Goodrich “ Bwana Bwana are you alright”........ He had heard the noise and commotion and had wandered quite
unconcerned in the dark unarmed and without a torch. I told him about the hippo and to get back to the boat and shortly after I joined him. Next morning I went into the
small local town and telephoned the Game department and recounted my story and their response was that it was probably the same hippo that had killed the African in his canoe and if so, this hippo had been causing a lot of trouble. Anyway after this incident there was never any further trouble from the hippo who had probably learnt a salutary lesson and had the daylights scared out of him without too serious consequences!
As mentioned I had sold the vanette for £120 and used this money for supplies and together with Goodrich we headed up river with the over loaded boat powered only by the little 2hp engine. As we slowly cruised a big white egret came gliding across the river a beautiful sight and the next thing was he had alighted on my shoulder. I grabbed his legs and put him in an old sack in the boat next to me and we motored on carefully alongside banks of reeds where the current was least , and then all through the night and by next morning when I awoke I reckon we must have done about 25 miles. I took the egret out of its sack and tied him up and he clung onto a paddle that I had laid across the boat, and so we journeyed again through the night always on the lookout for crocs but there were hardly any until now on the second day among the swamps I saw a large launch coming fast up the river and I noticed that it belonged to the Game Department. I suddenly remembered that the egret was classed as a “Royal Bird” so I quickly cut the string holding his wing and tried to release him but he refused to fly away and each time would return to roost on the paddle. The Game Dept launch by now had come alongside and very kindly offered to give me a lift upstream which
I gladly accepted. They picked up my little craft onto the stern of their large vessel and I climbed aboard. The egret now flew and perched on their boat and came up to the crew
unperturbed. I then realised that egrets in the wild spend their time on the backs of elephants and buffalo picking away at ticks and other insects that are collected in the long grass and this probably accounted for his complete absence of fear the way he stuck to us. When we moored for the night he would go off and catch fish and insects , but always would return and perch on a suitable place on the boat. However sadly a while later he came to a tragic end. We had stopped at village for the night and as he was hopping about catching flies on the bank in the early morning one of the village lads picked up a stick and before we had a chance to shout he had killed it . I was devastated and heartbroken and we had with us an Assistant Director From the Game Dept. who was a well educated and balanced man. He saw my anguish and turned, “ Well it moved, didn’t it? You cannot really blame them, they have no education, no realisation of the good certain birds do for the environment in controlling insects etc. It moved and therefore was meat to be eaten regardless of any other aspiration! Life at this level is at its most basic and primitive!”
I had now motored about 75 miles upstream from the bridge with the help of the Game Depts launch into what was known as “the Blue Lagoon” and here I thanked them and once more went off on my own to explore. And soon I was amazed to see that the whole area was completely flooded and in places the floods stretched over the countryside for miles from the river. At one point there was huge lagoon and nearby a huge solitary tree by a village, which seemed an ideal spot for a camp. But the locals came to see us who were Ella and they were not at all friendly to start with. They were not the usual Bantu that are normal around here but instead were tall and superior with a haughty look and a brave demeanour. They had