Sharon´s narrow escape

Sharon´s father was an engineer who worked for East African Railways and Harbours in Kenya and the family often lived for weeks in a carriage on the train. Eric´s job was to plot the alignment of new tracks across the country, often in remote places.

Sharon remembers: “We had our own carriage that we lived in. We often went during school time. So my mum, typical, insisted I did schoolwork during the days. I used to sit at the dining table on a chair to work on my lessons.

“One day, we were going around a corner in the train and the doors of our carriage flew open. I began to slide towards a door on my little chair. We were going quite fast through the African savannah. My mum jumped up in a terrible panic and managed to grab me before I shot out into the veldt.

“That was a narrow escape.”

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.

Crocodiles in Africa

Sharon was born and spent most of her childhood in Africa. She remembers:

“The rivers look peaceful, with just leafless branches of trees hanging over them and no sign of life. Then people would fall in the river and all of a sudden the sound of snapping crocodiles would fill your ears. Proving that the river was full of life really. I saw this happen and it was horrible.

“People were walking along the side of the river. You would wonder why they did that when they knew that the peaceful river was full of life, or death, whichever way you look at it.

“A whole line of people, probably a dozen or so, was walking along the edge of the river and they fell in. And all these crocodiles came from nowhere and all you could hear was snap, snap, snap. And splash, splash, splash. And then there again there was nothing.

“They were walking along the edge. You would have thought they would have known better. I think it was at Karama Waters, in Kenya.

“In Nigeria, we had a little tiny speed boat that we used to use to go to the beach on Sunday with my parents’ friends. One day we were going down the river towards the bay and a great bit launch came upriver at high speed. It shot past us and we rocked like mad. Our steering cable snapped, so my dad couldn’t steer the boat but we managed to paddle to the riverbank and we all climbed out. We saw crocodiles that day as well.

“Two men were on a log poling down the river when the launch went past. The wash knocked them both into the water. We were so busy trying to save ourselves we couldn’t help. They both got eaten. Crocodiles appeared from nowhere. It was horrible.

“That was the end of our boat. It never did get fixed.”

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.