Would passenger number 3160 please return to his box.

International Passenger Tax when flying out of Mozambique is US $30. Had we of been charged this amount for today’s flight we would have had to fork out $33,000.00. Fortunately today’s passengers were classed as cargo, and so the 11,000 Nile Crocodiles we had on board our two aircraft traveled tax free.

It was a hectic couple of days. We started in dripping 35 degree humidity and flew two and a half hours north to Beira and then on to Caia on the banks of the Zambezi, where we were met by an enthusiastic crowd of locals.

We loaded 550 boxes of crocs.


Each box contained 20 of the cute little creatures!


Half way through loading, we had some weather which made some of the boxes quite wet. This was not good.


There's not much to do in Caia, so we went to bed at 7:30 and were up at 4:30 the next morning to fly back. The weather still wasn’t brilliant and delayed us, but we got back to Beira to find that things weren’t as they should be…

We had to do some search, locate and recovery.


After a lot of official paperwork and a top up of fuel we were back up into the weather and on our way to South Africa. In heavy rain the view forwards was bland for most of the way.


The view to the passengers in the back wasn’t so great either!


Eventually we got back on the ground this time to the welcome of more officials than you can shake a stick at.


And more absentees to be located and returned to their allocated boxes.


So, the end of an interesting and very novel experience. Not the kind of thing one gets to do each day.

The long cycle to freedom.

Cathy and I went for a bike ride today. Nothing unusual in that except we didn't cycle together this time, although we were both at the same place.

We had joined 3000 other people and had entered two different mountain bike races of the Sabie Classic. Cathy did the 40 km and one of my 'mates' had talked me into doing the 100 km which involved 2300 m (7550 ft) of ascent.


It was a long way and we weren't even close to competitive but... we did finish, beating the 8hr 15 min cut off by 7 minutes.

We were pleased we did it but don't intend making a habit of this type of thing - until maybe next year!

Zimbabwe Medevac

A week ago Friday we got a call that a man was ill and needed air lifting out to receive urgent medical attention.

Nothing hugely unusual in that, but the situation was complicated by the fact that he was in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and the medical help he required was in Cape Town, 1100 miles away.

Permits were hurriedly obtained, a stretcher was loaded and the plane readied to leave the following day. He was, however, Zimbabwean and an emergency visa was not granted for travel the following day so we delayed our departure until we had word of the visa. This was finally granted on Tuesday, so Cathy and I flew up to Francistown, Botswana, for fuel and then on to Bulawayo that day.

Our plan then of course was to fly out early the next day but just before we drove out to the airport we got another call to say that although the visa was in the passport, the passport was still in Harare, and Harare was five hours drive away – but no one had any petrol, or transport. So, a day of planning and waiting ensued with regular phone calls for updates, with the passport finally arriving via a delayed internal flight at nine o clock that evening.

'Inflation'

We were back at the airport, one day late, at seven o clock the following morning to get the plane ready. The patient arrived two hours later on a mattress in the back of a small truck, we were almost ready to go except… immigration hadn’t yet arrived at the airport (they said they would be there at 06:00). Their phones were down but we eventually managed to get a message though and after a small bout of negotiation we were told that if we put the paperwork under their door at the airport, we were free to leave.

The six hours of flying to Cape Town, with a stop in Johannesburg for fuel and customs, was now relatively straight forward with only about two hours ‘weather’ to deal with. It was still a long way but we were at our destination by five in the afternoon where a minibus was waiting to take the patient to the hospital. We were very tiered and ready for some food and very grateful to the couple who opened up their house and put us up for the night.


But now Cape Town and Nelspruit, where we live, are at opposite ends of a big country, so the next day still meant seven hours of sitting looking out of the same Perspex window at the ground slowly slipping past underneath us. More weather caused us to divert, adding to the journey, but we finally made it home after four days, over 2500 miles (4100 km) and 16 hrs of flying.


Again, thank you for your prayers and support that help make a difference to people like this.

Paul and Cathy

Busy all of a sudden

Two weeks ago there was a 75 km mountain bike race in Barberton – the first big race of the year, which was quite muddy and took almost six hours. This last weekend Cathy and I ran the clinic at Londolozi game lodge again. Monday was spent getting the auto pilot in the 310 fixed in Johannesburg. Tuesday we hosted a new cell group that will meet in our house. Now it looks as if the next few weeks are set to be about as manic as it gets as it seems that everyone wants to go everywhere – right away!

The Zimbabwe water purifying flight is now being arranged for next Wednesday. We will already be up in Moz with a missions team on an eight day trip and so can continue up to Malawi, where pick the chemicals up, from there.

A few days after we get back we have been asked to transport 11000 crocodiles from a small town on the Zambezi River in Moz to South Africa – should be novel.

In between the two flights there is also a 100 km mountain bike race that Paul will be doing. In the mix with all this are some of the worst storms we have had for a long time (last night it thundered all night and left us with 60mm of rain and a small lake in the kitchen and bathroom).

We have a Mercy Air planning meeting tomorrow (Thursday) and Cathy and I will spend Friday afternoon at a memorial service for two cycling friends of ours who died tragically last week.

So, huge amounts of paperwork and planning and only limited time in which to do it.

We’ll let you know how it all goes.

In the mean time Cathy's delivered two more babies since we last wrote and Matthew has probably taken 2000 more photos.

Paul and Cathy