312 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
nuts, fruit, and vegetables had to be arranged for. All except the 
perishable produce I had taken the precaution of having on hand. 
But this was at a time when Kenya was experiencing one of its 
worst droughts and the purchase of most farm produce required a 
permit. The thousands of pounds of meat necessary had to be 
ordered well in advance because of the necessity of slowly deep- 
freezing it before shipment. 
Imagine my consternation when I learned just before leaving 
that the boat was capable of only five knots and that after leaving 
Mombasa she had to go to the Seychelles Islands to collect a large 
cargo of copra. These two factors upset all my calculations, and 
in fact doubled the estimated length of the voyage. One of the 
greatest problems on a cargo ship is the limited refrigeration space, 
as this is merely sufficient to keep such perishable foods as are 
required by the crew. Apart from such items as meat, which must 
be kept frozen, there is no cool spot for extra fruit, which may all 
ripen overnight going through the tropics. Another concern, 
which may worry the captain, is the fresh-water supply. A great 
deal is required daily for such a consignment, especially when the 
iron decks become so hot that they have to be hosed down with 
sea water, for then the animals, like the crew, develop a thirst that 
is almost unquenchable. 
The first half of the collection went off by goods train from 
Nairobi without a hitch, but to get everything settled—paying 
bills, making final purchases, juggling with shipping, rail and 
other documents, and coping with lorry-loads of animals—was 
something of a nightmare. 
I scrambled on to a truck just as the train was moving off. A 
number of animals had been thrust on me at the last minute, in- 
cluding a young Defassa Waterbuck and a young Delamere’s 
Bush Buck that were still on the bottle and were due for a feed 
as soon as the train started. I had six giraffes, two Grevy’s Zebras, 
the other larger mammals and all the birds, on this trip, occupy- 
ing six open trucks, and among these there were certainly some 
characters. Some of them I was already acquainted with, but 
others which had been kept far from Nairobi I was now meeting 
for the first time. One of the former was Twiga the giraffe, caught 
