Cattle Drive

We had some excitement during our market run the other day.  We were just finishing getting some flour from one of the Arab stands when we noticed a huge herd of cows that were being driven down the main road of the market.  The cows here are huge, with humps on their back, and horns so long they almost look like elephant tusks. The cows here are used to plow the fields and pull carts.  It’s very intimidating and a little scary to be driving down the road on the moto and pass these cow driven carts.  Especially, when the cow’s horns are so big they look like spears about to reach out and stab you.  The people here are pretty good about controlling them, and they seem tame…. for the most part.  But you still hear horror stories about people being gored by these huge horns.

Seeing a couple cows together is a common thing here, but we have never seen a huge herd of them before.  So you can imagine our surprise to be watching them herd all these cattle down the main road of the market.  Once we finished at the market we started for home, only to get stuck behind all this huge herd of cattle.  The road was awful because it had rained all night, so the puddles in the middle of the road were huge!  The sand that had been nicely compact on the drive to the market was now all torn up from the hooves of all the cattle.  There was a man that was leading the cattle and was walking about 20 feet ahead of them.  They had two other men who were walking on the outskirts of the heard waving sticks to keep them moving.  The man at the back was one horse back.  He was dressed like an Arab and looked very intimidating on his horse waving his stick. He kept the cattle moving, and made sure none tried to get away. Then brining up the rear was Athens and I riding my red Honda motorcycle.  I have never been part of a cattle drive before, and never thought I would be herding cattle with a motorcycle, but that’s exactly what happened.

When I think of cattle drives I picture cowboys on horses, with spurs, cowboy hats and six shooters strapped on their hips.  I don’t think of Africa or men with turbans waving long sticks herding cattle down a muddy road filled with huge puddles.  But when in Africa, do like the Africans do!!  We joined the cattle drive little after the market and left them once they got to our house.  Africans were lined up on both sides of the road watching the cattle go by.  I think they found it a little funny to see two white people brining up the rear on a motorcycle. LOL!!  But we enjoyed every moment our accidental cattle drive experience, and now feel like real African cattle drovers.  American cowboys have nothing on us! =]