The Milgas Adventure..

Okay, I am finally sitting down to finish and post my promised story of a Milgas Adventure!  In mid-February, my husband Reuben and I headed to Ngurunit for the weekend to see our village home and do a bit of work here and there as we went.  The decision to use the Milgas riverbed route was made.  The Milgas river is a wide sandy riverbed that passes between two mountain ranges in Samburu; The Ndotos and the Matthews.  When it is raining, it is filled with water, dangerous and impassable.  When it is dry, it is as good as a wide-open freeway.  That way can be a lot smoother and faster than bumping up the rocky way through Baragoi.  When all goes well.  That is the key statement here.  On this trip, even though it was very dry in February, all did not go well.  And yet in the end, it did.  Life is funny that way.  We get into trouble and struggle and struggle, but at the end of it all, we find that the so-called trouble led us right to the place we needed to be.  That was the case with our experience on this Milgas river trip. One of Reuben’s current projects with his government job is providing camels for pastoralist families Samburu County.  To this end, a group of camels was being trekked in February towards the different distribution points in Samburu North.  One purpose of deciding on the Milgas route was to see if we could intercept them on the way and see how they were doing.  The first part of the journey, about 2 hours, went well, up over a mountain to get to the Milgas, then driving through the riverbed with no problem to a point adjacent to a town called Latakweny.  We had not found the camels, so we just decided to carry on to Ngurunit.  From this point, one has a choice on the way to Ngurunit.  To get out onto a regular road or to keep driving in the river bed.  As the road is rocky and round-about, the decision was made to continue in the river.  Challenging choice, it turns out.  As I said, the climate was very dry in February.  So dry that the continuing section of the river had very heavy, very deep sand.  Too dry.  We managed to go for only about 1 kilometer when the car bogged down in this sand.  With only 3 of us in the vehicle, it was a stomach dropping moment.  Oh no!  How do we get out??!!  With no choice but to try pushing, the struggle began.  Reuben drove while I and the driver pushed.  And pushed.  And pushed.   The car broke free of the clinging deep sand and charged forward to a harder bit where Reuben stopped to let us catch up to the vehicle and climb in.  We continued.  Only for a kilometer or so and the deep sand sucked in the vehicle and we bogged down again, unable to move forward.  Again we pushed.  And pushed.  And pushed.  Free again.  Continue.  Bogged down again.  And the cycle repeated. Over several times till I lost count.  Finally, we who were pushing started to lose strength.  The sand seemed deeper.  The car sinking deeper.  No forward movement.  The light was going as the sun started dropping towards the horizon.  Despair that we would get out of the mess we were in started to grow.  The thought of giving up for the night, starting a fire and hunkering down for a night stuck in the Milgas started to cross our minds.  Though thoughts of elephants and hyenas circling us all night kept us looking for options.  That is when the Samburu warrior walked by.  Saved.  We asked him if he had friends nearby to help push.  Yes, they would be by presently.  We asked if there was a way out of the river onto a firm road.  Yes, look over there on the other bank of the river, between those bushes, a way out with a road straight to Latakweny.  Joy.  We had a chance of actually getting out of the wide river with the dragging sand and finding safe haven for the night, even if we were backtracking a bit.  Of course, it still took a mighty effort of pushing and pushing and pushing, even with 6 guys helping, to get the car moving forward onto firmer ground so Reuben could then race across the river and get out at the place we were shown.  On that last effort, I found myself face down in the middle of the riverbed with sand everywhere one could imagine from the hard push and the spinning wheels as the car broke free and dashed away.  I followed more slowly by foot across the riverbed with the warriors and driver, wiping grit from my teeth, weary from the fight with nature that we had been having for several hours.  As I walked, the sun was setting and nature forgave me for thinking I could conquer the mighty Milgas that day.  Red streaks blazed across the sky behind beautiful waving palm trees in a dazzling sunset, filling me with peace.  It seemed to be saying to me, it is okay you didn’t get to where you are going, look at the beauty of where you are!  The funny thing is, that when we did get to Latakweny to stay the night instead of trying to continue to Ngurunit in the dark, it turned out that this was exactly where we needed to be.  Reuben’s office colleagues found him as they were passing by and were able to give him good news about the camels. We had just missed them earlier in the day.  We also found friends and a comfortable place to sleep which we appreciated so much.  We were being taken care of by the Universe.  The next morning, we continued our travel to Ngurunit, this time using a road, which had its own challenges, but more passable than the riverbed way.  All worked out as it needed to.  As it always does for me in my life of adventure, working and living here in Northern Kenya.