Fetching Buzz – Hluhluwe to Ballito

I can hear you saying to yourself “what are they doing back in Ballito?” This is a fair question so let me explain: When we moved on from the North Coast Roger arranged to have Buzz hangared at the ZAP-Wing hangar until we found something more convenient. The logic is that we want to travel down the Wild Coast with the ‘train’ and at the same time identify suitable landing strips. Once we get to PE we want to hop onto a commercial flight back to Durban and then fly Buzz down the Wild Coast and hangar it in the PE area. That said, we subsequently had a lot of assistance from Steve McCurrach who knows everyone, and Len Kohler who kindly offered a space in his hangar at the Ballito airstrip. Len would also accompany us through the King Shaka airspace because we do not yet have the required transponder.

So we found ourselves back at Ballito on the 16^th because Etienne Gerber from ZAP-Wing (www.zapwing.org) was in Durban on the 17^th for his annual CRM refresher and had offered us a lift back to Hluhluwe.  He picked us up at the Ballito airstrip after lunch and we drove to Hluhluwe where Etienne had an anti-poaching patrol planned for 17h00. He had space for one extra passenger so I was the lucky winner; Roger had flown in a helicopter before but not me! We were running late due to traffic and only got there at about 17h20. We had 5 minutes to get ready before setting off on the patrol while Roger stayed behind to refuel and check Buzz before our flight the next morning. This was exciting stuff; it’s not often that one gets to fly low level over a game reserve in a chopper! I saw a herd of elephant, 2 rhinos with calves, a very large herd of zebra and lots of other game. Thanks again Etienne!

Etienne and his wife Mariette kindly invited us to stay over for the night and after a pleasant home-cooked meal and chat we got to bed early. We were up at 5 again and after breakfast got to the airfield nice and early in order to leave while it was still cool and smooth. It was a beautiful morning and the flight down the coast was super. Thanks again to Etienne and Mariette for their hospitality!

We decided to try and fly over some of the areas that we visited by road, so here are some photos as we went:

We landed at Groutville airstrip where we met Len Kohler, the pilot who volunteered to escort us. From there it was a short flight of about 5 minutes to Ballito airstrip where Buzz would remain until we fetch him again.

After Buzz was settled in we had a cup of coffee and a bite to eat with Len before heading back to Ballito again. We will be leaving Ballito on Saturday morning. While we are here Roger will be sourcing a transponder and arrange for its installation. We are also planning a get-together with all the guys who have assisted us.