Report back: Tembe Elephant Park Expansion Project - Mission Accomplished

In perfect weather (but for a wee headwind) I and our brand new recruit Mark Warren set off at 07h00 on Friday, from Emoyeni in our two Rainbow Cheetah aircraft, for Tembe Elephant Park. A great privilege for us was that our wives had agreed to accompany us - I say 'agreed' because it took some serious selling to gain the agreement of these two non flyers.

First stop en route was Empangeni airfield for a comfort break and then on to Hluhluwe to meet Pierre Conradie, who was on 'stand by' with fuel. Pierre proved himself to be a true member of the brotherhood of aviators, by instantly responding to a late call (Thursday) that we needed fuel at Hluhluwe and he delivered as promised. Declining Pierre's offers for breakfast and with the assurance of his support for the return trip, we proceeded further north. Ernest Robertse of Tembe responded to our approach radio calls, which made for great relief that someone was on the airfield at Tembe for our arrival.

In need of a break and some sustenance, Ernest whisked us away on an unplanned game drive to the lodge. Almost as if by plan to reward the travel weary flyers, we bumped into the hugest of elephants within a kilometre or two of the airfield. Ernest spoke at length of the specific efforts they had made at Tembe to habituate the ellies to vehicle presence and to foster some reciprocal respect between the two. This ellie was so close we could smell it and at this time us four town clowns were nearly wetting our pants, whilst desperately hoping that this habituation effort was working properly. We were educated on the matter that Tembe's ellies are the biggest in the world. Apparently due to living in the sand forest habitat for generations, they have developed genetically to outsize any others in Africa.

With some sustenance and recovery, it was back to the airfield for round 1 of the work flying. The initial requirement was to fly the region outside the park and to assess where was the best location for the new eastern boundary fence. The idea was to find optimum combination between a line roughly drawn on a map and that which was practically presented to us on the ground. Where the imaginary map line cut through or marginally included spots which were more inhabited, we would veer around these villages and thus exclude those villagers from having to be involved in what will surely be complex negotiations for them to be relocated.

Interestingly enough, it was the local community who approached the Tembe personnel and asked that this expansion project be launched. Owing to the sand forest and very saline soils in the region, agriculture and even subsistence farming is not successful and with zero other employment in this region, the people have come to realise that tourism is just about the only industry worth developing. Having picked out from the air, as best we could, a new fence line, it was a case of getting back to base and reviewing the effort. Thanks to technology we downloaded the afternoon's flight tracks onto the map on the computer, which revealed in exact detail the precise path taken in each flight. This data was used to tidy up the plan and to upload a new route/fenceline for the following morning.

On Saturday we were at the field early to prep the aircraft and to await the arrival of the Tembe Nkosi and his Indunas. The hierarchy duly arrived and amidst the proper protocol in the greetings we delivered our briefings and saddled up. In taking the Nkosi along the proposed fenceline and pointing out the strategy of the placement thereof, it emerged that doing one's homework is always beneficial, as it transpired that what we had figured to be the best plot, was 100% agreed to by the Nkosi. After repeating the flight a few times with others of the decision making team, we were treated to a lekker lunch and some relaxation back in camp. This was not too soon as the Saturday weather was strong and bumpy stuff. Whilst the flights for the others were each brief, our 2.4Hr effort had taken its toll. Our efforts of the day were however rewarded with a great game drive and an evening around the camp fire, listening to African folklore fables.

We departed Sunday morning at 07h30 having first treated our game driver with a quick flip around the wetland. We had great tailwinds and went roaring off, a little sad for having to leave, but very comfortable with Ernest's assurance that we had accomplished all that was required of us. We would also have liked to stay until Monday, but weather predictions indicated the need to leave. As it happens the predictions were accurate and Monday's weather turned really nasty.

Both the away and the return legs took just under 3Hrs each and both ended with 1/3 of a tank remaining, from the total 94Lt total capacity, giving a fuel burn of about 12Lt/Hr. This was for 400Kms each way, which presented an average cruise speed of 135Kph. As I fly the little Cheetah more, I develop an ever increasing appreciation for the capability of this little plane and its engine.

Cheers for now,
Steve