Hendri’s Way by Gustav Nel
That night it rained and we were just lying there in my tent. We didn’t say much to each other, just both staring up to the ceiling with the rain pouring down and enjoying that moment—that true feeling of being alive. I knew Hendri all my life, but that night I felt like I really understood him for the first time. It was the first life-or-death experience I’d ever been through, and it felt like the best day ever. That’s Hendri—when you’re tired and hurt and hungry and alone, that is the best day ever for him, because you learned something different about living. You learned more about the experience of life.
The funny thing is Hendri never slept in a tent. The fact that he came to sleep in mine was just to let me know, ‘Look man, I’m here. Everything’s going to be Okay.’ Not that he ever actually said anything like that. It was just his way. I don’t think he ever saw the outside of a person. He went straight inside a person. He threw the bullshit off. You could be a king or a bum off the street, but Hendri saw you for who you are, not who you were trying to be.
— Gustav Nel was a childhood friend of Coetzee and a member of the 2006 Blue Nile expedition. His film, River People, recounts the adventure. As told to Jeff Moag.
Read more at http://www.canoekayak.com/hendri/gustav-nel/#BuVwIwGuT230Y4Jk.99