by Joan Kleynhans

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

Earthbound mortals often ask, almost aggressively, as if such madness must surely be wrong: "Why do you fly?"
They are not appeased by my answer either. "I fly for fun!"
Do they ask golfers why they play golf?
To my credit, whenever I can, I try to combine fun with work.
So it came about that I persuaded a friend to accompany me on a working fly-in safari in Botswana. The Cessna 150 I used to fly would never get off the ground with 75 kg of veterinary equipment, 25 kg of personal luggage and 94 kg of dog food. I needed my friend, Leon, to take me in our mutually owned experimental aircraft - a Comp Air 6. He groaned when he saw my luggage. He had more than enough of his own. The fact that we were delayed by various circumstances and only took off at 11.20 am on a very hot day, did not help.

Although the CA6 needed a slightly longer ground run than usual to reach flying speed, she lifted off without a hitch. Climb performance was somewhat impaired by the ambient temperature of 35 degrees Celsius. To be on the safe side we remained near the Gaborone-Francistown road. We reached Francistown later than expected due to a strong headwind, but still had to wait for the day to cool down before departing for Sua at 16h30.

There we were met by Tom and Nicky who whisked us of to the Sua Pan for sundowners at the water side. The pans were full, with water stretching as far as the eye could see. As night fell, the flamingos became noisier and noisier, taking off in droves after dark for their night flight to their nesting grounds to the south. The whooshing of hundreds of wings overhead in the dark was an eerie sound.

Early the next morning Nicky and I transported my gear to to a nearby garage where I was to hold my clinic. Striving to maintain high surgical standards in an open garage can be quite a challenge. However, we managed to perform surgery on 10 animals and vaccinated and treated about 30 others.
The following day we left early for Nata. The CA6 took off eagerly from the narrow tar strip in the cool morning air. The 20 minute flight over the pale blue pan dotted with pink flamingos was beautiful, and was over too soon to my liking. I think Leon felt the same when he saw that Nata's short, bumpy, gravel strip had a strong crosswind blowing across it. In spite of that, his experience and skill ensured a smooth landing in the tricky taildragger.

Nigel of Nata Lodge met us at the strip. His indigenous hound, Katy, who had a protracted stay at our clinic in Gaborone the year

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>