No Picnic on Mount Kenya (1948, this edition 2015) is a true story set in
Kenya from 1942-1943, but focuses on January and February 1943.
This is the memoir of Felice Benuzzi (1910-1988) who grew up in the
mountains of Trieste. He joined the Italian military and was stationed in
Ethiopia when the British launched their offensive into East Africa. He was detained
in the British Prisoner of War (POW) camp 356 in Eldoret, Kenya, for a year.
The memoir begins on 12 May 1942, the day he was moved from Eldoret, by train,
to POW camp 354 at Nanyuki, the base of Mount Kenya.
From the moment Benuzzi saw Mount Kenya, he fell in love with it. Every day
he could see the mountain if the mist cleared, with its two main peaks: Batian
and Lenana – at about 17,000 feet (5,180 metres).
He devised a plan to escape the camp to climb the mountain. After eight
months of planning, scavenging and improvising equipment for the climb, reading
a book about the mountain’s plants and animals, and recruiting two men – Giuan
and Enzo – he was ready for the 24 January 1943 escape. Estimating that it
would take 14 days, their food provision was ‘based on ten days for three men
at about 2,000 calories per day per man.’ They knew it was ‘sheer madness.’
But there were other things that were more difficult to plan for: getting
out of camp, crossing through the area where they were most likely to be seen
by people, intense cold, storms, rain, fog, Enzo’s fever, getting lost, snakes,
and ‘wild beasts.’
Throughout the climb, the dangers and hardships were countered with the beauty
of the mountain and the ‘sheer loveliness of plant life’ – especially the
helichrysum, which he called the Cinderella of Alpine flowers.
The climb to the top did not go as planned. Taking nine days, and running
out of food, they estimated that the descent would take three days, but they
were wrong.
The mount is on the Equator: ‘when the sun is in the northern hemisphere
(European summer), the north slope is in winter conditions … We, in our
ignorance, went north in February, in winter conditions …’
This is the story of the 18 days on the mountain and Benuzzi’s return to
the Prisoner of War camp – for he never intended to escape to go home, only to
climb the mountain, because it was there – and it was a tempting challenge.
The hardcover edition has Benuzzi’s coloured sketches, drawn during the
climb, and a map of the ascent. This is a worthy read for mountaineers,
adventurers, and historians.
After Benuzzi was repatriated in 1946, he became an Italian diplomat two
years later, serving in Paris, Brisbane, Canberra, Karachi, and Berlin.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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