Africa Beckons (Part 3)

The Tana River Delta

To recap, it was 1978 in Kenya, and I had just been introduced to Alex and Sally Braguine, the couple who would become my partners in a new Kenya safari company. Alex was a bold and brash multi-lingual chain-smoker, a self-styled White Russian of diminutive stature but with a domineering manner and an uncanny ability to ‘get things done in Africa’, which is often no mean feat. As part of his machismo, he feverishly smoked the local filter-less Ten Cent brand of cigarettes, field-stripping the butts and dispersing the tiny pieces, as he had been taught to do when working behind enemy lines in South-East Asia in the Vietnam era. I had never seen anyone but Africans smoking Ten Centies (as they were known by the locals), and this feat alone won him universal and instant admiration among Africans wherever he went, his eyes constantly squinting from the upward curling smoke of the ever-present cigarette between his lips.

Alex had been stationed in Laos in the 1970s, flying Air America missions for the CIA as well as conducting sorties into the jungle, and he was used to living on the edge. The most remarkable feature of his deeply chiseled visage were his ears, which protruded almost at a right angle from the side of his crewcut scalp and beckoned the attention of one’s eyes, even as one tried to be discreet and focus more on his face.

Sally was born in Kenya, and was stereotypically English, meaning she was ever languorous, calm and unruffled, seemingly unaware of Alex’s frustrating peccadilloes and always surrounded by a pack of attentive house dogs. Sadly, the crazy decades of living with Alex would take their toll on Sally in later years, as she descended into an alcohol-fueled escape from reality, finalizing in a timely divorce.

Anyway, with my on-the-spot decision to fall in with Alex and Sally on their madcap Kenya adventures, it was time to say goodbye in Nairobi to my fellow travelers Moi and Caroline. It had been fun being together, while it lasted. Moi had decided to head off to visit Deadeye, a friend from Edinburgh University whose parents had a home in Kilifi at the Kenya coast; and the resulting romance eventually led to marriage and children. Caroline planned to make her way to Lamu Island and relax on the beautiful beaches there, but I do not know what ever became of her.

I formally partnered with Alex and Sally Braguine in early 1979 to form a Kenyan safari company called Sea Sports & Safaris (later changing our name to Adventure Associates). Alex and Sally were eager to show me the estuary of the old course of the Tana River Delta. They had become intrigued about this region while staying in Malindi at the home of Sally’s parents. Talking to locals who professed to know the Kenya coast well, they had discovered that no one actually knew very much about the fifty-mile stretch of coast that lay between Che Shale beach camp (just north of Malindi) and the village of Kipini.

Alex had bought an inflatable Zodiac boat with an outboard engine, having a plan to explore the coast and find out what was really up there. He christened the boat ‘Lufty’ and he and Sally loaded it with a tent and provisions. Early one morning, they waved goodbye to Sally’s parents and set off from Malindi, motoring northward in Lufty, but always staying within sight of the shore. The Zodiac boat had three inflatable chambers: one on each side and then another chamber at the bow.

As the story goes, they were still some ten miles south of Kipini when they noticed that one of the side chambers was no longer firm; somehow it had punctured and was steadily leaking air. They could see bubbles coming up through the water, so some water-borne object must have snagged the rubber skin of the Zodiac and made a hole. Alex and Sally moved the equipment and baggage over to the still-inflated side, and they limped onward, heading in even closer to shore from now on.

Soon they saw breakers on shore, marked by a dip in the high sand dunes that fringe the coastline here, and they deduced from their chart that this must be the mouth of the old course of the Tana River. Since the punctured side chamber was almost completely deflated by now, they had no choice but to head for the river mouth and hope that Lufty would make it that far.

They did not know it then, but coastal sailors had discovered to their cost over the years that the channel through the mouth of the estuary was not where one would expect it to be, a treacherous approach. But Alex was an experienced sailor, able to ‘read the water’ and discern the location of shallow shoals and deep water. Fortunately, the tide was high, and they successfully navigated the estuary without running aground, arriving at a sandy bank on the north side of the river and securing Lufty to a sturdy tree root. They clambered out of the boat and transferred their equipment and provisions to dry land, having just enough time to erect their simple tent before the last rays of afternoon sun disappeared over the treetops of the delta.

The next morning, they disconnected the outboard engine, hauled Lufty onto the riverbank, found the puncture and applied a repair patch. While Sally busied herself with chores in camp, Alex set off to explore the river delta. He came back hours later with wonderful tales of the scenery and wildlife he had discovered. He talked of herds of Cape buffalo, wild and unapproachable elephants, hippo pods at every river bend, swarms of huge crocodiles, lions heard calling in the distance, a variety of water birds, the haunting cry of the fish eagle, and so much more. He had climbed hundreds of feet to the top of the high coastal sand dunes and had looked carefully in every direction; there was no sign of human habitation anywhere. Although he had seen three human figures hidden in the forest, calling out to them in Swahili only caused them to flee.

Still breathless with excitement, Alex exclaimed, “This must be one of the last truly untouched places in all of Kenya!” (to be continued)