By Roger:
I resigned from Comair at the end of 2017 with the intention of doing some charter work on Pilatus PC12 aircraft. I soon realised that it was not going to be as easy as I had imagined! All the PC12s had dedicated pilots and I also had to get 50 hours of flight experience as a co-pilot on type before insurance would allow me to captain a PC12.
Fortunately a colleague at Comair, Glen Crofford, had told me about a friend of his that managed a PC12 and a Cessna Caravan for the Midlands Group, based in Vereeniging. I had called Josua Groenewald soon after completing the PC12 rating in January. He informed me that they were looking for a pilot and asked if I would be interested in helping him fly the Caravan while I was still building the 50 PC12 hours. As I had last flown Caravans in the Airforce in 1993 Josua arranged some refresher training.
When Josua called me in early June asking if I was available to do an eight day Caravan charter to Mozambique, which he was unable to do, I immediately agreed. This would be my first income for the year!
Letitia and I were about to depart on our holiday to Reunion Island, and were due back on the 19th. With the charter planned to start on the 21st the timing was perfect!
Josua then went on to inform me that I would be taking lions to Mozambique. Now the only reason I could think of for lions needing to go to Mozambique was so that they could be exported to China! I had no intention of being part of the Lion bone trade, not to mention the risk of seeing the inside of a Mozambican jail.
He assured me that all was above board, it was for conservation and the charter was being arranged by Comair Flight Services, a reputable operator. My next concern was that if a lion woke up I did not have a lockable, bullet proof door behind the cockpit like I was accustomed to in a Boeing! Later when I voiced this concern to Ivan Carter, the organiser, he said not to worry they usually eat the vet first!
On Thursday 21 June at 3pm I took off with ZS-MID from Vereeniging destined for Mkuze Airport in Zululand, Northern KZN. Two PC12s flown by Schalk Ackerman and Clyde Straughan were already parked on the apron at Mkuze when I taxied in. The two organisers, Ivan Carter and Mark Haldane as well as the vets Mike Toft and Ryan van Deventer were there to welcome us. After closing up the planes, arranging a guard for the night and paying landing and parking fees we climbed aboard the Land Cruisers for the 20 minute drive to the Baobab Lodge. It was definitely not the romantic setting the name suggested, rather a motel directly alongside the N2 highway. Fortunately I had packed earplugs!
Over dinner at the lodge Ivan and Mark explained the project and discussed the next morning’s plan: The Cabela Family Foundation was sponsoring the relocation of twenty five lions to a Concession on the Zambezi flood plain, east of Gorongosa National Park. For the previous six weeks most of the lions had been brought in and accommodated in bomas on the farm where Mike is based, a few kilometres from the lodge. They were all sub-adult wild lions, selected for their genetics and donated by various reserves throughout South Africa. A few were still being awaited from Tswalu in the Northern Cape. During this quarantine period various medical samples were taken to check their health. At first light the following morning, the first batch of ten lions would be darted, micro-chipped and some collared. CITES officials had to be present to issue permits and check the micro-chips. The pilots would be taken to the airport to be ready for take-off at 8am.
Schalk in the first PC12 would take only human passengers, while Clyde and I would take five lions and a vet each. The first stop would be Nelspruit’s Kruger International to clear customs and immigration. Schalk would then fly to Beira with his passengers so they could clear Mozambique customs and immigration before being flown on to the Zambezi Delta Safaris Lodge at Mungari Rio with local aircraft. Schalk would return to Lanseria from Beira. Special permission had been obtained from the Mozambique Authorities for the lions to be flown directly to Mungari Rio, where customs and immigration officials would be specially flown in to process the two aircraft.
The darting and loading process at the boma took longer than planned and we were only ready to depart at 9am. As the Caravan is considerably slower than the PC12 I took off first, into a beautiful clear morning, and headed North over the Pongolapoort Dam towards Swaziland. Clyde landed before me at Kruger and started the formalities of paying landing fees etc. for both of us in order to save time. The normally quiet airport was for some reason packed with aircraft when I landed. There were five helicopters, a number of business jets and various other light planes all parked on the apron. The fuel bowser was in high demand. Not good for making up some time with a quick turn-around!
We managed to leave much sooner than I expected. It is amazing to see the effect a bunch of sleeping lions in open planes have on airport officials! The customs lady did not even leave her office to inspect the cargo, just checked the documentation and wanted us to leave before they woke up. We used the sleeping lion excuse to also jump the fuel queue.
On landing Ivan approached me with a request to take two of the lions to another airstrip (Nhagu) about 10 minutes’ flying away. This was not in the original plan but it was a problem to fit them into one of the local planes and would avoid a long road trip for the lions. I agreed, deciding to inform CFS later about the extra sectors as there was no time now to get permission.
The plan is to establish two prides, one on Coutada 11 managed by Zambezi Delta and the other some distance away on the adjacent Concession.
Back at my luxurious Zambezi Delta Safaris tent the donkey boiler provided a welcome hot shower to wash off the day’s lion muck. The delicious dinner later was followed by drinks around a roaring fire with everyone in high spirits following the successful day.
The following morning’s departure was delayed due to low cloud and poor visibility in Beira. We eventually got airborne at 9am.
Clyde departed Beira for Johannesburg. He would join us again in four days in Mkuze. I flew back to Kruger for fuel and passport formalities then on to Mkuze for the night. Flying with me was Ivan, Ryan, Mike and Trail (Ivan’s son).
After another night at the Boabab lodge I was collected before sunrise to assist in loading the next six lions at the boma.
Thanks to the earlier start and the punctual CITES officials we took-off at 8am as planned.
I now had a two day break at the Zambezi Delta Safaris camp while the last of the lions were transported from Tswalu to Mkuze and their blood samples were analysed.
I took this opportunity to accompany Dr Byron du Preez (the ecologist who will study and monitor the lions), Ivan, Ryan and Sean Viljoen (the cameraman) to the lion boma. It was a long one-and-a-half hour drive – they don’t want the cats released too close to camp. Along the way we encountered a large heard of Sable Antelope with many young individuals. According to Ivan it shows how well the wildlife is recovering, largely due to Mark’s anti-poaching efforts. Herds of Waterbuck, a few baboon and Warthog were also seen.
On Wednesday 27 June Ivan, Ryan, Trail and Sean again flew with me to Mkuze via Beira and Kruger. Clyde landed at Mkuze a few minutes after I did. I thankfully only had to endure one last night in the noisy Boabab Lodge. Again, before sunrise we were collected to assist with the loading of the lions at the boma. Apparently one lion had escaped at Tswalu so there was only going to be 24 lions relocated; still a record.
On 29 June Clyde and I departed Mungari Rio for the last time. By the time I landed back at Vereeniging later in the afternoon I had flown 31.7 hours and covered 7913 km in 8 days.
Check out 24lions.org for more details.
Fascinating account,Roger. Love to you both.
Hi Peter. Thanks. It was great to feel like I was perhaps making a small difference. Love to you both. Regards, Roger.