Shooting babies!!!

Dindy the Flynn's cook for many years holds the Bush Baby aloft with great jubilation!

The bush baby was in the tree behind my round house. They make and a lot of noise at night, kill large numbers of birds and this one even had the audacity to pull thatch off my house- bad idea.

Bush babies are nocturnal and have quite bat like features. It reminded me of a child's toy as I looked at it threw the sight on the rifle. Fergus held the spotlight and I sent the first shot off over the horizon - not my Fathers son when it comes to being a good shot! Furgus then offered me his shoulder to use as a rest and that did the job. The Bush Baby lifted his little arms to the heavens in slow motion for a maximum effect Hollywood style last breath before slumping off the branch and hitting every branch on the way down. Honestly some dying animals are such drama queens!

Fear not all yee eco tree huggers it was not pure blood sport as Dindy took it off to give to a friend presumably for a slap up meal!

Round house!

This is the house where I am staying at the moment. As you can see it is a traditional style round house with a lovely thatch roof. It has a bathroom sticking out the back and lots of lovely character. The house i will be moving into is should be finished in June. It is a huge great big place with three bedrooms so I will need lots of guests to fill the rooms! Everyone is very welcome - September is supposed to be the best month as the grass is dried up for good game viewing and it is hot but not silly! This time of year is also very nice but after the rains the grass is on a mission!

A day in the life

I start work at seven in the morning with a quick trip around the farm checking everything is well and set to harvest. Harvesting begins at eight thirty. About fifteen guys are involved with the harvest. The water level in the pond is lowered to thigh height. A net is then stretched out across the pond and then pulled the entire length of the pond. The lower part of the net is weighed down so it passes along the bottom while floats keep the top of the net on the surface. Between one and two tones are harvested in one pull of the net. We harvest seven to eight tones a week fifty two weeks of the year.

The fish are graded by size, loaded into the truck and arrive in the capital city one and a half hours later.

Lunch is served at twelve and we have until one thirty before work starts again. The afternoon consists of a large range of jobs from office work to checking everything is running well on the farm. At three o’clock Erick (a very nice guy i co-manage with) and I meet with the area managers to check on the following days plan. Work finishes at four thirty and it’s time for tea and cake!

Zambia it's a hard life!

As you can see from the smile on my face we had an absolutely fantastic time fishing on the Kafue. The Kafue river runs past the farm supplying it’s water and crocs! Doug, Eric and myself set of from the farm just after mid-day. We launched from beside the Kafue bridge which is about half an hour from the farm. Our host and captain for the day was Abe a professional hunter with the most colorful vocabulary you can imagine and the finest advice about women for Doug!

I had a lure in the water for two hours watching Doug pulling fish after fish in. It was just great being on the river in a speed boat (proper toy!) listening to the hippos grunt at you if you get to close. There were some fantastic pike with very formidable teeth. I think Abe was able to well the fish up from the depths with a dedicated and heart felt volley of “You *!^* !*!*’;\** **!!fish!!”

Suddenly Doug struck big and reeled in a half meter yellow belly. We kept trolling along past the same area and it was my turn bringing in two yellow belly the size you can see in the photo. By the end of the day we had an Esky full of fish, all well celebrated with the Mosi Beer! With the sun seting over the river the day could not have been any better.

Croc hunting!

We have been catching crocs to stop them coming into the ponds. The crocs live in the big river running alongside the farm. The first one we caught was a massive fourteen foot long male. The crocs can swim under the fence at one point where there is a bit of a lagoon. The lagoon area ha a secondary fence as staff were reluctant to use the short cut walkway to the other side of the farm across the lagoon. One part of the fence opens into a large metal cage with a pigs leg hanging at one end. When the croc pulls on the meat the cage door drops. The crocs are not very happy about this so we cover the cage with a tarpaulin to calm them down as they can badly damage themselves in the cage. A local croc farm then comes to help the capture of the croc so they can use them for breeding.

When the croc is in the cage you have to get a rope around it’s neck. That’s not very easy when the croc panics thrashing around wildly. Someone stands on the top of the cage and others use sticks to guide the rope. The fence around the water is pulled away at this point. Once the rope is around the crocs neck the door of the cage is opened and the croc heads into the water. The big male pulled the ten men who were holding the rope along few several meters before he performed a death roll. The death roll is used by the crocs when they are hunting it is basically a very fast repeated roll.

To summaries at this point you have a very large and very angry croc on the end of a piece of rope. The jaws of the croc have not been tide at this point and it is highly unpredictably and dangerous time. The croc is then pulled onto the land. It was very concerning as we were worried that the croc was being strangled by the rope. Once on land a tarpaulin is placed on top of the croc and people sit on top of it. Sounds easy…. With the tarpaulin covering the croc the it's carefully pulled back so the jaws can be tied. And a sack placed over the head. It all becomes a little less tense at this point. The front legs have to be tied up and the tail is also tide to the back legs. It took fifteen men to then lift the croc to the back of the truck. At one point he decided he did not like to be carried and shook off all the carries. The guys from the croc farm pounced straight back on our guys were a little more hesitant! He arrived at his new home in good condition and was even well enough to chase a guy up the wall. That our boy!!

Sexy Lady!!

What a lovely lady feeding the day before we caught her in the lagoon and then in the cage.

Today we caught another female who was about nine foot in length. Two females had been caught just before I arrived. It was amazing to see the difference in character she was a lot more snappy and panicky. We had real trouble roping her neck as she kept smashing into the bars of the cage hurting herself. It is so horribly sad to see them hurt themselves. The worst moment was when we had the rope on her and were going to open the door and she panicked and got her head stuck in the bars of the cage. Then in a desperate attempt she tried to perform a death roll her body flipped over with her head still in the bars. Fearing she would break her neck Doug (Son of the farms founders) and Eric (Co-fish farm manager) grabbed her mouth and were finally able to free her after some very tense moments. Bolting out the cage and going into another death roll she was too tired to fight much and was quickly pulled onto land. We tied her up but were very worried about her condition. She arrived safely at the croc farm and is doing well.

I made it!!!

Leaving Brisbane at three in the afternoon I embarked on the quite ludicrous journey to Zambia. I flew to Thailand, Ethiopia then Malawi and finally thirty one hours, six movies, a book and far too many trays of peculiar airplane food later I touched down in Zambia. The customs is Zambia were thankfully so uninterested in what I was doing in Zambia I had no trouble getting in. My work permit had been approved but I did not have any documentation. The farms driver who was picking me up was a little delayed so I had cleared customs before he arrived with the papers. When he did I simply walked back to the immigration desk, try that at Heathrow!

We then ran a few shopping errands in town before setting off to the farm. My first impressions of Zambia are that it is more developed than expected. It reminds me a lot of South Africa. Arriving at the farm just before nightfall I did not see a great deal. The grass is incredibly tall and everything is very lush and green as they are coming out of the rainy season.

I then had dinner with Fergus, Di (Husband and wife management team) and Doug (son at college in the U.K.). I slept from ten until five when thanks to the wonders of jet lag I woke like a jack in the box. Today I will take the grand tour, very exciting.