April 8, 19:00 hrs.
(To be read aloud with a deep gloomy voice, of a traumatized old man)…
Back in the year 2009, I was living with the Masai tribe in a remote p art of Kenya. They told me of a place called Enkinyoei – a place of strange happenings and unexplained mysteries. When the Masai speak about it, the mood grows somber and their eyes fill with worry, as if even too much talk about it will summon a great evil out of its usual underground confinements.
Enkinyoei. There is a cave with a river inside, next to a deep deep pond. Inside the pond lives a very large mysterious snake-like creature. The bottom of the pond cannot be measured. They remember some mzungus (white people) came to measure it with their fancy equipment and tried to measure it – they couldn’t.
Sometimes in the morning, the creature will be seen jumping into the sky, its head high in the clouds, its tail still in the ground. Many have seen it- grandpa, grandma, and most of the older generation in the area. And in the evening it will return from the sky diving back into the pond. Its skin is shiny, “like an iron sheet,” says the grandpa. Sightings have been reported for around 40 years, but it could have been there longer. There might be more than one- maybe a whole family.
Recently the water has receded, so some say the creature lives in the cave now.
When Grandfather was young, he went with his father and some Masai moraans (warriors) to see inside the cave. They painted the walls of the entrance with their face paint, wrote the name of their generation, and marked it with their handprints. Now Grandfather’s father was a seer- he was the clan’s spirit-man. As the warriors entered the cave, he sensed there was a great water coming from inside. So he said to them “Come, let us go up the banks of the basin to be safe.” But the men would not listen to him. So he took his son (Grandfather) and went back up the cliffs of the pond basin. As soon as they had reached the higher ground, the river surged and water filled the cave, sweeping away all the men and killing them.
They say one man has lived in the cave for at least 100 years- Grandfather saw him, his father saw him, and his father’s father saw him. The man is so tall you think he is a tree, and is covered in much hair and has very long teeth. He does not kill humans but he does scare them.
At night, the local residents can still hear the voices of those dead warriors screaming and shouting from inside the cave. Although the water drowned their bodies, they aren’t fully dead- their spirits still dwell inside the cave. (We visited James’s family, who lives close by, and hears the voice quite regularly at night).
Another group of Masai moraans went in, armed with spears and everything, but when they were halfway through the cave tunnel they were paralyzed by a strong spirit of fear, and did not dare take another step. They didn’t ‘see’ anything dangerous but knew they should turn back. What they did see was a light – rays from the sun? – at the other end of the tunnel. Where does it go? Where is it coming form? No one knows.
An mzungu also went in with cave-exploring spelunking equipment. “He had a flashlight on his head”, grandpa said. Again, about halfway through the tunnel he was gripped by the sense of fear- something was coming- and he quickly turned back.
Nowadays, the cave is home to a pack of hyenas and ‘other creatures’. The locals call it a ‘new breed of hyenas: they are bigger, meaner and more daring- they will even attack humans.’
One hyena entered a home near Birika and attacked a 9-year old boy, biting his head. The boy’s father happened to be weaponless at the time, but tried fending it off with his hands. Both are in the hospital now.
I went with David to see one of these dead hyenas a few days ago. It had stolen one of their neighbors cows, so the next day the man put poison on the cow’s carcass. When the hyenas came back to continue their feats, the poison killed it almost instantly. We found its body about 100 meters away from where the dead cow had been.
The hyena was big, ugly, and bloated. It eyes looked like it had died surprised, in a state of shock. It had bled a bit on the ground, from the neck or mouth. Now it was the one being eaten, by flies. I wonder if its friends had found it, came to visit. They were probably hungry for revenge.
Of course hyenas aren’t the only monsters creatures living in the cave. To this day, there are none who can explain what unknown terror lurks in the dark depths of that pit, that wound in the earth, that gateway to hell. If any brave soul has made it far enough to see, they didn’t come back out again.
This is not only some exaggerated legend or local fairy tale that exists only in the minds of the Masai elders. This is real. I was there. I saw it. Listen carefully so you don’t make the same mistakes less fortunate souls have made – souls who didn’t have a chance to be warned.
Now simply hearing these stories should have been enough to satisfy me- and warn me. But you may find that, in the quest to feed your insatiable appetite for adventure, it ends when you yourself are the one being eaten.
There were two other Masai youth – friends of mine- who were also curious to see the innards of this mystery. So we set off from their home into the vast bush to find this place, not knowing what we would encounter, carrying nothing but our walking sticks. We walked for 8 km before finding it, so by the time we arrived we were already tired and weak…..
April 9, 2:00am. This story needs to be finished later. I can’t right now- it’s messing with my head. Every time I go outside the dogs start barking at something, but it’s not me. Am I alone out there? If I listen closely to the night air I can hear voices… “YOU, human, who do you think you are to disturb us?” (Ok that’s a joke it’s not real). Not real. Not real notreal ntoe aelra noera ot rela hlpppppppppppp
Later, later, must sleep, must hide now.
We should have been looking behind us….
There was something about the way the Masai interacted with the land.
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