26th July
Early start to the day and breakfast with the minister. Said our goodbyes to Valerie and off to Rundu airport to clear customs and depart Namibia and enter Botswana.
We were met by Dirk, the local flying instructor and given a few wise words of local conditions. Dirk got us fuelled and prepared for our next leg...130 miles of trees and bush...there is no landing opportunities...
We left with Jim at the controls and a careful check on range against fuel as we were into a head wind. We had 3 hour endurance and a 2:30 flight with no alternate airfield...
Departed direct on track and went for 2 and a half hours over woodland and arrived with 10 litres of fuel in hand...
Our tracking system was our comfort knowing uk was watching, we got airport in site and landed safely at Shakawi in Botswana
The airport official/cleaner/general hand welcomed us and confirmed what we needed but mom from the UK was watching us on spot and kept both the lodge and customs/immigration in the loop. 15 mins after landing we cleared customs and were taken to Drostky Lodge…Shana was our point of contact and all was organised. Shana put us into our room that was great and 2 hrs later we departed on the sunset cruise to see the local area.
The sunset cruise was pleasant with a group of about 10 other folk travelling in different directions around Botswana. We got photos of yellow bill stork, malachite kingfisher and the black breasted snake eagle along with the Okavango river sunset……great
Dinner was simple and had a coffee with a group of Land Rovers travelling Botswana, shared stories around the fire before going to bed….
27th July
Shana got us back to the airfield early after filling boat tanks at a roadside petrol pump. We refuelled and made the next leg of 103nm to Chobe airfield….There was some frantic texting confirming and checking with the UK that Maun had radioed Chobe that our intended flight was Chobe’s isolated airfield and that , 1) they expecting us and, 2) they had 50 litres of fuel for us???? well all seemed to be loosely organised so we headed off into the wilderness of the Okavango swamps to find our fuel and an airfield…..
We flew over croc infested swamp for a while, which we had confirmed the size and population of crocks the previous day on the sunset cruise. once the swamp was crossed the woodland started that continued for the next hour until we found a small clearing on the wooded area which was the runway…. We watched the elephants at the waterholes and saw buffalo lying in the shade of the acacia.
Landing at the airfield we were met by a Land Rover and 2 people, we walked over to them and they knew nothing about us and were obviously waiting for another plane coming at some point in time…..I think that the elderly lady who was waiting was quite relieved when she knew that we were not her transport out of the swamps.
Half an hour later a Land Rover erupted out of the undergrowth and our fuel arrived, we taxied to the far end of the runway and the refuelled. Shortly after we fuelled we got back on our way..
The next 89nm took us to Kasane which is an international airfield, on the Zambezi . Had a pleasant flight. we saw elephant and buffalo en route and followed the zambezi all the way in.
ARRIVAL INTO KASANE!!!!!!!!!!!! we announced our position inbound and requested joining instructions as normal and everything seemed to be as “normal”.
We were cleared to land on 08 runway and at the same time we were cleared and had declared “ON FINALS 08” the control tower cleared an aircraft to land on the same runway in the opposite direction!! were both inbound for the same runway in opposite directions……Welcome to Africa….We aborted and a low level circuit and came in behind the apposing traffic…. great…
On the ground we went to a local b and b and had dinner in the local haunt…
28th July
Due to vehicle requirements at the accommodation we were staying at we were at the airport.
6:45.… the new problem, after preparing the aircraft the final radio blow was struck…..it stopped working….we could transmit but could not receive…
after talking to the tower and Livingston in Zimbabwe we had a procedure and “a plan”. we taxied out to the runway lined up,
The hammer went down……..no power, a new bloody problem… back to the stand to clean out all fuel lines and filters… our flight plan expired so after cleaning all fuel lines stripping the checking an already clean system and not finding a problem we asked the tower if we could do power checks on a taxiway, which they agreed… the problem was a little better.
the opportunity of repairing the problem was in Livingston 35nm away. we spoke to the tower of our problem and spoke to Livingston with the procedure for our inbound arrival. we departed to the runway
and down went the hammer and with a struggle we got off the ground and started off to Livingston. after climb out the power available had a surge and was not a problem we wanted to carry to Livingston so we returned to Kasane and landed.
What now…..phoned the Rotax agent and found out that as this was a new engine the gasket on the bowl of the carburettor settles and this needed a quarter turn and would solve the problem. back on the ground we were going as fast as we can as we did not want to file yet another flight plan.
The quarter turn was the problem… we now had our power….
we could transmit but could not receive….I phoned Livingston and confirmed that could we come in with out radio comms and explained the problem. they confirmed the procedure gave me the airfield information and a landing slot plus minus 5 mins and were expecting us. We reported 25 miles out and reported every 5 miles there after. Landed with no problem and taxied to the stand….
5 mins later a 737 landed and accused us of causing a delay which was defused by the control tower as we had all the permissions and approvals.
Peter Jones was there to collect us and was good to meet up with him….he had not changed a bit, still the great guy and good friend…We retired to his house at River Club and finished the day with cottage pie…
29th July
Peter started early and Cookie made us breakfast after which we went down to the office to get a lift to Maramba airfield to try and get the air craft away from the Livingston Airport. Peter went to his meeting, we took his car to the airport and went to collect the gyro. After very little hastle we confirmed with tower and Jim took off and flew the machine over to the Maramba airfield. The rest of the day was made of trying to repair the radio with no success….
Peter then took us later to other properties and possibilities of development in he future…
The day closed with macaroni and cheese and a game of rugby 1973 barbarians and All Blacks…. a blast from the past
30th July
Early start and down to the Maramba airfield, we have managed to scrounge a hand set to keep us going, packed the gyro with the kit and waited for this radio we were kindly lent. We were ready by 9:30 but the problem was the wind had come up and was from the east and we were going east….we had a 2:30 flight to do with a 3 hour endurance… we had no alternate airfield and the wind was getting stronger so we made a safety decision…. either we wait for tomorrow, and the weather could be the same or we drop the plan and drive…..although the roads were terrible and the car was expensive we decided that the alternative was to drive….
Off to the airport and then collected a car and down we went to the lower Zambezi….550km….
The road has not changed and the roads are great in areas with periods of horrors.. we did it in record time to catch the pontoon….we did not know in true Zambian tradition the pontoon was broken…. we received a call, a boat was waiting and made it by the skin of our teeth…
We arrived at the camp only to be welcomed by Tobias an old employee of Kayila days and our kit taken up by another Krispen…the same guys just a little older.. we transferred to Land Rovers to do the last leg and arrived at Chongwe to find out that Kenneth one of my young boat men 15 years ago was the Chongwe lodge head chef. Great to see how my guys have come along…The sad news was that many of my team had died….Mechanic, Organ..Cook, Donald…Both game scouts…
By later on in the evening we arrived at Chongwe camp to meet Geoff Leibenburg an old friend. as usual he was warm and welcoming . He talked into the night reminiscing about stories of old with great humour and wit , later we retired into 10 star accommodation….
31st July
Today was a very special day, it started early with the hippo waking us up and the fish eagles arguing…the past came alive… Breakfast was fit for a king and did nothing for the waistline.. We went fishing and Geoff started the day with a 13 lb tiger fish, we were blown out of the fishing completion and returned to a cup of tea on the front river bank and spent the next hours soaking up the sounds of the Zambezi. Geoff took us to the old camp sites and relived many of the old memories. He then took us to the Chongwe falls where we had a sundowner of beer with biltong….please god don’t let this end…
Dinner was outstanding , my young boy Kenneth had blossomed into a bright young man with fantastic culinary talents. Conversation went on into the night and we retired hoping this would go on for ever..
1st August
The sounds of Africa cannot be described , the dawn chorus of birdsong the rumble of hippos and then a fish eagles cry and then the warm hum of the insects, a shout of one of the boat men, all coming at you as you wake, and the feeling that you must hang on to this moment forever, remember every nuance , a feeling of great joy shaded with regret . Africa grows on you.. Jim is starting to become African now and has moved into being African … Jim is now officially a native….
The day started with the traditional marvellous spread for breakfast that filled you up for the day, needless to say there was food served every 2 hours whether it was a morning tea or a 5 course meal!!! the kettle was always boiled and the aroma of roasted coffee always kept the tea table alive…
Geoff had to keep up appearances by improving the 13 and a half pound tiger he caught the day before so they went fishing for tiger fish and Jim and I went for the large mouth Bream up the Chongwe river…We took the Land Cruiser, some tea and a man of local knowledge to do the task.. The Chongwe fishing spot, we felt blessed to be in a place of such beauty , to be accompanied by a cow herd of elephants on the adjacent side some 20m away. They did what they had to do whilst we tried to fish. Jim had a number of successes and we have the photos to prove his conquests…During the morning fishing session a radio call came through that a Leopard on a baboon kill had been sighted …didn’t take long to make decisions on what was more important so we were on our way to the kill…
The leopard had killed and hidden the baboon, which we found but had the leopard had moved off, hopefully to come back later in the day…..
It was getting late now so we made our way back to camp for a well earned siesta…
The afternoon we planned to go back to the leopard…… we were out and off to the plains to find our baboon kill…on arriving to the site we had no luck…driving off to the deeper end of the park we saw a large numbers of wildlife and a huge mix of birds and trees. funny how the names of the most obscure trees come back and so easy to slip into the old ways and become a Gorba again….Sorry Gorba is the name of the local people, meaning “valley”.
Once deep on the lower Zambezi we found ourselves a consolation Leopard in a tree that had killed a waterbuck bull. In most pristine condition the cat was not phased with our presence. we watched on for a while and he very slovenly descended the tree and returned to old business…the kill. he inspected it and retreated to the thick jess for some privacy..
we continued with the drive with the intension of covering this mornings tracks to return to the Leopard that had left its baboon kill, we were graced with many elephant sitings and stopped for the Zambezi sunset with a Mozi Beer and some snacks served on a table with a white tablecloth…
The sun set the Land Cruiser was repacked and off we went on our way in the dark armed with a spotlight…we saw a bunch of nocturnal life from night Jars to Water Dickop along with the civet and fortunately a mother Hyena sitting at the opening of her lair/hide/nest????defending her young. the night was being wrapped up and we made our way to the old baboon kill from the morning….she was there, the old girl was on the kill devouring the baboon piece by piece. the opportunity of seeing 2 kills with leopard on one day was one in a million…We watched on for a while and not wanting to disturb the leopard eating under the spotlight we had to move on…we departed after watching her with reluctance to go back to the camp….this was something we got good photos of and would dine on this story for years to come… she was magnificent and we watched on from a few meters away…..
2nd August
A new day, the Zambezi sunrise brought on by the wildlife orchestra.. the hippos open joined by the baboons announcing the arrival of the resident lions and closed with the duet of the fish eagle… Its hell in Africa..
A light breakfast and we were off onto the park down to the bottom end of the Zambezi valley. the drive was for the thick end of 5 hours and brought back lots of old memories of cutting roads and getting stuck in the black cotton Mopane soil.. The Ilala palms, the Baobab and the Sausage trees that lined the river followed the river from the Chobe river days 7 days prior.
We came across an elephant cow herd that was made of lots of young cows and needless to say they gave us a charge just to establish some displacement behaviour. This was fantastic for Jim as all of this was new..
Made our way back and settled on to a night of the sounds of Africa… Late that night the lions returned and started the duet between the lions assessing location and the baboons reaffirming respect and stress..
3rd August
That’s us in the lower zambezi valley, we are out today and after a session of goodbyes and thanks we boarded the boat up the river. I made a special point of re affirming the special bond I had with my old labour from 20 years ago… I went into the kitchen and thanked Size an old work colleague for his food. I wished him and his son Isaac, whom also worked for me, well. The old man graciously shook my hand with too hands and wished me well. He asked me how are my children and is the madam well and he wished them all his best…old man, old colleague and good person,… became a little emotional…
Backto the boat and the cherry in the cake, off to Kayila…Kayila, this is the lodge I built many years ago for am man who is a legend in the safari world and the hunting industry. Lou Games was a gentle lovely man whom always had time for everybody. he was a mountain of experience and an encyclopaedia of bush knowledge and respected by all as the “Madoda gakhulu”. ( The Big Man) I was one of the privileged people to work with/for this great man and built a lodge for him…Lou approached me one day and wanted to “show” me something. We went down the airstrip and sat in a lower limb of a Jackal berry tree. “Yes, you wanted to show me something???” and Lou proceeded to tell me how he wanted me to build a lodge with a main Lapa with 6 chalets….the icing on the cake was, he sent me into a hole of a baobab tree to see if it was hollow and I got sting by some bees…..but, he was right, the tree was hollow….the instruction to follow; was to cut a door into the tree and make a full flushing toilet and wash hand basin…RIGHT!!!!
We arrived at Kayila and all those memories came back, the farm, the people, the adversaries and the life and experience I gained from this wonderful place… Much of what I had built had been removed at the farm and lost, but it was still there and was still my farm…there was a very constructive and adaptable manager there and was doing a fantastic job, but the farm still had lots of me in it… I had to laugh when the manager complained about the water reticulation, he said that it was made of poly pipe and was held together with tube rubber…..yes….that was me….20 years on and it was still there. The pipes were still the original pipes I had dug up and reused from the old windmills, we were on a tight budget… I will be there for the next 20 years…
After having a good look about and getting quite emotional about MY farm, we retreated to the boat and continued to the pontoon where the car was parked..
The trip back to Livingston was uneventful and managed to get back late and called it a day after an exciting trip
4th August
Back to the airfield, the time at the lower Zambezi gave us time to reflect and think about the current situation, we have decided to stop in Livingston….
to continue north we now recon we need to add another machine possibly 2 and re assess the trip to possibly continue when the weather changes.. this also gives me a chance to get my licence and go back to the drawing board…..
So this brings phase 1 to an end and plan phase 2 we have done over 3000 miles and had experiences that will last for ever… both Jim and I have had an absolute blast through the trip….
the next phase to follow shortly…
0 comments:
Post a Comment