana and I are off on the other side of the reserve for three days and we’ll need something to keep us going. Nothing too fancy!”
“I’ll be the judge of what’s good for you Harry and I know what Ana likes too. No secrets from me in this place! I’ll obviously put in the gas camping stove; you can’t spend three days just with cold food and even worse no coffee in the morning.”
“Thanks so much Raymond. You’re a star as always. This is a bit rushed though so I was hoping I could come back in forty minutes.”
“Forty minutes eh. You would think I had nothing else to do in here.” The loud chuckle rang out across the kitchen. “Go on off you go now or I’ll never get this done.”
He found Ana in her usual veranda seat. “Jim has agreed to the idea. Better pack a few things quickly we need to be gone in under an hour.”
“Journalists know how to throw the essentials into a bag in a few minutes. Don’t worry about me, what can I do?”
“Can you meet me at the stores as soon as possible? I just need to get out one of the small camping tents, a couple of sleeping bags and a few other bits and pieces and we can be off. I want to make it to the site I have in mind so that we have an hour’s daylight left to fly the drone today.”
In under half an hour Bluebird was loaded and they had worked through a checklist together. They had done pretty well but Ana had sent Harry back for his toothbrush, reminding him that she wasn’t prepared to sit in a small space for several days smelling his bad breath.
There was a final trip to the kitchen to be greeted by Raymond, a large cold box and a cardboard container with all their cooking gear in. “I managed to squeeze in a couple of bottles of wine for you Ana, but no room for beers on this trip Harry. Bad luck!”
They just managed to fit everything in, packing as tightly as possible so that they weren’t driven mad by endless rattling from the back of the vehicle.
“I feel bad not telling Bethwell and Kilifi our current plan. I trust them completely but you never know, they might accidently let out what we are up to. You understand how people are round the campfire at night and the two of us being away for a few days will naturally have the guys asking questions.”
“I agree Harry it’s not ideal but as we know somehow crucial information seems to leak out of this place. Apart from Jim we’re on our own and that’s the way to be, for the moment anyway.”
Bluebird seemed to positively fly along the track. Zebra they passed scampered off nervously into the bush and some giraffe, feeding serenely with only their heads and tops of their necks showing, looked down with mild curiosity, not even interrupting their gentle chew of the leaves.
It was a perfect afternoon. As so often happened, the severity of the recent storm seemed to have blown away even the hint of further rain. The sky was endlessly blue and they could make out the single silhouette of a bird of prey off to their right but it was too far away to identify.
“When I first came to Uwingoni I only took notice of the larger animals, then the smaller ones and now I’m getting into birds. Did you know that there are over a thousand different species of bird that have been recorded in Kenya? That puts it easily in the top twenty in the world. Six of the top seven countries are in central and South America which has given me a real desire to head off there with my binoculars one day but right now we are living in a bird watchers paradise.”
“I feel they are something I could get into as well Harry. I used to love watching them on my parents’ bird feeders in the garden when I was a girl but when I look back now I can’t really remember the last time I took any serious note of the wildlife around me, until now that is. There always seemed more important things demanding my attention. Sadly I think I am typical of most of my generation. We love watching David Attenborough on the TV and then chatting about the show the next day but that seems to be our dose of wildlife, just something else on a screen.”
“You are so right. Do you know I hardly ever use my mobile when I am here?”
“Strange, me too. It used to be almost glued to my hand, dealing with some deadline or another. Now I chat to my folks just to let them know I am OK but that’s about it.”
They fell into an easy silence, their minds drifting off to different places and situations, the sound of the hard-working engine occasionally bringing them back to the present.
They were reaching the furthest extremes of the spur road which was bumpier than usual as vehicles rarely came this far along the escarpment because there was no way down. The only way back was to retrace their steps.
“I haven’t been up here in a while but there is one perfect little clearing on the left as far as I remember. We need both a decent campsite and somewhere we can safely fly the drone from.”
Within a few minutes the bush seemed to open up and beyond, on the downward slope, they could make out an area surrounded by trees on one side but with quite an open view down to the lowlands at the bottom.
“This looks promising but there is no track so hang on, it will be pretty rocky in places.” Bluebird bumped and crashed her way towards the edge and Harry pulled up just before it started to become too steep, jerked the handbrake on and bounded out of the door.
“Hey Ana this looks perfect for the drone. The edge drops away steeply here so we can take off and land with ease and be able to keep a good visual link for much of the time it is airborne.”
“Agreed but we need to find somewhere really good to pitch the tent. I don’t want to find myself rolling off down the side here in the middle of the night, nor do I relish the idea of trying to sleep on a bed of rocks.”
They did a scout round the little clearing and found a fairly flat area under the shade of a large croton tree with its wonderful flat crown. Moving the more jagged rocks and stones out of the way left a thin area where they could pitch the tent and have the opening looking out to the far away horizon.
“Imagine tomorrow morning Harry as the first glow of the sun begins to light up those hills. Just before you fly the drone we will be able to put the flaps back and it will be almost as though we are the only people in the world. Do you think like that sometimes or is that my rather childish imagination at work?”
“Where would we be without our dreams and imagination? The short answer is yes but what I find odd is that when I look back at so much of my earlier life everything seems rather grey and dull. Somewhere like this unlocks your soul; does that sounds like a lin
e from a bad film, sorry.”
“Who cares? If you can say those words and mean it then that is more than special. Perhaps we should continue this conversation later tonight. We have the drone to launch and the tent to get up. Look, leave the tent to me. It shouldn’t take long. You can get the drone unpacked and in the air and I’ll come over once I’ve finished.”
“You get the bum end of the deal but of course I’m more than happy, thanks. There isn’t much more than a decent two hours of daylight to go anyway.”
Leaving Ana emptying a little bag of tent pegs onto the ground, Harry carefully took the box with all the drone equipment off to the open side of the clearing. He gently put everything on an old rug from the Land Rover. He took the lens cap off the camera and checked that the throttle was set to zero before connecting the battery and then calibrated the sensors. With a final check that the GPS lock was activated so that the drone would return to the take-off spot, he placed it about ten feet away on the flattest piece of ground available. Standing back he slowly increased the throttle speed until it was hovering comfortably.
“She’s airborne Ana come and have a look.”
“I’ll be with you in five minutes. I don’t want to be doing the final tweaks to get the tent sorted out properly in the dark.”
Harry sent the drone out, away from the ridge to start with and gave himself as good an overview as he could by selecting a wide-angle image. The magic of the camera was that when necessary it could zoom in close and examine anything of interest without having to lose altitude to do so. Although the engines made quite an angry buzz when they were close by, he was pleasantly surprised that even though it was still not far away he couldn’t hear it, so hopefully it wouldn’t disturb animals or indeed poachers if there were any down there.
He realised almost immediately the limitations of using the drone in this sort of terrain. It was surprisingly difficult to make out what might be under the tree canopy. The leaf covering from above was far denser than he had realised. It seemed ridiculous, as he had looked down on it so many times, but then it hadn’t really been with a specific aim other than perhaps seeing some interesting wildlife.
Harry tried his best to fly in a particular pattern rather than hover over an area he thought might be promising. He did a sweep to the right then took the drone a hundred metres or so away from him and brought it back to the left. From time to time he detected the movements of small animals as they went unhurriedly about their day but the flight was uneventful.
“How are you getting on, anything interesting?” He had been so intent on the screen that Ana’s arrival took him completely by surprise.
“Everything looks pretty normal but I need to change the battery so as always you have come at a perfect time. Once I have landed it and killed the motors it would be great if you could be there to secure it as the ground is pretty rough almost everywhere.”
The batteries were swapped easily and Ana put the used one onto the solar charger straight away in the hope that the last half hour of sunlight would help to give it some reasonable charge.
The second flight followed pretty much the same pattern but over a slightly different area. The clearest sighting had been of two tiny dik-dik on the edge of a clearing. They had stood absolutely still, allowing the camera to zoom in to such an extent that he could see them in amazing detail. Then suddenly they were gone, spooked by a noise or a scent on the wind.
As Harry brought the drone in Ana could sense his disappointment. The energy of the early afternoon seemed to have deserted him.
“Look Harry, we would have been ridiculously lucky to have anything really interesting on the first evening. Your expectations have to be realistic. We might not see anything but that doesn’t mean this was a bad idea, far from it. Now let’s get the drone stored away and we can see what Raymond has made for supper.”
Everything in the cool box had been labelled and they dutifully followed the instructions. They had decided against a campfire, even though it was normally a key part of being out in the bush. In the total darkness that filled the night in this part of the world they didn’t want to advertise their presence to anyone. They even put a small screen in front of the gas stove although that was also partly to shade it from the wind coming off the slope.
The smell of the chicken curry sizzling in the pan made both of them realise just how hungry they were. Using their naan bread to soak up the remnants of the sauce, left them with spotless plates, and as Harry pointed out saved on too much washing up.
“What is it about African nights?” sighed Ana as she sat back contentedly looking up at the heavens. “There is simply so much space and more stars than you could ever imagine. They even seem to twinkle far brighter than in any other sky I have ever seen.”
“I ask myself stuff like that all the time. I can honestly say there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t find myself marvelling at something or other out here.”
Ana fumbled about in the bottom of the bag, looking for the cork screw. “I knew Raymond wouldn’t let us down. I realise you are more of a beer man but do you fancy a glass of this? It’s South African red, should be quite mellow.”
He held out his glass and then took a couple of sips.
“Can I ask you a personal question Harry? Please don’t feel you have to answer.”
“Of course. I don’t see any reason for secrets between us.”
“Well your dad is Jim’s brother, that is obvious just from the photo you have of him on your desk, they look very alike; and I assume that’s your mum next to him…”
“And you wonder how come I am mixed race when neither of them are? I know because it’s a question I’ve had many times before but strangely, since I’ve been in Kenya, you’re the first person to mention it. Actually it’s quite a simple story in many ways. That is Helen, my step mum in the photo; although in fairness she is the only mum I have ever really known. My dad met my actual mother in a night club in Nairobi just over twenty years ago when he spent a year over here with Jim. They fell in love and I was the result of what was, by my dad’s account, a pretty tempestuous relationship.”
Harry stopped for another slurp of wine. Somewhere in the far distance they heard the roar of a lion. Ana remained silent, giving him time to get his thoughts together. She knew better than many how difficult it can be to verbalise what you have often pushed deep down inside you.
“Mercy, that was my mum, had a real problem with booze. When she was sober she was lovely but once the vodka started to flow she became wild and very argumentative about almost everything. Anyway, one night they were taking the sleeper train to Mombasa with some friends. They played a stupid game of dare which meant getting up onto the roof on one side of the carriage crawling across and coming back in on the other side. It was a narrow gauge railway so the train didn’t go that fast but somehow she lost her footing and fell off the roof onto the side of the track.”
“That’s dreadful Harry. What happened then?”
“One of the others pulled the alarm as quickly as he could and although the train stopped it wasn’t instant, as you can imagine. As soon as it had slowed enough they jumped out of the carriage door and ran back up the railway line. It was pitch-black and they were in the middle of nowhere. They found her about half a mile from the train. She had broken her neck.”
Ana leant across and laid her hand gently on his knee. She had always avoided saying the usual lines of sympathy. She knew they were well meant but somehow always seemed so inadequate.
Harry looked across at her, the small tears just under his eyes glinting mildly in the moonlight. “You are only the second person I have ever told the full story too. I don’t really know why, probably didn’t want to deal with all the questions that were likely to follow. And trust of course, even amongst friends trust is a special gift. It feels good to tell you, it has been lurking down inside me for far too long.”
Ana met his gaze. “And then what?”
“Oh well
, Mercy had never wanted my dad to know anything about her family. There is a story in there somewhere, perhaps that is why she drank, who knows. I was looked after by a nanny for a couple of months and then returned to the UK with my dad. He hitched up with Helen, his old girlfriend, got married and the rest as they say his history.” There seemed nothing else to say, he certainly didn’t want to get into emotional territory.
“Thank you for sharing that with me, I know it wasn’t easy. Look I’m just going to wash the supper things up. You just stay put, gaze up at that sky and dream.”
On the downward side of the tent she poured water from a large container into a small plastic bowl added a dash of washing up liquid and was amazed to see that the stars gave her enough light to work by. She had just finished with the frying pan when she was aware of a rustling in the leaves at the base of the tree almost in front of her. She reached for the torch she had brought with her and shone the beam towards the sounds of activity.
You certainly didn’t have to be a wildlife expert to identify their visitor but what surprised her was how big it was, somehow she had always thought they were just large hedgehogs so she wasn’t quite prepared for something over twice the size of her foot.
“Harry quick, there’s a porcupine over here.”
They both watched as it rummaged about unhurriedly, its surprisingly large claws digging and scraping the ground and the nose at the end of its bristly face twitching and snuffing all the time.
“How brilliant, just look at the size of some of those quills on his back, they must be over a foot long. There are some on his head and neck too. That is why they call this a crested porcupine.” He laughed. “Just listen to me, the expert safari guide. This is actually the first one I have ever seen but I have been reading up as much information as I can on East African wildlife. When you see the light on late in my tent that’s what I’m up to, exciting eh?”
Tusker Page 17
