AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



the greater kudu, easily the prize buck of East 

 Africa. We intended to try for a greater kudu. 



People laughed at us. The beast is extremely 

 rare; it ranges over a wide area; it inhabits the thick- 

 est sort of cover in a sheer mountainous country; its 

 senses are wonderfully acute; and it is very wary. A 

 man might, once in a blue moon, get one by happen- 

 ing upon it accidentally; but deliberately to go after 

 it was sheer lunacy. So we were told. As a matter 

 of fact, we thought so ourselves, but greater kudu 

 was as good an excuse as another. 



The most immediate of our physical difficulties 

 was the Thirst. Six miles from Kijabe we would 

 leave the Kedong River. After that was no more 

 water for two days and nights. During that time 

 we should be forced to travel and rest in alternation 

 day and night; with a great deal of travel and very 

 little rest. We should be able to carry for the men 

 a limited amount of water on the ox wagon; but the 

 cattle could not drink. It was a hard, anxious 

 grind. A day's journey beyond the first water after 

 the Thirst we should cross the Southern Guaso 

 Nyero River.* Then two days should land us at 

 the Narossara. There we must leave our ox wagon 

 and push on with our tiny safari. We planned to 

 relay back for patio from our different camps. 



*An entirely different stream from that flowing north of Mt. Kenia. 



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