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DISPATCH 01: Together Once
Again
Previous
Dispatch
: Next
Dispatch
At the end of March most of the
field crew went home to spend time with their families. The
rains at Turkana came rather late this year falling at the
end of May and so this delayed the departure of the truck
with supplies by a week while we waited for some of the
major lagas (dry river beds) to become passable.
During the rains the truck belonging to the Ileret Catholic
Mission washed away in a flash flood just south of Koobi
Fora losing a full load of cement and other supplies.
Some of the field crew returned to
Nairobi and went on to their homes in Machakos. Others who
live at Ileret did not have as far to go. But it’s the
beginning of another few months of field work and so we are
all back in camp again at Koobi Fora where we intend over
the next few months to do more exploration and find some
good fossils.
On our arrival in camp I was told that a
young man at Ileret had got caught in an exchange of fire
and a bullet had gone through his upper leg. The clinical
officer from Ileret requested that this man, and another
very frail and anaemic woman, be air lifted to Marsabit. We
took the back seats of the aircraft out so they could lie
flat.
It did not take the
team long to unload the truck and supplies and to get out to
work. The supplies include fuel and food as well as load of
Safari boots
for the team. Over the next few months they will continue to
explore the slippery slopes looking for more exciting
fossils along the Koobi Fora Ridge. This season the entire
team
comprises 25 people and fifteen of these are the fossil
hunters. Some of them are new to the team and will hopefully
pick up the skills from others fast.
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