Celtic Rover
I used to joke with Tony Borrill, Mark Wilkins and Duncan that rule 1 was “don’t roll the truck” as Nelson is so strong in every direction except upwards as the lifting roof prevents the installation of a roll cadge.
So today, 40km from the end of the park road and 200km from Mombasa the very end of my trip I broke rule 1.
I am still not sure what happened, I was trundling along downhill in third gear, nothing special when the rear of the truck slid left into a ditch I corrected but the whole car kept sliding into a ditch covered in vegetation but turned out to be steeply eroded and about four feet deep. The front of the truck dug in and flipped the truck into a barrel roll down the centre of the road.
I remember saying “oh no, no” and then crunch, crunch, crunch as the car rolled stopping with drivers side facing the air, I remember turning off the engine and thinking “I think I am OK” I clambered out the drivers side window and walked away …..
Then I collected my thoughts
The car was totally wrecked
I reached in and turned the battery isolator
Picked up my phone and wallet
Got the fire extinguisher out ready
Then remembered that I was in the middle of a national park with lions
So made a plan to get back in the car if they came and armed myself with a big stick and knife
Then I called the park authorities who were amazingly helpful once they understood what had happened
Guys turned up and righted the car
The chief of the park arrived with a squad of soldiers
They each checked that I was really OK
They organised for me to stay in a lovely safari lodge and organised a recovery vehicle to pick me up tomorrow at 7am
Amazing wonderful people
So the plan is to stuff Nelson in a container in Mombasa using a big Fork Lift truck and ship him home, the front axel is no longer attached to the truck by much and the bodywork seriously damaged, it will be a major project to fix him up again but I will worry about that once I am home
Quite an end to the adventure
I like to think that something broke on the rear suspension to cause the slide, however maybe I missed a soft spot or a hole, I guess we will never know. Thankfully I was not going fast maybe 30km/hr
What I do know is I am blessed and so very lucky to have walked away apparently unscathed from what was a major, major crash
Now time to work the problem and get me and the truck home!
