2 May 2012
The team are starting to assemble in Tiwai. Michele, the vet from Palm Beach Zoo who is an expert in wildlife immobilisation (or anaesthetics to you and me) arrived yesterday after travelling from South Africa where she’s working on another project involved rhinos and lions. Today saw April arrive from Georgia and tomorrow they’ll be making their way from Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, to Tiwai.
I had hoped to arrive in Tiwai ahead of them to make sure everything was ready, but unfortunately work kept me in the office so I had to push my travel plans back to today. It was gone 5pm when I set off. The drive to Tiwai usually takes about two hours and though I don’t normally like driving in the dark, the road is ok and I’ve driven it before so I thought I’d give it a go. (Plus the draw of Tiwai in the evening light was too tempting to pass up!) So I hopped in the car and started on my way.
I was just under halfway there when the storm hit. The rain was pouring down so hard that I couldn’t see where I was going too. The mud road was starting to get slippery and I was driving at a snail’s pace to make sure I didn’t run off the road. I was determined to keep going, but a little while later I found the road blocked by a fallen tree. It was getting dark, the nearest village was too far away to walk to and a man who happened to be walking by confirmed my fears that the road wouldn’t be cleared until morning. There was nothing else for it – I was going to have to turn around, head home and try again in the morning.
So I set off for the second time and had been driving for 30 minutes when – yes, you’ve guessed it – another tree in the road. I was trapped between two fallen trees – great! Luckily I’d just driven passed a small village so I went back and asked for help. Despite the weather, four young men offered to help and they managed to shift the tree out of the road rather quickly and I was on my way again. At least I was until I came across the third fallen tree 5 minutes later and unfortunately for me, this one was a whopper. Just as I contemplated pitching my tent at the side of the road, the villagers came up with the idea of using sticks and planks to build a “bridge” over the ditch at the side of the road to get me around the tree. So 10 minutes later I found myself trying to manoeuvre my car over some planks that weren’t very side and that I couldn’t actually see from inside the car, whilst having to rely on directions from my rescuers to make sure I didn’t end up in the ditch. (Easier said than done when there’s now 10 people shouting different instructions at you!)
Luckily I managed to make it to the other side and six hours after setting off for Tiwai, I was back where I started. I’ll try again tomorrow and hopefully the journey won’t be quite so complicated!