This post is written by my brother, Graham, who is married to my partner, Meredith Hill. The boys, Graham and my husband, Mark, are in Zambia helping my dad collect crocodile eggs. Every few days I will be posting updates on their African Safari vacation adventure.
Well everything arrived in Zambia!! There was a lot of hilarity in our family last week when Mark and I were packing our bags. We had a small generator weighing in at 56 lbs, a huge cooler box stuffed to the brim with all sorts of tools, fishing gear, skinning knives, bungee cords, yeast, pumps and many other odd and sods that weighed in at 69 lbs, our clothes bag weighed in at 48 lbs and lastly a small fishing rod holder. Virtually everything is left on the farm after the trip, either to use the following year or to be used by the old man on the farm. Clothes and shoes are given away to the locals, so we travel very lightly on the way home. I never really expected to see all our luggage arrive in Lusaka, especially as we had a fairly tight connection in Joburg, but there it was a bit battered but safe.
It took us 2 days to get to the farm, Charlotte to Atlanta, Atlanta to Joburg, Joburg to Lusaka, overnight in Lusaka and lastly a 7 hour drive to Mongu in a rental car. That 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Joburg was not the most comfortable, Delta must have the most uncomfortable seats in the world. My bum was numb an hour into the flight and 2 days later I still feel the effects, so not looking forward to the return leg now.
Crocodiles in the small pens
Dad was moving the yearlings from the small pens to the grower pens, so we got to help out. The process goes something like this, carefully catch a crocodile, put it in a bag, when there are four crocodiles in the bag, walk it quickly to the grower pen, hand the bag across to a handler in the pen, open bag and let the crocodiles into the water. Generally this is a very smooth operation, but once in a while they escape. Jim, our American outdoors expert, better known as Leatherman Jim, got to test his reflexes catching an escapee, getting it safely into the bag. Not to be outdone by a Yank I decided to catch one myself and promptly registered my first eve crocodile bite. How am I ever going to live this one down!!
Moving the crocodiles to the grower pens
I would say that the length of them averages out at about 1 metre and they are born about 30 cm long, so that is fairly decent growth in 9 months. The temperatures at the moment are 30° Celcius during the day and 20° at night. They have been used to a constant 32° so this will stress them out for a few days at the most until they get used to their new environment and temperature variation.
We do try to give them a calmer for 5 days before the move which does help stop the piling up in the corners.
The grower crocodiles have grown a lot in the last year, however it is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them are almost 1.75 metres long, while others are not much bigger than the yearlings we have just put out, which means almost no growth this last 12 months. It is really disappointing to see the smaller ones, however now that it is heating up they should start growing rapidly.
The next big project day is taking on is to move the 300 biggest crocs to a retirement pen. They will have their teeth clipped, put into a pen with very smooth concrete ponds and left for a month or two to allow any cuts, scratches or disease to heal.
The boats are ready for the Zambezi River
Today has been dedicated to packing for the river where we go tomorrow. Yeta Sisi, one our agents on the river, walked in from the river, 20 miles away, to report that the laying has started so we need to get there quickly before we loose to many nests to the water monitors and other predators. Leatherman Jim, ably assisted by Mark, fixed the water pump on the Johnson, Dad fibre glassed the fuel tap on the generator which we found broken, damaged on the journey, and I pottered around setting up our shower and light fittings, moved the rod holders on the boat, fitted in-line water fuel separators on all the outboard engines, made lists and packed a few boxes for the river.
We are ready and leave for the river at 10 am.
Beautiful Zambia sunset
A few thoughts…
….The full moon is playing havoc with my star gazing
….The bright red sunsets are out of this world
….Fiberglass will fix anything
….Cane spirit should be consumed with caution!
….Everything in Africa takes a little longer than anticipated.
Do you think this could be a trip you would enjoy? How do you feel about visiting Camp Crocodile Mongu? I’d be interested to know your thoughts.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this post! I never knew crocodiles could get so big . . . Those men are brave handling those crocs–have they ever gotten hurt?
Funny thing happened the other day Britt, my brother Graham was bragging to Mark about how he knows how to do it, and “just watch me”. Well, the darling croc gave him a quick bite on the hands. Luckily he was wearing gloves.
Yes they do grow huge, when I was in Zambia on the Lower Zambezi river, we were canoeing and came across a dead hippo ion the banks of the river. Crocodiles have great hearing and quickly slipped into the water, there were thousands of them feasting on the hippo, and they were huge. An average nile crocodile will weigh 500 kg (1100 lbs), so yes, huge!
Okay, the hippo image is something I could live without. Ewww.
I’m glad to hear Graham is okay. Too bad that croc didn’t have his teeth clipped yet. By the way, can you pass the message along that I would like to know how one “clips” a crocs teeth. That would make a great video.
Graham, hopefully when the moon is out of sight, you’ll have a clear view of the Southern Cross…still one of most most memorible moments in Africa was seeing that in the bush. Good luck!!!
Hi Scott – yes, you have vivid memories of the Southern Cross don’t you! The African skies at night are fabulous for stargazing. One of the things Graham misses from Africa is his beloved Southern Cross. Pity he couldn’t fit in a telescope.
its awesome