Escape to Danger
No Picnic on Mount Kenya. By Felice Benuzzi. (Kimber. 15s.) KENYA is in debt to her Italian prisoners-of-war for making what was long the •only good road in the colony ; it is fitting therefore that at least three of the P.O.Ws. should be indebted to Kenya for the adventure of their lives. The trio of Italians who escaped temporarily from the prison camp at Nanyuki—Felice Benuzzi, Dr. Giovanni Balletto and Enzo Barsotti—had the satisfaction of planning, attempting and carrying through to its conclusion one of those exploits which, unsuccessful in its main objective, may still deserve the much-abused title of epic.
From Nanyuki, as from all the eastern part of the colony, it is possible to see the Olympian peak of Mopnt Kenya (0,040 ft.) ; it is indeed impossible not to see it and difficult, when one has seen it, to resist its challenge and invitation. "An ethereal mountain emerg- ing from a tossing sea of clouds framed between two dark barracks— a massive blue-black tooth of sheer rock inlaid with azure glaciers, austere yet floating fairy-like on the near horizon "—this was Benuzzi's vision, and he then and there decided to collect two suitable companions, break prison, climb Kenya and break back again. Admiring and applauding, one hesitates whether to call the adventure audacity or impudence. It is true that accident had placed the climbers near the mo§t direct route to the summit and that mainly followed by the post-war commercial safaris ; it is equally true that they were unaware of this—as of everything else connected with the mountain. Their entire equipment—boots, clothes, ice-axes, goggles, sun-cream, tent —had to be secretly manufactured in the camp, and their entire supplies for fourteen days surreptitiously purloined and hoarded. They had no map, and planned their- route from the gaudily impres- sionist picture-label on a can of meat and vegetable. As an additional burden, one of the three—Barsotti—was a sick man ; even his magnificent courage could not overcome his physical disability. Had the party reached the summit, it would have been only the tenth successful ascent. Benuzzi and Balletto, ill-fed, porterless, out of training, launching themselves into the unknown and unreconnoitred, attempted in winter a summit route abandoned as hopeless by Ship.ton and Tilmah in summer. Not surprisingly they failed ; they were beaten at 16,300 feet where they planted their prison-made Italian flag. Only misanthropes will fail to share their tears. They then descended, sick and starving, and—carrying punctilious honour to the bitter end—broke into their prison again.
Benuzzi's account is unpretentious, straightforward and likeable. There are Italian inflections in his English, just as the jokes and badinage in which the party indulged are Latin. They also tormented themselves throughout with a Latin terror of " wild animals "- quite needless once they had passed above the rhino country. But as a story it must be unique. " Never, I imagine," writes Benuzzi, " have mountaineers approached the mountain of their dreams under such conditions." Never, one might add, has mountain been paid
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