Ken Gargett Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 a mate just posted some old photos on facebook. that is the two of us after the most bizarre extraordinary night of my life - in the serengeti. and the other one s a campsite in the southern sahara. i'll expand when i get a chance. 1
LeafLover Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 You look like some actor. Just can't place my finger on who.
free85 Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 You look like some actor. Just can't place my finger on who. Gary Busey? (But not the crazy internet pics of him!)
free85 Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 Ken if this Gary Busey comment I made goes south I'll send you a t-shirt...
Ken Gargett Posted March 9, 2015 Author Posted March 9, 2015 Ken if this Gary Busey comment I made goes south I'll send you a t-shirt... and what possible other way could it go!! as for the shorts, i think i wore them almost every day on that trip until one day in nepal by a river, they literally fell apart and left me running for a replacement. the coat was borrowed that evening from a friend - for those from the west coast of the states, she used to work at chez panisse in the early days.
Jeremy Festa Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 Cool shots. And shorts. If you still had them, you'd be on trend still today! Sent from my iPhone
LordAnubis Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 Where are the lions Ken? The last time I was in Masai Mara I was in the tent closest to the fence. All I kept hearing all night was the electric fence zapping, and lions and cheetahs roaring. 1
Popular Post Ken Gargett Posted March 9, 2015 Author Popular Post Posted March 9, 2015 basically, this was from part of a trip i took on the back of a truck late 80s when i left london. we drove from london across france/spain and then through morocco and back up across the top of algeria to algiers and then down through the sahara, which took about three-four weeks but was mid winter was so seriously cold (i remember when we'd roll up the tents in the morning, they had ice on them and then when they were unrolled that evening, it was still there). i would recommend crossing the sahara to everyone. amazing. then through niger and nigeria and into the jungles of cameroons, zaire (as it was - i left the truck and spent a few days on a river boat ferrying logs up the congo - and yes, i read 'heart of darkness' sitting on the boat), burundi, rwanda (before the wars - just a fabulous fun place - such a tragedy what happened there). here we went to the gorillas. the most truly extraordinary thing i've ever done. spent a couple of hours with them (this was before a lot of restrictions came in). somewhere, i have a photo of one of them, a teenage male called rafiki, placing his hand on my head (about 10 years later, i was watching a doco about the effect of the wars on the gorillas as no one had seen them for many years and no one had any idea if they survived. sure enough, they found them and one of the first featured was now a full grown silverback - rafiki). after that, down into tanzania, kenya (not fond of nairobi). in the serengeti, our truck headed off to look at the hippo pools at sunset - everyone had to be back in the enclosures by evening. it got stuck in the mud before we could get there. so dave, the welsh guy from the photo, and myself hitched a ride with a former mercenary from the rhodesian war who was back showing his wife africa, in their 4WD. i should say on, as there was no room inside. so we sat on the roof as it whizzed through the serengeti at sunset. unforgettable. most thrilling ride ever. then a storm hit. i have truly never been so cold and so miserable. it was torrential. we went over a small river crossing that was an inch deep. eventually made camp and found another truck we had met and convinced them to come back with us to help get our truck out of the mud. that was when i was lent the coat (it was one of he girls from our truck but she had, by chance, switched for a few days before we hit the serengeti). first, they had to thaw us out. we were both near hypothermia. then headed back. when we hit the crossing, less than an hour after we first passed it as a trickle an inch deep, it was now a raging torrent about four foot high. got through and eventually found our truck. they'dd managed to get it out but instead of returning to the enclosure, they went deeper in. the base of the truck was buried level with the ground. and one of the guys suffering from maleria had gone into shock and kept stopping breathing. fortunately we had a doctor on the trip and she kept reviving him. happened all night. scary. we all thought he'd die. even more scary was hen we found our buried truck, we had the had lights on it and a few of us started to walk towards it. in the fresh mud, were very very large paw prints. the rain had only stopped 20 minutes earlier. you've never seen five blokes huddle together tighter and move as a group at such speed. we heard them all evening but never saw them till dawn. i think they get heaps of food in the serengeti so no need to eat us. so then we had to try and get the truck out but it was stuck solid. we went back to the second truck and it was also buried. so we spent the next 8 hours digging and pushing this truck to try and get it out, with aa full crew on it. in 8 hours, we made 6 kilometres. it was the hardest, toughest, most back-breaking work i have ever done. several times literally fell asleep while pushing and fell face into the mud. but 6 kilometres got it to the road so back to the enclosure and cleaned up (the photo is actually after we cleaned up - before, we met a bunch of americans on safari in their matching shirts and long white socks. we were the feature of the day and had to line up for endless photos. only when one sent me one of the photos did i realise the fuss - we looked like the mud people of PNG). we got a front end loader and went back and dug out our truck. i slept the rest of the trip through the serengeti. after kenya, flew into ethiopia for a few days, then flew to khartoum for a few days then the train (and i have a million stories about all this) to wadi rum or wadi half - i forget which. we had to wait a week to hitch a ride on a steamer up the nile into eygpt up to the aswan dam. then partly river, partly driving up to cairo. across to syria and jordan and up into turkey and then took about ten days to drive across iran. then drove all along the top part of pakistan through townss like peshawar (not today!!) and into lahore. i recall we had 10 days all over 48C degrees with the final day in lahore reaching 53C! and high high humidity. then into india. best part was up in kashmir. truly beautiful. just before the locals started beheading tourists and it was all restricted. across to varanessi and up into nepal. planned three days in nepal but loved kathmandu so much, spent a month. most fun town ever. did the rafting - one river had the "5 level" or whatever you call it. then i spent a couple of months in thailand, mostly on koh phanghan - just before they started the beach parties - before going home (i did manage to somehow end up on working boats up into indonesia up the rivers as i wanted to see the orangtans but got crook and had to return to singapore) and then going to DC (HTTR) to work. 5
LordAnubis Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 How long did all that take ya Ken? An awesome adventure!!! Bet city life is boring after all that
Ken Gargett Posted March 9, 2015 Author Posted March 9, 2015 mus, london to kathmandu was about 7 months. then a month in kathmandu and then 2 in thailand (a little in malaysia, indonesia, singapore. had a month or so at home before heading off to DC (HTTR). just an extraordinary year. recommend everyone try that - or at least whatever version is possible today - while young. life-changing and something you'll never regret.
LordAnubis Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 I'm adventurous, but no way would I be hitchhiking in Africa today. Travelling in my own vehicle with a good supply of parts etc and a lot of preparation and precautions, sure, but no way hitch hiking.
El Presidente Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 How long did all that take ya Ken? An awesome adventure!!! Bet city life is boring after all that He replicated the wilds of Africa with the interior design at his place 1
Ken Gargett Posted March 9, 2015 Author Posted March 9, 2015 He replicated the wilds of Africa with the interior design at his place and, after that, if you want to get into them tomorrow for the vid, bring something special. actually, i have art two of your birthday present to be opened for the video but if you don't bring a suitable smoke, i'll be leaving it and drinking it myself. mus, we were on a truck that was semi-organised. not hitching. we hitched with the 4WD simply as we needed helped. other times i left the truck was usually when i paid a crew to go by river and we'd meet the truck at a designated spot.
LordAnubis Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 Ken, question, how many people ask you "Did you see an tigers in Africa?" I f#$%ing HATE that question... not sure if the people are joking or if I should murder them to prevent their stupidity being passed on to future generations.
Ken Gargett Posted March 9, 2015 Author Posted March 9, 2015 Ken, question, how many people ask you "Did you see an tigers in Africa?" I f#$%ing HATE that question... not sure if the people are joking or if I should murder them to prevent their stupidity being passed on to future generations. mus, when i worked in DC (HTTR), i'd so often get - we just love your lions and tigers. they had no idea of australia/africa or that they didn't co-exist. what was extraordinary was that in a market in morocco, one of the girls bought a wooden carving of a lion, covered in fur (rat hair, i suspected). it was about two foot long and 18 inches high. we'd just tie it to the side of the truck to keep it out of the way, yet when we'd drive into a village, it would often send the villagers into fits of genuine terror. several times saw people collapse in true terror. screaming and shaking. we worked out that most africans knew what a lion looked like but they had never seen one and had absolutely no idea how big they got. they just knew that they were incredibly dangerous and would eat them and they would see a "lion" attached to the truck and it would all be too much. hard to imagine but absolutely true.
madandana Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 You look like some actor. Just can't place my finger on who. Sorry, I have to say Redford.
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