Last week, I finally managed to remove the collar from my last buffalo, Valkyrie. I found out that Peter Perlstein (the helicopter pilot) and Larry Patterson (the vet) were both flying from Maun to King's Pool on the 3rd September to dart elephants. This took them right past my last cow, so I arranged for a quick detour and drove up to meet them at Khwai airstrip.
I am not very familiar with the Khwai area, and had no idea what to expect in terms of water. The first crossing was fine, just a small dip where the bonnet went under. The roads had clearly changed from the ones that were on my GPS, but I could hear planes at the airstrip, so I followed roads that went in the right direction. I reached a crossing that looked sandy and pretty well used, so I decided to walk it just to see how deep it got. It reached my armpits, but only for a brief dip so I risked it. It turned out to be quite a lot deeper than I had hoped, but we made it through with only shallow puddles in the footwells and a heavily thumping heart. I was about an hour early for my rendezvous with the helicopter, so I decided to try and find a better way out, as well as checking for a signal from the collar. I managed to find both, and made it back to the strip with plenty of time to spare, so I turned off my engine and waited.
Peter came in and landed at the other end of the strip, but when I went to start my engine, the starter motor just laughed silently at me. I always carry a spare, so I quickly swapped them round, then drove quickly to Peter, who had by now been waiting for about 15 minutes. He had obtained a fix from only a couple of hours before, so we flew to that fix, less than 4 km from the strip, and found the herd very easily. We spotted the collar quite quickly and separated the cow off from most of the herd, then pushed them into an open area where we could dart. Removing the collar took only a few minutes and she was up in no time. I saw that she had an old wound on her back that was not there when we darted her in January, so at some point in the last few months a lion must have tried his luck with her. However, as we all know, buffalo are tough and I have no doubt that she taught that lion a good lesson!
So for now, my fieldwork is done. I have no more collared buffalo to follow, which is a very sad state of affairs, but one that was inevitable. I am still going to be going into the bush most weekends for the next couple of months, so I will let you know if I have any more exciting adventures!
I am not very familiar with the Khwai area, and had no idea what to expect in terms of water. The first crossing was fine, just a small dip where the bonnet went under. The roads had clearly changed from the ones that were on my GPS, but I could hear planes at the airstrip, so I followed roads that went in the right direction. I reached a crossing that looked sandy and pretty well used, so I decided to walk it just to see how deep it got. It reached my armpits, but only for a brief dip so I risked it. It turned out to be quite a lot deeper than I had hoped, but we made it through with only shallow puddles in the footwells and a heavily thumping heart. I was about an hour early for my rendezvous with the helicopter, so I decided to try and find a better way out, as well as checking for a signal from the collar. I managed to find both, and made it back to the strip with plenty of time to spare, so I turned off my engine and waited.
Peter came in and landed at the other end of the strip, but when I went to start my engine, the starter motor just laughed silently at me. I always carry a spare, so I quickly swapped them round, then drove quickly to Peter, who had by now been waiting for about 15 minutes. He had obtained a fix from only a couple of hours before, so we flew to that fix, less than 4 km from the strip, and found the herd very easily. We spotted the collar quite quickly and separated the cow off from most of the herd, then pushed them into an open area where we could dart. Removing the collar took only a few minutes and she was up in no time. I saw that she had an old wound on her back that was not there when we darted her in January, so at some point in the last few months a lion must have tried his luck with her. However, as we all know, buffalo are tough and I have no doubt that she taught that lion a good lesson!
So for now, my fieldwork is done. I have no more collared buffalo to follow, which is a very sad state of affairs, but one that was inevitable. I am still going to be going into the bush most weekends for the next couple of months, so I will let you know if I have any more exciting adventures!
