Dispatches

Dispatch #1  

Tiger Fish and Ellies Sep 1970

My father was an avid fisherman especially Tiger Fish and a good friend of Don Parkinson, the District Commissioner of the Binga area, who was tasked with taking the old boy for one last trip of fishing and an Ellie hunt before he retired from the colonies back to the home country in England after full service abroad. At the disposal was the parks boat Sir Patrick Fletcher. It was a really hunting safari worthy of a great novel there must have been 30 people in various tasks and duties. Sir Archibald was the gentleman and Mike Buntz the PH.

Lake Kariba a man made lake 165x20 miles was not a body of water to mess with. Crocodiles, hippo and amazing assortment of wild life that would not  think twice of ending it for you along with exceptional rough water could be a handful and we tested it in a force 7 storm a day out on the trip. The captain kept the boat heading offshore to stop us running aground and I lay on the metal decks puking my 8 year old heart out seasick.  I just wanted to die.The storm passed and we found land to go hunting on and Tiger Fish fishing for the Sir. He was a fine gentleman. Old school they don’t make them that way anymore. 

There’s nothing like the sounds of the bush, drums and with campfires burning, a boat anchored to the shore in the heart of Africa hundreds of miles from anything civilized. Fish were caught, my father did the fishing bit and absolutely loved it. 

Mike and the trackers found a group of bulls that fit the bill. Sticks were placed and a shot was fired along with an extra coup de gras by the PH who was also tasked during the event to stand his ground and rumour has it he was hitting one of the remaining bull Ellie with his hat shouting at it to leave as he did not want to take it out. Apparently the Ellie was unhappy with intrusion of the two legged intruders. PH….Steel balls I’m sure 20lbs each.  

Being so young we in the follow-up party to the main event arrived minutes later, pictures were taken, much hand shaking and congratulations and a ton of jubilation.  A fine bull and great tusks, food for a small army. The skinners did their work nothing went to waste. Much whisky was consumed that evening I’m sure as puffy cheeks and Texas road maps were the whites of the eyes. The next day Sir Archibald drew a Tiger Fish for me and tore it out of the journal book he had. A present that really did not sink in at that age how meaningful it would become in later life. The photo/s taken by my parents I had scanned and the drawing sits safely in my office cabinet. A couple times I’ve thought of having it framed. I guess I should do as time is marching on.  

We were gone a number of days on the trip and followed it it up with a further stay in Binga doing moreTiger fishing. Learned that the Tonga folks used a very differ pillow for sleeping at night. I can tell you that from a very young age Africa gets burned in your DNA   You can’t get it out no matter how many times you hear TOTO. It can bring tears to your eyes. Do shit with your kids when they are young, it’s important.

I was born in Southern Rhodesia, a 4th generation African, later to become Rhodesia (where boys became men at a very early age) and then Zimbabwe. We were forced to leave in1982 two years after it became Zim.