Marty the Motorcycling Giraffe
Story 46 Marty rides the rapids (Marty and Kevin the
kayaking monkey)
While Marty was having his breakfast (twigs and leafs of
course) he looked out of the window and noticed what a lovely sunny day it is.
“As its Saturday and I don’t have to go to work, I think I
will go for a nice long ride on my Motorcycle” Marty said to himself.
There is nothing Marty likes better than to whizz around on
his motorcycle, but just a he was getting everything ready to go for a ride,
some one knocked on his door
Marty opened the door to see a monkey with a rather cheeky
smile at the door.
“Jambo Marty rafiki (my friend), it’s me Kevin the Kayaking
monkey from Zambezi River”
Jambo Kevin, it’s good to see you again, what are you doing
in Kenya
Kevin came inside and explained to Marty that he has been
invited to enter a kayaking race on the white water rapids on the River Tana
near Sagna in Kenya
“I caught a train from Lusaka
(capital city of Zambia ) to Nairobi
This made Marty laugh and he replied “well you don’t get
many giraffes in the city and I am definitely the only motorcycling giraffe”
Marty then told Kevin that he had no plans for the day and
he would happily give him a lift, to Sanga, on the back of his motorcycle.
It didn’t take Marty long to get ready and soon the Marty
and Kevin were whizzing along the streets of Nairobi heading towards Sanga.
They certainly got some odd looks from the people they
passed, as you don’t often see a motorcycle whizzing by with a giraffe and a
monkey on board.
Because Marty can ride his motorcycle very fast they arrived
at the River bank in plenty of time for the race. This gave Kevin time to test out the kayak
the organiers of the race had provided for him.
After a quick go in the kayak, Kevin paddled the kayak up to
the side of the river and where Marty was stood.
“This is a good kayak, I think I am in with a chance of
winning this race” Kevin said to Marty and then added, “there is still plenty
of time for the race, why don’t you have a little go at kayaking, while we wait
its great fun”.
Marty agreed that it did look fun, so when Kevin got out of
the Kayak, Marty climbed in. Because he has such long legs it was very difficult
for Marty to get in and he didn’t feel very comfortable or very stable in the
kayak.
Kevin laughed at Marty and pointed out cheekily that he
looked about as much as home in a kayak as a fish would on a bicycle.
Marty took the paddles off Kevin and pushed himself away
form the side of the river and vey slowly started to paddle downstream.
Marty’s great height made the kayak very unstable and it
wobbled about in water, making Marty quite nervous and he tried to control it with
the paddles.
As Marty reached the middle of the river, the faster flowing
water caught the kayak and it started to rush down stream
“Whoa, how do you stop this thing” shouted Marty, as he shot
off down the river, ducking his head under the branches of trees that hung over
the river from its banks.
To his great trepidation Marty saw a large rock sticking out
of the water up ahead and not matter how had he paddled he couldn’t stop his
kayak head strait for it and his eyes were as wide as saucers as the front end
of his kayak hit the rock sending Marty flying out of the kayak and spinning in
the air before landing with a huge splash in the water.
For a few worrying seconds Marty disappeared underneath the
fast flowing waters, but quite quickly hi head an long neck and head popped out
and Marty slowly stood to his feet.
As he is so tall Marty as quite able to wade to the side of
the river, but he was dripping wet.
By this time Kevin was laughing hysterically at the site of
his sodden Giraffe friend.
“You are the worst kayaker ever” laughed Kevin.
This made Marty laugh too,
“Yes I don’t think Giraffes are cut out for kayaking and I
will stick to motorcycling in future” laughed Marty
Marty and Kevin then ran down the banks of the river to
retrieve the kayak so that Kevin could take it back upstream to the start of
the race. Where there was quite a crowd gather to watch.
Kevin climbed into the kayak and lined up along side the
other kayakers at the start of the race
“Moja, mbili, tatu, kuanza mbio” (One, two, three, start the
race) shouted on of the race organisers
All of the kayakers paddled very hard to get their kayaks to
the centre of the river where the water runs the fastest.
The race got very exciting as the kayakers started to zoom
through the white water rapids, while zig-zagging in and out of the rocks that
stuck out of the water.
Marty ran along the river bank to keep with the race,
cheering and shouting his support to Kevin as he went.
Many of the kayakers fell out of their kayaks and into the
river, they then pulled themselves to the river bank where they could dry off
in the hot sun and watch the rest of the competitors speed towards the
finishing line.
The river hits a sharp bend and the finishing line is just
past the bend.
As the kayakers reach the bend Kevin was in third place.
The two leading
kayakers both tried to go down the centre of the river in the fast
water, while Kevin tried to go past on the outside, where he would have to
paddle extra hard, as the water did not run so fast.
The first two kayaker got to close to each other and bashed
paddles which caused them to wobble in the water and they had to slow down to
keep their balance, this gave Kevin just the opportunity to paddle past the and
into the lead.
“Hooray well done Kevin” shouted Marty and he jumped with
joy, which meant his head suddenly appeared above the tree tops surprising a
couple of vultures that were sat on the highest branches.
After the race Kevin stepped on to the winner’s podium to
collect his trophy
The race organiser shouted to the crowd
“Mshindi wa leo njia yote kutoka Mto Zambezi katika Zambia ni Kevin monkey Kayaking” (Today’s winner
all the way from the Zambezi River in Zambia
And the crowd all cheered very loudly as he handed over the
winners trophy to Kevin.
“Wow that was exciting, well done” said Marty as he and
Kevin prepared to make there way back to Nairobi
“Yes it was rather fun” replied Kevin
They then climbed on to Marty’s motorcycle and headed off towards
Nairobi.
Once they reached Nairobi, Marty took Kevin to the train
station so he could start his long journey back to the Zambezi River in Zambia
“Kwahari Kevin, it was good to see you again” said Marty as
Kevin boarded the train.
“It was good to see you too Marty” shouted Kevin through the
train windows.
Marty waved Kevin off and thought to himself that raiding
the rapids in a kayak was an exciting adventure and wondered what the next
adventure will be for
Marty the motorcycling Giraffe
check out story 19 (also in this blog site) marty and emmanuelle go on a safari part 3 marty and kevin the kayaking monkey, to find what happended when Marty first met Kevin
The next thrilling installment in Marty's year of adventures (story 47 Marty great North American adventure (part 1 Marty and the Birdman of Boston), will be posted on Sat 5th May)
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