When yester-mid morning I met up with some great friends for
a hike, I did not know it would be an experience that would forever remain in
my mind. Three friends and I embarked on a hike in the not so famous Njukiri
Forest, Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The forest is known (to those who know it) for
a river, river Rupingazi which traverses the county coming from Mt. Kenya. A
quick fact about this river, it is the boundary of Kirinyaga County and Embu County
and is quite wide and deep.
I regress. All we had in mind was a hike in a bid to sit
under a waterfall along the river or at least behold its beauty. We walked a
few kilometers to the forest and a few hours later we were lost. As we passed
through the foot paths of the forest created by people who felled trees in the
place, I couldn’t help but feel the spirit of adventure rise in me. Finally
after a few slides, several pricks by thorns, crawling through thickets, we finally
made it to the bottom of the valley where river Rupingazi flows. At first the
feeling was exciting, as I had found a safe place (despite there being no
mobile reception), a place where all you could hear was the river’s water
angrily hitting the rocks creating waves…this is the safest place on earth; or so
I thought. The place we had descended was quite far from the waterfall so we decided
to wade our way through the river waters, upstream to the falls. This is where
my series of events started to unfold.
In a span of four hours, I was to be reminded thrice that my
life is dear. As we were starting our wade, two of my friends ambushed me and
pretended to throw me in (a joke that I told them never to play on me again). They
held my feet and let me slide on a rock, my head touching the angry waters of
the river…they burst out in laughter amid my screams for help…I stared at the
water below and started shedding tears…at this point; I shut my eyes and said a
prayer as I thought of how people would find my body, in case one of them let
go. I thought of most of my loved ones. They pulled me up and I honestly felt
like throwing them in!! A few meters into our wade, I slipped on a slippery rock
and fell. I hurt my hip and landed on another rock…as I sat there waiting for
the pain to subside, I looked at the waters all around me then again, I saw
myself being carried away by the waters, and them finding my body downstream. I
said another prayer…this time, a confession.
With these two shakes of life at the back of my mind, I
joined the others in the fun; we took pictures, laughing and smiling, oblivious
of the fear creeping up. At this point, our pairs of jeans are wet and we are
hungry. We identify a wide rock upstream where we would sit and eat the snacks
we had carried. We were almost there when we decided that the water was too
deep and moving too fast. The men found their way there but we the ladies
declined to risk, so they came back. As we were having the snacks, I joked
about it being the last supper (since there were some red liquids involved). I
was quickly corrected by my friends and we stuck to the first supper. As soon
as we had had the last glass of berry juice, an old tree a few meters away fell
from the walls of the valley into the river; we look at each other in
disbelief!! It had fallen on the exact same spot where we had said we would eat
at. At this point I was shaken…we look at each other again and the fear is
evident…we could have been on that exact spot, had we not turned back. At this
point we agree that we should be on our way up. We were shaken (one of us was
literally shaking). The place I had thought was the safest place had thrice
turned to a place where I saw my life flash in front of my eyes.
On our way up, I was so determined to get to the top, to get
away from all the darkness at the place. We climbed up with so much energy; we got
to the top in a record 20 or so minutes. It was not until I got home and took a
shower, that the throbbing pain in my hip came back. We never got to the
waterfall, but I left that place with a changed mindset. And looking back at
it, I wanted an experience that I would never forget…well, now I know why they
say “Be careful what you wish for”
