“Look behind you!”
In 2013 we returned to Kenya, this time for a hybrid eclipse over Lake Turkana, one of the cradles of civilisation. Holidays are not without their accidents. I had tripped over someone’s backpack strap while bent over walking to the door of the humvee. I thought it would be a soft landing on the seat, but the seat I chose still had its armrest in place, and I landed fully on my right ribs. Excruciating pain; breathing was painful; I couldn’t bend over.
But there was no way I was going to call a helicopter to fly me to a Nairobi hospital. So I depended on a WhatsApp consult with a classmate who is a doctor — nothing can be done for a cracked rib, provided it hasn’t perforated any organs. I decided to press on and manage the pain.
The next morning we were up in a small propeller plane from Nanyuki to Lake Turkana. After about half an hour in flight I had to tell Dad I was having difficulty breathing, and I was scared. A fellow traveller sitting in front turned to me and said — “Me too!” Whew. We were flying in a non-pressurised plane. Soon we headed down to land, and all was well again. I felt well enough to look out of the window and could actually see lines of crocodiles in the lake, some of them moving onto the land from the water — what an amazing, fleeting sight!
Everything for the eclipse was set up, and then someone came running over — “Look behind you!” An approaching sandstorm, my first. It blew everything away, including the whole tentage; tripods with cameras and telescopes were toppled. We covered our faces to be able to breathe, and sheltered behind a jeep as the sandstorm rushed through. And then it started to rain — the first rain in five years! One of our failed sightings. Very memorable, in many ways.