Chirundu Tales - Part 7

CHIRUNDU TALES (Part 7).

The closure of the Chirundu Sugar Estate was a gradual and very sad event.  Apart from the loss of jobs for many hundreds of employees, buildings were destroyed and the fields left to be taken over by Mother Nature.   Once the factory had ceased to operate it was slowly dismantled and shipped to a new site in Zambia.  For security reasons the fields with standing cane were burnt in case they might have been hiding insurgents.  The burning was supervised by estate staff and police who were on the down-wind side of each field and were armed ready to dispatch any terrorists as well as any animals that may have suffered burns as a result of the fires.  Fortunately very few animals, mainly small carnivores that pursued rats and mice, were affected although a fair few bushbuck and two leopards were seen. There were no signs of terrorists.

Following the removal of the irrigation pipes there was no further activity in the fields.  Elephant, buffalo and hippos that had previously been shot at night if they ventured into the fields were suddenly given undisturbed access.  It was a slow transition at first but little by little the penetration by these three species became more evident and we often encountered individuals and even small herds on the way to Chirundu.  Actually we sometimes took evening drives to see what animals were out and about on the old cane fields.

One memorable occasion was during the Arab/ Israeli war in June 1966.  We had seen the Herald report which gave the military strengths of all the potential combatants.  Israel was sadly outnumbered and under equipped according to the report so we could only feel sorry for it’s people and followed the events closely on our faithful Supersonic  radio.  One evening when hostilities were at their peak we had parked on an embankment that gave us a good view over what had been called the Mwangu Extension, the closest sugar cane area to our station.  We had our radio with us and listened to the evening news report on events in the Middle East.   At the same time as we were listening, we were looking over the fields and observed two bull elephants and a small herd of buffalo peacefully grazing on the young volunteer cane shoots.  On a lower area of reeds, nearer the river, was a herd of Waterbuck and a lone hippo that had decided to have an early evening feast.    It was hard to accept the fact that whilst we were enjoying the serenity of an African evening, several nations were engaged in a full scale war and people were dying in their hundreds.

As always, there was a lot of game around but certain species, although present, for the most part, evaded us.  One was the cheetah which according to the Smithers book of mammals was to be found in the valley.  I never saw one and discussed the matter with Boyd Reese, the Area Warden.  He was of the opinion that they were, in fact absent from the area as he had never seen one or received reports of any sightings.  About three years after the closure of the sugar estate I met up with a former employee of the estate who had been a keen hunter and when we visited him and his wife I noticed that they had a cheetah skin draped over the back of the sofa.  When I asked about it he told me that he had shot it in error in the Chipandahuri River area of the Chirundu Hunting Association area.  He had bought a supplementary license for a leopard which to me was probably a waste of money as leopards were rare and very difficult to hunt in the daytime.  Anyway, whilst stalking a herd of impala one evening, he noticed that they were very skittish and decided not to shoot.

 As he was observing them he caught a glimpse of something moving to his left.  It was spotted and his immediate thought was that it was a leopard so he shot it. The game laws dictated that the trophies from any animal killed without a license would be confiscated and become the property of the Game Department.  He was afraid he would be prosecuted so he did not declare the kill as required in the rules of the Chirundu Hunters Association but skinned it and dried the skin at home.  After the estate closed he moved to Swaziland and was somehow able to have the skin tanned there and obtain a certificate for it.  It is a pity that he did not declare it as I am sure it would have been of real interest to the authorities as well as the zoologists.

Another rarity, in my opinion, was the Black Backed Jackal.  I was certain I had seen a couple of them in the course of my travels and again discussed the matter with Boyd Reese.  He said that I should shoot the next one I saw so that a proper identification could be made to correct their absence as declared in Smithers book. Regrettably the only one I saw after that was in Mana Pools so I was not carrying a rifle.  Helen and I tried to approach the animal on foot to get a photo or at least a better look at it but we encountered a pair of lions in a nearby gully that we had not spotted from our vehicle and decided to beat a hasty retreat!

Rhinos were few and far between.  Shortly after the project started I took a group of visiting entomologists on an evening drive to see game on the Mana Pools road and between “D” Camp and “E” Camp we encountered a lone rhino a few yards away in a Mopani forest.  As I was driving their brand new Jeep station wagon I made sure that we got past the animal before stopping to have a look at it.  Naturally there was great excitement amongst my guests as rhinos were comparatively rare and the cameras were clicking like mad.   All of a sudden the rhino charged and as he was very close, I accelerated away to avoid the vehicle being hit.  Luckily one of my visitors managed to get a clear photo of it just a few yards away. I kept ahead of it until it stopped.  It stood it’s ground for a while before disappearing into some nearby Jesse bush.

When the excitement died down one of the entomologists asked me why in fact I had avoided the charging animal.  I told him that if I had not, we would have most certainly would have been hit.  His response was that it didn’t matter if the vehicle was damaged as all that would be needed would be some putty to cover up the hole and a can of paint to hide the repair!  My view was that had we been hit, some serious injuries could have resulted to one or more of us and the vehicle could conceivably have been written off or at best immobilized.  Actually I saw what I think was the same rhino in the same area some months later. Apart from this encounter, the only other rhino we saw was a single animal very early one morning in Mana Pools so when our annual holiday was due in 1966 we decided to go to South Africa and visit the Natal Parks as part of our trip.  We knew that we would definitely see rhinos there including the White species which we had never seen.

At the time, we had a 1957 SWB Land Rover so we decided to have a semi camping holiday as our finances were somewhat limited.  We took our time and spent a couple of nights in hotels and a couple more camping on the way South.  One night we decided to camp at a fairly nice site on the banks of the Vaal river at a place called Villiers in the Orange Free State.  It was a warm, calm evening so we decided to sleep in the open instead of unpacking the tent.  I set up our beds and lit a fire for Helen to cook supper.  Having done that I decided to slip into town and pick up a couple of beers from a local hotel.

 I did not know the liquor laws that applied in the OFS and when I got to the hotel it was just after 6 pm which was the closing time for off-sales.  My attempts to buy beers failed so I decided to have one whilst I was there.  I wasn’t there very long but by the time I left the pub it was dark and there was a fair wind blowing.

When I got back to the camp site I had a problem finding our spot in fact I was really worried.  The wind was picking up and there was no sign of our fire or camp beds not to mention poor Helen.  It seemed like ages before she finally appeared out of the dark.  She was far from happy having had to put out the fire and turn the beds upside down so they wouldn’t blow away!   We ended up eating a cold supper out of tins and trying to sleep in the howling wind.  Not a happy situation.

After a few days staying with relatives on the South coast of Natal we ventured North, our first stop being Hluhluwe National Park.  As we entered the park we came across a group of tourists who were accompanied by a Ranger, walking very close to a trio of White Rhinos. This was what we had come to see!

We spent a couple of days in a very comfortable chalet and enjoyed the abundant variety of animals the park had to offer but being keen to get close to rhinos, hired the services of an African ranger so we could leave the vehicle.  We saw one Black rhino about 200 meters away in a clearing so we decided to approach it on foot so we could get a better photo.  We had not gone very far, perhaps 50 meters, when the rhino looked up and immediately started to charge!  Instinctively we did an about turn and headed back to the Land Rover.   Our ranger obviously had the same idea and with no regard for our safety, took off and jumped into the vehicle, rifle and all, well ahead of us!  Some other tourists who were parked next to us must have taken some hilarious cine shots of the three of us running for our lives! Actually when we looked back, the rhino had lost interest in us and was nonchalantly chewing on a small thorn bush.

Our trip next took us to Umfolozi, Mkuzi and Lake St.Lucia all of which were a tourists’ dream.  Our next destination was Ndumu National Park.  On the way there we drove along a dirt road up the Lebomboberg mountains that was signposted as being virtually impassable and warning travelers that they continued at their own risk.  We had plenty of fuel and water as well as a lot of food so we were not worried.  The next stage was the descent into the Pongola  river valley where a new dam was being built and to our surprise, found a brand new motel overlooking the dam site so instead of camping in rough conditions, we spent a very comfortable night there.  The motel owners told us that they were not permitted to advertise in order to discourage an influx of tourists during construction.

The next morning we crossed the river at a very rough crossing below the dam wall and arrived at Ndumu about lunch time. We rented a chalet and decided to spend a few days relaxing and catching up on laundry etc. We got to know a couple of the Game Rangers and were permitted to travel around the park on our own which was actually against the park rules.  All visitors were supposed to be accompanied by a ranger.  Ndumu was a super park with very few visitors and plenty of game including the very shy Livingstones Suni which was a big plus for us.

From Ndumu we crossed the Lebomboberg again and drove across Swaziland into White River in the Eastern Transvaal where we spent a couple of nights with friends we had met when they were hunting in the Valley.  We then travelled North through the Kruger Park which was a big disappointment to us.  The camping sites were disgraceful when compared to those in the Natal parks and at Skukuza the camp site was between the main HQ and the African  living quarters so we had hours of noisy to-ing and fro-ing  during the night, not to mention the hooting of passing trains!  The game viewing was also very limited due in part to the volume of traffic.  Wherever one went it seemed that when one vehicle stopped, within seconds there would be a dozen others lined up behind it, not our scene at all!

I guess that the Kruger Park was such a contrast after our tour of the Natal Parks that we decided not to prolong the agony and head for home.  We exited the park at Phalaborwa and turned North for Beit Bridge.

Our return trip to Chirundu was uneventful , the high point being a brief stop in the lay-by at the top of the escarpment.   We knew we were home and both agreed that nothing we had seen on our trip could compare with the beauty of the Zambezi Valley.