|
DISPATCH 01: Departure from
Nairobi
Previous
Dispatch
:
Next
Dispatch
The bright green
lorry and one beige land cruiser, with 10 members of the
field crew, left Nairobi with
fuel, tents and food supplies for next three months. It is a
four day journey north on rough and rocky tracks. The
journeys north are never uneventful and on the first day the
exhaust pipe fell off which took some repair and welding
work at Maralal. On the last day and on the final stretch of
the journey as they drove into a small wash out one of the
rear tyres burst followed by a second rear burst an hour
later. Without a spare they made it into the camp on the
evening of the fourth day.
We now need to get two tyres to the lorry before it can make
its return journey to Nairobi for fuel.
Louise flew up with family and a technician to do a service
of the electrical equipment at the Koobi Fora Base Camp. We
currently have only one vehicle in working order however
with all the spare parts on the truck, within a few days
this situation should improve as Were the mechanic gets down
to work.
An early morning flight in the aircraft was helpful in
locating fossil exposures and a suitable camp site from
which we will be based for this season's
work. We will go in on the ground next week. Louise returned
to Nairobi in the plane to collect the five volunteer
students while a car was dispatched to Ileret, to the north,
to collect more of the field crew. Five goats were also
bought for the camp although these are quite hard to come by
because there was a most terrible drought in the north of
Kenya in the beginning of the year. This destroyed almost 80
percent of the livestock. It has not rained enough and the
grass has not recovered. Drought is expected again before
too long.
|
