Rhino Charge

  

Really pumped about being stranded on the side of the highway...

This past weekend we went to Rhino Charge (you’re probably thinking what the shit is rhino charge?) I must state that there were no rhinos involved (or injured) in this event. It is an event that began as a fundraiser for building a fence around a rhino sanctuary. For the full story check out: www.rhinocharge.co.ke

Friday morning we woke up at 5 am try to get on the road by 6 (it’s roughly a 6 hour drive north of Nairobi). On the road at 7 am… one hour outside of Nairobi and Mary claims the gas pedal isn’t working… and suddenly the car just quits. Fantastic. Luckily it was literally at a police checkpoint (yay safety!). After spending roughly 3 exciting hours on the side of the road in BFE Kenya a new battery was brought to us and once again we were on our way!

 

I’ll begin by stating that I’m not much of a car junkie or a hick, so I was a little unsure of this event. First off, to find the event, we received a directional map from the check-in booth in the nearest town. This is the map, follow these directions carefully… Watch out for that borehole!

Once at the event we received another map with GPS points of all the checkpoints. The cars have 10 checkpoints, the car that reaches all 10 checkpoints in the shortest amount of distance (not time) wins. They have from 6am to 6pm to complete this task. Trying for the shortest distance means traversing over rocks, winching to trees to go up hills, and forging some rivers (no one lost any oxen, phew). This is what people come to watch. One area in particular is always eventful… THE GAUNTLET. 

Early in the morning at the start!

Team 49 attempting to get up the steep hill...

 

More gauntlet action!

There are 3 checkpoints in this area and it is chocked full of some rough terrain. This is also where most spectators hang out. It’s pretty impressive to watch these teams (one driver and 4 runners) finagle their trucks through these obstacles. One team backed into a beehive and they all sustained multiple bee stings, another team rolled 2 full rotations down a hill, and I watched one car struggle to get out of the river for more than an hour. It’s pure insanity. The other entertaining aspect to this event are the spectators themselves. Most of them are so completely wasted by noon it’s like trying to herd a bunch of UW-Madison students around after a football game. People themselves are drunkenly rolling down the hills, tripping on rocks, and falling in the rivers. Such good people watching.

It was quite an eventful weekend and other than the giant party tent as our neighbors (they played music on loud speakers from about 9 pm to 9 am, it was absolutely obnoxious), it was great. I saw my first secretary bird in the wild (google it, it’s AWESOME!!!). A cheetah with two cubs was spotted moments before we arrived at a checkpoint, but we never saw them : (.

I thought I was really tan from this weekend but after showering I realized I was just covered in about an inch of dust… I still can’t get it out of my nose. All in all, it was a last fun weekend before the real work begins! The student from the University of Nairobi that I am collaborating with on this project will be joining us tomorrow and hopefully we will be taking Florus back out to the bush on Tuesday (I’ll post about camp next time around, I promise)!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!