Mount Kenya Trust

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 22 2009 | By: mountkenya

A Sunday Telegraph journalist arrived in Kenya on Sunday to do a story on poaching and bush meat in Kenya. Having linked up with a locally based photographer they started his trip by joining me and some of the guys who make up the Joint Wildlife Protection team on Mount Kenya to pick up part of the story. In our search for snares and snared animals in the forest we got lost in the forest on Monday evening after hearing a heard of elephants and changing direction. The change disorientated the team, most of whom are new to the area we were exploring. We were supposed to be taking a walk for just under two hours but we emereged from the forest five hours later at 9:30pm at night having walked through some of the most dense forest in the country in the dark. Between about 8 of us there were 3 torches and it was difficult to keep moving and stay on our feet, stumbling as we did over roots and creepers and branches. We we scratched to bits by thorns, stung all over our bodies by nettles and beaten in the face by branches. Luckily everyone remained calm and when finally we emerged from the forest onto a track we were very relieved after the unexpected adventrue. The team walked in the forest again for the next couple of days and were fine.The experience has made me think of Gill Tree the lady who now helps the Trust from the UK who, on a Mount Kenya climb some years ago, was separated from her companions and lost for 4 days on her own. The experience changed her life and she is now trying to give back to Mount Kenya. A few hours with a large team is nothing compared to 4 days on your own. The night temperatures alone could kill you not to mention the dangers posed by wildlife and ravines and rocks and streams in the dark. The strength it would take to make it out of a situation like that is incredible. It is also a reminder of the uniqueness of what we are protecting and how hard the guys in the team will have to work to comb the forests for illegal activities. For those of you in the UK the article being researched by David Harrison should appear the Sunday Telegraph magazine in a few weeks time.Back in Nairobi I am still itching from all the nettle stings but more than anything I am itching to be up by and in the forests more than ever, to spend more time with the communities and the environment I am working to protect with the Trust. 

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