African safari stories
Extracts from Joe Lucas' journal on his African Safari adventures in the 1950's and 1960's.
A beer drinking dog, bedroom on fire, aircraft landing wheels down or not, missionaries on motor bikes, sheer drops and struck dead by a lightening flash!
Joe′s Journal of 1950’s safari′s, work contracts and expeditions to far away places. The 1950′s saw a steady stream of well trained technicians available to industry, having completed National Service. I opted for travel and adventure overseas, well paid work with low taxation…
A quick scan and I became pack leader on spotting them: twenty plus Dornier 17’s, heading for Bristol. This was a WW2 dogfight unfolding before my eyes.
Beautiful blue undersides paled into the matching autumn sky, but black crosses stared from the wings.
Crackle of gunfire revealed just three Hurricanes weaving around…
The beaming proprietor began counting cool objects into my sweaty outstretched palms.
No – NOT CHANGE! Seven clicks as each kissed its neighbour, eight little spheres of gleaming glass with whorls of white on blue, green, red or amber, two of each hue. One per gallon MARBLES…
What is the local name for the Victoria Falls? Known to Africans as ‘The Smoke that Thunders’. I saw the clouds from the spray and heard the ‘thunder’ 25 miles away!…
The tarmac soon gave way to dust in 1950’s Mosal, but it was halfway through the day, about 70 miles on before foothills replaced the plains. Further on and well into the mountains my driver seemed happier, now in his own country, so I raised the subject of the bullet hole that starred my half of the divided windscreen. Apparently, recently in this valley, his passenger in my seat was an Arab police chief…
What chance against a lion?
A Sable Antelope in a (then) Southern Rhodesia Game Reserve…
1962 Luangwa Valley Game Reserve. My visit, with the African Safari Guide, to this area was inspired by the book ‘Wildlife in an African Territory’ by F. Frazer-Darling. Having satisfied the manager I was self contained…
An hour or so later on this Tanganyikan safari: Awake! … Smoke! … Fire? ‘Get back to sleep; it’s the crew and their camp fire, still rejoicing.’ Another hour. Awake again, more smoke, but no fire and the crew silent now. Sleep again.
And again! Choking this time and definitely not from wood smoke!…
1962 Luangwa Valley Game Reserve. Hippopotamus live near the lodge where I spent the night. All day they laze and wallow in the pool. At night they graze on the fresh green grass around the lodge…
Well, this short cut includes the Muse Escarpment; descending 2000 feet in a mile and a half. Four years earlier, I made the trip as a passenger in the middle seat of a Land Rover, so I knew what was coming. Fortunately for Mohammed, he didn’t know…
Souvenirs from East Africa, these wooden figures were collected mainly from Tanganyika – now Tanzania, during the early 1950’s. Most were bought at stations on the Central Railway Line…
East African Colonialism; In Africa their simple tiny churches were much better attended than ours and, despite poverty and hardships, had a touching faith, humility and inner confidence.
Mission training was its basis. Throughout East Africa, every known Christian denomination had a station somewhere.
Priests and lay brothers – always known as ‘White Fathers’ – tore about the roads on motor bikes…
A Roan Antelope in the Southern Rhodesia Game Reserve, is shy and elusive – it’s a handsome beast…
This group of carved 3 figures, souvenirs from Tanganyika, is also made from a lightweight softwood, initially ‘Tea Rose’ coloured – darkening with age…
Comfort in solitude, the ultimate experience was a first ever encounter with a powerful thermal of rising air, flying a glider. Throw her over into a steep turn, concentrate on ‘look-out’, scan the instruments and see the ground sinking away below…
