Dear friends
When we got back to Uganda after my leukaemia treatment,
Chami was anaemic and thin while Nali was flat and on his forehand. We did
blood tests and the vet found babesia and theileria (tick borne diseases) in
Chami and babesia in Nali, as well as a hind hoof abscess. Just before we
treated I had the vet take blood samples again from the tail, ear and dock. No
sign of babesia or theileria… We treated anyway. Christine and I pumped them
full of multi-vitamins and herbs that Honeyvale Herbs (SA) had sponsored. We
also injected iron and vitamin B12. Whether or not this had any effect we don’t
know but it made us feel better.
The fitness training programme was too much for both boys. I
also felt Nali’s hip give during an early morning session. An old injury during
his castration when they roped his hind leg behind his ear. We gave the boys
rest and then decided to use our good friends Bob and Laura’s method of
bringing an endurance horse back into work. Starts with 3 months of just
walking. So we walked the boys in Lake Victoria; walked them on the hard gravel
roads to get their hoofs tough as well; towed them behind the Landrover so they
weren’t carrying weight.
Our 3 month visa had to be extended for 2 months to get the
boys walking fit and even then we planned only to walk through Tanzania doing
20km per day. This meant Christine and I had to do a lot of walking ourselves
because our kit with horse feed means we ride between 90 and 120kg. This
extended period gave us the opportunity to spend our birthdays, Christmas and
New Year with wonderful friends. Christine loved Uganda’s lifestyle and
wonderfully kind people. She was also surrounded by animals and was in her
element. When the day in January 2013 came to leave it was a very tearful
experience. Nobody wanted the wonderful 5 months to end.
We trucked to Backpackers in Kampala, our last riding point
in 2011. Christine was so sad and yet excited to be on the road again…
John Hunwick of Backpackers organised a police escort for
the restart of our journey through the centre of Kampala to Port Bell. We
turned many heads while flying the African Hoofprints, Long Riders Guild and
South African flags. Got cheered the whole way and stopped to be interviewed by
the main television station for East Africa. Christine gave a lovely interview.
At Port Bell we encountered theft, the wheeler-dealings of
the ferry captains and the direct approach of Port Authority, Customs and
Immigration for bribes. The little boys who stole my headlamp out of a closed
tent got the shock of their lives when they were caught by passers-by. Same passers-by
gave them the hiding of their lives for embarrassing Uganda. The father
embarrassed me when he came hat-in-hand to apologise. The kids never gave up
the headlamp but fortunately I had a spare. A headlamp is vitally important to
the way we travel.
The ferry Captain and the Head of Port Authority took pity
on us eventually and had the freight charges and passenger charges radically
reduced with phone calls to the Tanzanian Shipping Company. The Customs and
Immigration officers signed and stamped everything with not a bribe being paid!
All wished us well and we swopped email addresses to keep in contact.
Friendships take time though but are well worth the effort.
“Be ready at 11h00 to load your horses and get the load of
sand for bedding ASAP!” “No, this is too much sand who will clean it up!”
Duh!! By 3am next morning I sent an
exhausted Christine to bed. 04h00 we were ready to load and by 05h00 ready to
set sail for Tanzania. I had loaded the horses leaving my Treasure, the love of
my life, to sleep. When she awoke, as we set sail, I was in big trouble!! I had
not woken Christine to load her own horse and she was livid never mind how
caring I was being… It was in my best interest to find a quiet spot to get my
head down and sleep with plenty of apologies later. (21hours to Mwanza)
The ferries are massive! You can fit a whole train,
including locomotive, side-by-side on the deck. Our ferry however had maize on
and below decks. Must have cleared Uganda of all its maize… The maize is
supplied by small scale farmers at one to two tons each. The ferries need to be
reversed into a specialised dock in order to drive lorries and the trains on
and off. Even though the bloke guiding the captain by radio into the dock was
speaking Swahili you could feel the tension between them, and boy did it get
heated…
The Tanzanian Port Authority had decided before anyone could
disembark that the horses needed to be taken care of first! The veterinary
officer, a nice guy, was most satisfied with the health, documentation and
behaviour of the boys. (Their behaviour impresses everyone!) He assisted us
with customs, immigration, shipping company and Port Authority.(Who charged us handling
fees ha, ha…) When it got too late to leave he organised a safe spot to camp
and ablutions. The boys had thick lush grass for the night. When I asked if
there was anything more that I must do he simply said; “Yes you can give me
phone money” (A tip)
This set the tone for Tanzania and upset Christine and I
greatly. Where ever we had been people had been so kind to us never wanting
anything in return. We usually tipped but on our own terms. The second thing
that upset Christine is people who asked for money pleading poverty when
clearly they were not. We had lived with the extremely poor and knew the
difference. Young guys would cycle up to Christine on a fancy bicycle, take a
photo with the camera on their phone then ask for money. We finally came to the
conclusion that tourism, mainly westerners, had probably created this
situation. We were more understanding and just said “no” without being
judgemental. At this point we both started enjoying Tanzania and its people
more. What a beautiful country! Lovely huge plains with small hills. Mainly we
saw cattle farming and rice paddies.
Plenty of waterholes for the boys to enjoy.
Suddenly the beggars were few and far between and the kind,
generous people were everywhere asking us to eat with them and chat. Hundreds
of people took to following us just to experience the horses and foreigners
that were prepared to engage. The noise level was huge as if we were at a
football match. We met fantastic people where we overnighted. The Witch Doctor
we stayed with watched us closely to see our reaction when he told us what he
did. Christine and I have seen it all and Witch Doctor was deflated when these
2 foreigners thought that only slightly interesting. We had a terrible
experience in Old Shinyanga town where we stopped briefly to buy a cool drink
and water the horses. A soldier, only a private, screamed in Christine’s face
that she must leave immediately. I got back to find a seething Christine
starting down the road with our horses. I had never seen her so angry!
An Indian Moslem family stopped on the road and invited us
to stay at their house in Shinyanga Town, 2 days ride away. When we got to the
outskirts of Shinyanga I gave Abu Bakr a ring and he told us to meet his
brother on a motorbike. By the time we got to his brother we had a huge crowd
of a couple of hundred following us and no matter what we said or how fast we
went we just couldn’t shake them. When we got to Abu Bakr’s house we had to tie
the boys outside so people could have their photos taken with them. Later
Christine gave them a galloping demonstration on Nali which they all loved.
Abu Bakr is the Youth League leader of the governing party
and his dad is the Mayor of Shinyanga. We spent an extra day with them and I
went exploring the outer lying districts and Christine socialised and spent
time fussing over the boys. Later the Youth League came to have their photos taken
with Christine and the horses which they will turn into a calendar. Abu Bakr’s
family were wonderful; feeding us, doing our washing and giving us the main
room to stay in. We were all well rested! Kind family!
The following day was hard particularly after the rest but
the horses were going well and dealing so well with the crowds following us. Drunkenness
is a problem in all countries but for some or other reason we could not avoid drunken
people that day. We asked if we could overnight in the village of Samuye. They
asked us to pay for horse’s drinking water for the first time on the journey. I
paid with a bitter taste in my mouth! Christine was more disappointed than
angry and told me in no uncertain terms we were moving on to get away from the
drunks and greedy people.
We overnighted at the village of Kijjicha Bingo 3km away.
The headman’s wife gave Christine her last water for our water bottles and to
wash in. I remained grimy but Christine smelt wonderful. We ate maize meal and
spinach with Mabula, the headman. The maize meal burnt our “tenderfoot” fingers
and the spinach was full of sand but it could have been Sunday roast we were so
famished. It had been lovely to meet Leah, a nurse, who translated for Mabula
and his family’s kindness made Christine feel better. She slept well so in the
morning when it was drizzling at feeding time and I got the look that means
“you’re feeding the horses!”
I came back to the tent and had a snuggle with my wonderful
companion who I was so in love with. We packed up when the rain stopped and the
sun came out (07h00). Strangely it was the earliest we had managed to get on
the road even with photos with the village elders and Mabula. (08h03)
We always walked our horses the first 5km. It was a long
downhill with beautiful surrounding views. Christine took some photos. Already
we had at least 70 people following us. Small kids through to old grannies, a
dwarf making fun of her size.
Four buses came hurtling past and it looked as though they
were racing. We crossed over the road onto the left which was more open and had
space for all the people following. When we got to the bottom of the hill the
river forced us to the shoulder of the road in order to cross the culvert.
There was a truck (horse and trailer) coming slowly towards us (vehicles drive
on left hand side) and a truck (horse and trailer full of cement) going in the
same direction as us. Last mentioned truck had slowed down next to us to take
photos of Christine. I was worried being so close to the road that the kids
might walk in the road and get run over by speeding buses.
I was in the process of telling Christine to get well off
the road when the bus side glanced me from behind. I got thrown about 7m sideways
into the riverbed. I woke, stood up and fell like a stone. My femur head was
broken off. (08h40)
I crawled on my bum towards Christine who had been knocked
some 50m away. I knew she was dead and despair entered my heart.
I worked out that the speeding bus had come up behind the
truck with the intention of overtaking. When the driver finally realised he
would have head-on collision with the on-coming truck he decided to go off the
road through us. He hit Christine and the truck with cement at the same time. 3
people killed and 23 injured some quite badly, all with cement in their wounds.
Miraculously both horses which were between us and the bus escaped death. Chami
had a graze on his bum and Nali unfortunately grazed through the front of his
right hind fetlock so that one could see inside the joint capsule. That meant
his extensor tendon and the ligaments holding the joint together were severed.
A career ending injury… (He is currently recovering fantastically, just can’t
swish his tail).
I put my scarf over Christine’s body as her clothes were
ripped and lay next to her holding her hand. I made the necessary phone calls
while people crowded me taking photos. I rang Abu Bakr to come to my
assistance. I also sent for Mabula and asked him to take charge of the horses.
They took me to Shinyanga Clinic where they x-rayed me then gave me a pain
killer and put me on a drip. Abu Bakr was fantastic leaving a guard with the
horses and sending a man with me when I was moved to a hospital in Mwanza. A
second chap organised by Christine’s brother in law was also sent with me.
The Hospital:
·
Removed empty drip with no
thought of how dehydrated I was.
·
Left in casualty for about
four hours with about 10 other people all being ignored.
·
Taken to a “VIP” room with
another bloke in traction and his wife who is nursing him.
·
My minders leave to get me
dinner and are refused re-entry. (No dinner or water was offered.)
·
No urine bottle or bedpan.
Had to urinate in water bottle.
·
Florescent light stays on
because there is no light switch or bell to ring the nurse.
·
Minders have to go to town
to buy me breakfast. (Hospital doesn’t supply food)
·
Pay 100 US dollars please.
(A small fortune in Africa)
A doctor finally came to see me just on midnight. They will
put me in traction until they find someone to do the elective surgery and then
another 3 months of traction. I asked about the nursing care and he shrugged his
shoulders. My medical aid was speaking to him and he was adamant that they
could fix the fractured femur head. The medical aid was happy… I asked him for
some pain killers and he sent the nurse for 2 diclofenic tablets.
Belinda and Bernard, Christine’s sister and brother in-law,
flew in to take care of things. Amongst the many things they did, one was to
find a caretaker for the horses. Their uncle Martin had used his friend network
in East Africa to find Don and Paula McBride from Mwanza. Bernard arranged with
Don to take the horses into his care. I also asked Katia, the lady who had
taken care of our horses in Uganda, to send Peter the groom to take care of the
boys. He loves both horses and the boys know him well. We left them at the
crash site with Peter and a guard and Don built a shelter for them. I was
worried that Nali may have a fracture and transporting him would be dangerous.
Both Don and I got a lot of flak for leaving the boys on the Tanzanian plains,
but they were well taken care of. Don, Paula and the vet have been tireless in
their efforts to treat and rehabilitate Nali. Don has subsequently moved the
boys to a farm on the southern bank of Lake Victoria near Mwanza and they are
thriving.
Bernard, Belinda and Bernard’s sister, Julia got stuck into
my medical aid and pressured them to get me out of “The Hospital”. Finally I
was flown to Nairobi and operated on, all thanks to the 3 Musketeers. My blood
counts crashed and I would have to go to South Africa for possible treatment of
leukaemia. I desperately needed platelets so Julia got most of Nairobi to
donate blood and save the day. Julia got stuck into the medical aid again to
get me flown to South Africa and they finally succumbed to the pressure. In
South Africa it was confirmed that I had relapsed into leukaemia.
People have been kind
and caring, motivating me not to give up. Our Libyan friends phoned to ask
whether or not I would complete the expedition and when I said yes they were so
relieved saying; “William you have to finish for Christine! For her
memory.” Little did they know at that
time I felt like my guts had been slit open and I had been left to die… I had
lost my Treasure and nothing else was important anymore.
Christine’s body was repatriated to South Africa. She was
cremated and her ashes scattered on Glencairn beach where I had proposed
marriage to her. The service at the church was packed so full that many people
had to stand outside. Friends and family from Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe,
Uganda, Mozambique, and England came to pay their respect. Liesel, her cousin,
arranged a memorial service in London which was well attended. Khartoum
International Community School in Sudan held a memorial service with a mango
tree and roses planted in remembrance of Christine. The Henchie family and I
have received many wonderful condolences, THANK YOU!
Christine was a wonderful woman who left friendships in her
wake. The Long Riders Guild called her the “most experienced female Long Rider of
the 21st century”. There is no better example than Christine in her
faith, humbleness, and her kindness to others, her tolerance for all and her
ability to deal with tough situations.
Best regards
William
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