Almost 4 years ago, I related a story about my 3 months in Kenya. At the end of that post, I promised one day to tell some stories about being chased by Baboons, Lions and, a Hippopotamus. Here is the first of those stories:
It all begins nearly thirty years ago, when I was but 19. That year, I graduated from high school. Also in that year, I had the incredible good fortune to be selected for a student exchange program known as AFS, and was sent to Kenya, in East Africa, for the summer. As part of the experience, all 20 exchange students, in the weeks before leaving the country, took a tour to the port city of Mombasa. We boarded our bus early one morning, after stopping to buy two cases of what I was told were pawpaws. As the morning progressed we each took a piece of this fruit, took a bite and promptly spit it out. It was un-ripened, the nastiest stuff you could imagine, with a consistency of sand, and the flavor of cardboard, with a hint of bitterness. Yuck! Now, it happened that our route took us through Tsavo National Park. Throughout the drive, we kept our eyes peeled for signs of wildlife (I’d already been to another park, so I’d see much of the African fauna,) but all we saw were the distant humps a far off elephant herd, and the heads of far-off giraffe sticking above a copse of stunted savannah trees. Finally, we came across a troop of baboons close enough to the road to provide the opportunity for photography. We stopped the bus, and John, the head of the AFS program stepped out, accompanied by myself (I WAS 19, after all!) and another boy, leaving strict orders to the rest of the folks to stay on the bus.
While the baboons were close, they were a little too far away to get good pictures of. They’re brown animals, and the terrain was mostly brown dirt with brownish brush, and well, they all tended to blend together. We needed to draw them closer in. But how? Ah, here was a way to get rid of that nasty fruit. So we unloaded the two cases of nastiness and began to toss the fruit, one by one, to the troop, drawing them close. Well, those folks on the bus, they weren’t happy. They wanted to get better photos! So… they got off the bus.
By now, the troop was close enough to count their teeth… and see the whites of their eyes! If I’d been at Bunker Hill, I’d have been shooting LONG before they got this close! Have you ever seen a baboon close up? They’re not too large, about the size of a 10 year old, maybe…. But with teeth, no, FANGS that are huge! In fact, I read somewhere that their fangs can be much larger than a lions! A troop of baboons, when angered, can be extraordinarily dangerous. Well, I looked into the box of fruit to get the next piece and realized we’d emptied one box and had maybe 6 or 7 left. By this time, our troop was getting into a feeding frenzy, and their sounds were getting irritable.
John, our leader, seeing the same lack of fruit, frantically called for everyone to get on the bus, and to their credit the kids rushed to comply. John and I, and the other boy did our best to dish out the fruit, as the last of the group jumped aboard the bus. The other boy then jumped aboard. Then, all gallantry thrown to the wind, John shoved me aside, and jumped into the bus, screaming at the driver “Go! Go! Go!”. The driver complied leaving me with a troop of angry baboons. Well, these legs of mine never ran so fast! I’m sure a Hollywood director could have made one heck of a funny comedy filming this… a bus quickly picking up speed, a screaming teenager running frantically to catch up… and a troop of 50 howling baboons streaking after them! With my last ounce of strength, I grabbed the rung of the ladder next the door and pulled myself in as the lead baboon sprung at me.
On The Road II 