From a plant hunter to a hostage

By Jo Pattison
BBC Kent

Tom's love for orchids led him to be imprisoned by guerrillas

Whilst in Central America searching for an orchid to name after his granny, Tom Hart Dyke was kidnapped by guerrillas and held captive for nine months.

When you meet Tom Hart Dyke you can't help but get caught up in his enthusiasm and intense dialogue.

Even the items listed on the lunchtime menu are discussed with fervour.

It was this innate passion that took him to Columbia to look for plants and resulted in him looking down the barrel of a gun.

Tom and his companion Paul Winder were trekking in the Darien Gap, a nature reserve on the borders of Panama and Colombia. "We were recommended not to go there by a lot of people but we've been told that many times before in many places around the world," explains Tom. "For me the orchid was the big attraction, and to find and name a new species after Granny because she's my inspiration, she's brilliant." The danger was simply put out of perspective.

On March 16th 2000, the pair had been travelling for a week and a half and entered a clearing. Tom was on his hands and knees to closely inspect a passionflower when an M16 was pushed into the back of his head.

"We were ambushed by guys and ladies - six of them. I looked at Paul and all the blood had drained from his face and I must have been the same. Our rucksacks were stripped off us, we were tied up and off we went with them for the next three quarters of a year."

A different world

Tom and Paul were taken further into Panama - into a different world. "The guerrillas spoke only Spanish, they couldn't read or write. There were hundreds of them over the time, upwards of about 16 in each camp and we moved about 1000 miles from camp to camp during the period - it was hard-core in those conditions. We are all on the same planet but it felt like a different one - it really did."

Tom and his friend Paul Winder were accused of being CIA agents

The guerrillas accused the backpackers of being CIA agents and they had to relentlessly try to convince their captors otherwise, resulting in nine months of psychological torture.

"They would try and converse with us one minute, then they were going to kill us in the next minute. They were going to cut our heads off, then we were going to learn Spanish, then we were going to collect orchids, then we were going to have armadillo to eat, then they were going to blow my head off. All of those things could happen within an hour - every day for nine months."

"We'd spend three weeks trying to persuade them who we were then the Commandant would come and say 'CIA kill them tomorrow'. We gave up in the end and thought just shoot us - obviously we didn't actually say that. It was so ridiculous but it was a way of life for them."

Tom collected orchids to try and convince the guerrillas of his identity. "I even made an orchid garden at one camp. I collected these huge specimens of orchids - Kew Gardens eat your heart out! It was brilliant - and yet I was going to be shot! The orchids were a way of me dealing with the situation really."

The torture

Surprisingly it was the women in the camps who did the beating. "There one in particular, we named her the bitch, which was actually very polite! She was awful; she had a few fingers missing, bits of ear, scars everywhere. If she had been in charge I wouldn't be talking to you now - she couldn't wait to shoot us. She would say good morning by racking her fist around your nose.

"The worse thing was for Paul. He had gangrene in his leg from a burrowing worm that had got in there and got infected. His leg was literally falling off and she beat him on that leg with a sharp thorny branch because he wasn't walking fast enough - that is hard-core, she was serious stuff."

Largely Tom and Paul were kept together but there was a period of seven weeks when they were separated. "We called the commandant at the time Trapper because he trapped a lot of local animals. He was really nasty and he divided the housing they'd built for us into two and we were separated for seven weeks - no talking, nothing. That's when things got really bad especially with mock executions. We broke the rules a bit and whispered to each other."

During this time, on June 16th 2000 , one of the guerrillas, 'scar face', came to Tom, pulled out his gun and told him he had five hours to live and walked away. "I told Paul and he said they're just joking but I didn't see it as they hadn't directly threatened me before."

An idea for a garden

Tom sketched out his idea for a world garden whilst awaiting his fate

Tom opened up his diary, an exercise book. The two centre pages were blank and he began to map out a world garden. "I started drawing a rectangular bed, for Asia, a rectangular bed for South America, a rectangular bed for North America and then just started planning where the plants would go."

Exactly five hours later, the same guy came back to see Tom. "I just closed my eyes - but then I had to open them because there was just silence. This guy was standing in front of me with long hair and a bandana, in camouflage gear offering me armadillo and iguana with it's feet cut off for supper! He never said a word. He never referred to what he had told me five hours earlier. He had no gun on him, no sticks like they usually beat you with. Nothing. And off he went." Tom closed his diary and it was over two years before he opened it up again.

Months later, for no apparent reason, the guerrillas released Tom and Paul. They told them to get lost and not return unless they wanted their heads blown off. They also gave them their belongings back. "It was just amazing to see $3500 worth of unsigned traveller's cheques of Paul's handed back to him by Colombians! He didn't want to look too surprised but they gave us back our passports, drivers' licenses, a Lloyds TSB card - always useful in the middle of nowhere!

"Off we went and after a week of getting completely lost we had to come back to the guerrilla camp back for directions! They were like 'we can't get rid of these two!' They gave us some money - they were paying to get rid of us! And they gave us soft drinks and directed us the right way. Within two days we were in Bogata the capital of Colombia being greeted by the ambassador to the UK and his wife - bizarrely with two boxes of Ferrero Rocher!

"I'm an orchid hunter, Paul loves mountains - we are backpackers and I guess that after nine months you could argue that's why they released us but we still don't know to this day."

The therapy

Creating the World Garden at Lullingstone has helped Tom

It was always going to be difficult to come to terms with his ordeal. Tom has had constant nightmares with vivid and dramatic images of his family being executed by the guerrillas.

Thinking that putting their story into words would help, Paul and Tom wrote The Cloud Garden about two years after their release. "I remember Terry Waite saying the relief he felt getting it out but it didn't work for either of us. The story needed to be told but it didn't help us."

In order to write the book though Tom opened up his diary and in the centre pages was that map of the world garden. And so began the creation of the World Garden which now covers an acre of Lullingstone Castle's grounds.

"For me the therapy that works - is the garden. However much you do in a garden that started off because you were going to be shot nearly seven years ago - you're still going to have issues. I'm never going to get over that nine months - it's part of history. It makes up who I am. Things have definitely changed in the way I see things - you get one chance don't you? I managed to have a few cat lives - but you live for each day - I've learnt that."

Exactly six years after the Colombian guerrilla first held a gun to his head Tom returned to Columbia where he finally managed to exorcise his ghosts.

Tom filmed his trip and tells us about his fears, his recurring nightmares, and the emotional as well as physical, journey he took.

Tom returns to Colombia >>

Tom returns to the jungle

World Garden Lullingstone Castle