Chapter 881 Tana River
Bifang led Halley along the river, trying to find shallows or land to cross, but after walking for more than half an hour, they still couldn't find a suitable place to cross the river.
After walking for a long time, Harley felt a little tired and lay down on the ground, refusing to move another step.
Bifang had no idea what to do when seeing this.
Faced with this river full of crocodiles, we can only find another way to cross it.
“Crack.”
A piece of tree trunk as thick as an arm was broken off, and when it was of suitable length, Bifang used tree ropes to tie it in parallel with other trees to form a row.
Judging from the shape of the wood, it is obviously a simple raft.
"We can't find a suitable place to cross the river directly. If we want to continue north, we can only build a raft to cross the river."
If it were any other river, Bifang would choose to swim across with Harley.
But this is Africa, and the rivers are filled with ferocious Nile crocodiles.
"In many wildlife documentaries, we often see Nile crocodiles lurking in rivers to hunt, but in fact they only have a few opportunities to eat animals in a year."
"For the vast majority of Nile crocodiles, there are only two major meals a year, both of which are associated with the East African Migration."
"The animals eat once when they go there and again when they come back, and those are the only two meals most Nile crocodiles get."
[ No way, just two meals? ]
[This is outrageous. With only two meals a year, won’t you starve to death? ]
[I was so scared that I quickly took two bites of rice]
"They won't starve to death. Nile crocodiles have a strong tolerance for hunger. They can catch a zebra and have a full meal, but then go without food for more than half a year."
"During the dry season in Africa, there is little rain. To avoid such unfavorable living conditions, Nile crocodiles often use their mouths and feet to dig caves on the river bank and hide underground in a hibernation-like state until the next rainy season arrives."
"Sometimes they can dig 12 meters underground, which is the deepest known animal can dig with its bare hands."
"So I definitely wouldn't dare to swim across the river. Before the large-scale animal migration, every one of them is starving and won't let go of any large living creature."
[Nile crocodile: Brothers, it’s time to live]
【Plop, splash, crocodile: What's that noise?】
"You should know that Nile crocodiles attack people 275 to 745 times a year, of which more than 63% are fatal. The average size of Nile crocodiles that cause non-fatal attacks is about 3 meters, and the average size of Nile crocodiles that cause fatal attacks is 3.5 meters. They are considered to be the large wild animals that cause the most fatal attacks on people in Africa."
"By comparison, from 1990 to 2006, fatal attacks on humans by lions in Africa were estimated to be one-eighth as many as those by Nile crocodiles."
【Death Spin! 】
[If a crocodile bites you, won’t it just cut you into pieces?]
[This is too scary]
【horrible】
Bifang bit the end of the rope, stretched it straight, and tied the wood tightly with his fingers.
There are many dead trees on the grassland, which are good materials for building rafts.
"Rafts can be made of bamboo or uprooted saplings, which are strong and won't rot. Or the tops of dead tree trunks, which have great buoyancy and require less material to achieve the same buoyancy."
"It would be even better if there are oil drums or objects that can float nearby, which can be used to support the raft."
"If you can't find wood, a piece of tarpaulin or other waterproof material can be used to make a light boat to carry people."
The sun was quite strong in the afternoon. It was around two o'clock and approaching three o'clock, and it was still the hottest time of the sun. After working non-stop, sweat began to appear on Bifang's forehead.
Beads of sweat slid down the temples and fell along the jawbone. Some turbid beads of sweat dripped onto the white dead wood, soaking out a small dark color.
A large number of trees of uniform thickness are placed side by side and tied tightly together with bark ropes as thick as a little finger .
Bifang's skill in making ropes with fiber has become more and more sophisticated. He can make a bark rope that is one meter long, as thick as a little finger, and strong enough in just one minute, which greatly speeds up the completion of the entire raft.
"The water system of the river in front of us is quite complicated. Judging from the geography and location, I guess it should be the Tana River system, or one of its branches."
While making the raft, Bifang was also able to do two things at the same time, introducing information about the river in front of him to the audience.
The width of the river in front of us was more than fifty meters. The water was not turbulent. If you didn't pay attention, you might even think it had stopped flowing. There were a few scattered pieces of land in the middle of the river, covered with reeds and grass as tall as a person.
Looking down from the sky with a drone, it looks like a complete swamp.
Such width, plus an unknown length.
A river of this size could never be an unknown "river".
As a professional survivalist, one should be familiar with the world's famous rivers. As the world's number one survival expert, Bifang is even more so.
"There are many large rivers in Africa, but in Kenya, there are eight rivers that are as large as the ones we are facing. However, based on our current location, there are only two of them: the Tana River and the Galana River."
"Both rivers have their source in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa and flow all the way down to the Indian Ocean."
"They have the same source and the same destination, so if you don't know your exact location, it's hard to tell the two rivers apart."
"But we are now in eastern Kenya, south of the Nyika Plateau. Due to the height difference, the river speed is very turbulent. The Galana River is like this. The Tana River should have been like this, but it is higher in volume and has a larger flow, so Kenya built a dam above it to generate electricity."
"Although it is the rainy season now, it is far from the time for the dam to release water. With the buffer of the dam, the flow of the Tana River is much smoother and the water quality is relatively clearer. Therefore, we can distinguish it from these two points and confirm that it is the Tana River in front of us."
The impact of dams on river flow rate is very complex, and Bifang is just simplifying it.
However, there is one principle that is understandable, that is, energy does not appear out of thin air. Hydropower stations use the potential energy of water flow to generate electricity, so the flow rate will naturally slow down.
[I don’t know what to say, it’s outrageous, but since it’s from Fang Shen, just act normally.]
【Perform stably, keep it up】
【Call Fangshen】
[One wave of analysis is as fierce as a tiger, and the audience is stupid]
[I understand, but I don’t fully understand]
【Single walk 6】
It took about two hours to build a raft about three meters long and two meters wide.
"When riding a raft, all equipment must be securely tied to the raft or tied to the safety rope."
“Make sure the raft isn’t dragging on anything on the edge, or it could pull the raft apart in the shallows.”
"At the same time, we need to tie a few free ropes on the raft. When we are in the river, we need to tie the ropes around our bodies to secure ourselves and act as safety ropes."
"The safety line should be long enough to allow everyone to move freely, but not too long to cause dragging in the water."
"When rapidly crossing rapids with fast currents and large drop-offs, it is best to untie the safety rope. In this way, if the raft loses control, everyone can swim to the river bank."
Tying the rope around his waist, Bifang found a safe spot and slowly pushed the raft into the river.
