Herewith an update from the boys on their wild African safari vacation in Zambia collecting crocodile eggs.
Leaving the farm for camp proved to be quite an ordeal. Our convoy of pickup trucks arrived at 10:30am on the dot, however it would only be 5:00pm before we set off on the Sefula armada of fishing/egg collection vessels.
Sefula boats ready to leave for the Zambezi River
The normal 20 minute drive from the farm to the harbor took 2 hours in the first vehicle, however it would be another 6 hours before the truck with the motors arrived with a broken fuel pump. Mark and Jim used the time wisely though and did some last minute shopping for ice, vegetables and phone/data cards…phone cards being integral in the collection process as ‘scouts’ locate nests and report back to main camp for a lucrative bounty. Data card, purely for “if the phone works maybe the internet will as well”.
Mongu Harbor
The harbor is not the place to be sitting around for 5 hours (as Mark & Jim found out) and a huge fire in the distance made one wonder if we were ever going to make it to Main Camp.
Fire near Mongu Harbor
At last all boats and equipment finally made it to the harbor and we set of for Main Camp, roughly 20 miles away or 2-3 hours on the boats (normally). Today however instep with the rest of the day it would take us four. We optimistically gauged the sunset to occur at 7pm (more like 6) so Mark & Jim got their first experience of the Mongu channel and the Zambezi in pitch darkness. We arrived at 9:00pm a little frazzeled but happy to be on land again. The river being very low for this time of the year produced countless sandbars which we all had turns trying to maroon ourselves on. We readied camp as much as we could, unloaded the boats and turned in for the night.
Main Camp
Wednesday morning we continued setting up camp, sent one of our collection agents down river for a few days to spread the word that we were collecting crocodile eggs and then were treated to a delicious meat pizza expertly designed by Leatherman Jim.
Pizza for dinner
We also set up our water heating unit being a 4 x 20 foot strip of black conveyor belt, which had been discarded after years of use up in the mines at Kitwe. We rolled the belt into a concave curve and molded it together to hold 80 litres of water. We then dug a huge hole and covered the “new water unit” with plastic to minimize evaporation and sand getting in from the wind. The logs are to hold the plastic down. A day of sun beating down on Jim’s invention gets us a 130 degree 10-minute shower every night.
Our solar powered water heater
With our home for the next 10 days sorted out, the past two days have been spent dropping business cards up and down the river and fishing, which is crucial for dinner and to supplement our smallish cooler box of meat.
Thursday 10th September
Today saw the return of Aston (who went down river on Tuesday) with two boxes of collected crocodile eggs from today, and one from yesterday. We have word that there are four more nests 3-4 hours upstream and Graham and Jim will collect those tomorrow, as well as taking a visit to the ferry to collect more supplies.
What the boys have been doing, besides looking for crocodile eggs:
- We set up a 5 holes frisbee golf course
- Jim has been handing out shoes to the local African children that his daughters collected from school. You should have seen their bright smiling faces, it gives me immense pleasure giving them something they would never have if we weren’t in the area (no one comes to this part of the world)
Handing out shoes to the African children
Please leave us a comment and let us know what game you think the boys are going to be making up next. Golf Frisbee is their first, what’s next?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great site, I now have you bookmarked to come back again.
Fabulous hearing what the family are up to in Mongu. Dad seems to be glowing having been out there with you guys!!! Lots of love xxx
Amy, we loved having him out there. He was a real trooper, helped a lot, trudged through a few hippo trails and at one time was on all fours pushing his way through a solid wall of bamboo. You should ask him if it reminded him of his days in Solomon Islands. There are a couple more posts to come so keep on looking.. You and Mike should come out next year!!