On the braai last Saturday, there was a man named mark, who flies the helicopter. He flies over farms to spray the crops for bugs.
He was talking about how he had to fly for game on Thursday. A farm with koedoes and wildebees was selling a few animals zo they had to be sedated. But farms here are a lot bigger than Belgium and if you needed a bull or a cow and had to go after it yourself it would take days to find 5 animals.
So, they hire the chopper here to dart them from the air and then the truck will drive up to that point to collect the animal.
We were excited and he invited us to come along!
We had to be ready yesterday at 5am, he would come and pick us up in the garden :)
A little over five the helicopter landed and for the first time in my life I was gonna fly in one!
Flying in a helicopter was on my bucket list. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to be in one, and not just a typical touristy 10 min. flight. Now we were gonna fly to Gravelot which is a 25 min flight.
As it got light along the flight, I felt like a bird in the sky.
The great thing about helicopters is that it's like flying in a big glass bowl. A lot of window, great view.
It was supposed to be a 2 to 3 hours thing.
We got to the farm where the vet was preparing the darts to sedate the animals.
A little later we were off to there, according to them, 'small farm' about 400 hectares.
The helicopter went up with the farmer and his gun with the darts in it.
Very quickly he shot the first Koedoe bull.
The vet timed it, it takes about 4 min to sedate him enough to collect him.
You can't be there too late because he might fall asleep and lifting a 300 kilogram animal isn't gonna work.
They brought him in, he got some injections (not sure what it was, maybe his annual shots :) )
And they load him in a van. Once he was put in, they measured his horns, and took a picture also of the teeth (I guess to determine the age maybe?)
After that they gave him a shot to reverse the sedation, and they had to hurry to close the trailer.
Within 2 minutes the bull was up and awake again.
Second time they were gonna dart a bull I went along in the helicopter.
So cool!!!!!
I always said: if I have enough money I want to learn how to fly an airplane, well, add the helicopter to my bucket list as well :)
So easy and fun if you could just take a heli from point a to point b! :) A girl can dream right?
What was supposed to be 2 to 3 hours, turned into 7 hours.
When we left it was still cloudy and not too hot. But after a couple of hours it was sunny and hot!
Of course, I did not bring any sunscreen. So you can guess it by now.
My arms look like a lobster... My shoulders are 50 shades of pink....
The African sun versus queen Modjadji 1-0
Since we've been up since 4:30 in the morning, we were getting really hungry by 12...
Actually, if you think about it, it's almost like a full working day. 7 hours.
They collected 2 or 3 bulls, and 3 cows.
But they notices one of the cows was lactating which means she must have a little one.
They went looking for the baby koedoe and found him stuck in the electric fence. He kept jumping in and in and in again.
They pulled him out but he was in too much stress. The vet tried to resuscitate the deer, heart massage and mouth to snout, but it was gone.
Sad moment.
Around 1pm it got too hot so we were invited to have lunch.
'Pap en boerewors' I think it's like polenta and sausage.
Wasn't bad actually and we were so happy to eat something :)
We said goodbye and got back into the helicopter.
Marc said: 'do you mind if we stop at a friends place?'
Since we had no schedule, of course, no problem.
This guy Barry, beautiful house up a hill, owns a game farm with mainly bulls.
We took a drive with the 'bakkie' on his 'small', 600 hectares, farm.
We saw a lot of bulls, they decided which 6 ones they were gonna sell.
After the visit (by helicopter) we left and flew back to Tzaneen.
What a day!
Normally 3 hours, turned into a whole day of adventures. Happy but tired we ordered some sushi and I went to bed a little after 9 pm :)
This morning woke up at 7 en around 8 we walked the dogs for an hour. About 5 km on this beautiful property than I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I'm very excited about my tour, but I'll miss my friends and the farm and the doggies who greet me every morning. It's a special place here, it calms me down. No stress.
This zen girl is now gonna put on her bikini AND sunscreen and will dive into the pool, because it's getting hot again!
x
Tania
He was talking about how he had to fly for game on Thursday. A farm with koedoes and wildebees was selling a few animals zo they had to be sedated. But farms here are a lot bigger than Belgium and if you needed a bull or a cow and had to go after it yourself it would take days to find 5 animals.
So, they hire the chopper here to dart them from the air and then the truck will drive up to that point to collect the animal.
We were excited and he invited us to come along!
We had to be ready yesterday at 5am, he would come and pick us up in the garden :)
A little over five the helicopter landed and for the first time in my life I was gonna fly in one!
Flying in a helicopter was on my bucket list. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to be in one, and not just a typical touristy 10 min. flight. Now we were gonna fly to Gravelot which is a 25 min flight.
As it got light along the flight, I felt like a bird in the sky.
The great thing about helicopters is that it's like flying in a big glass bowl. A lot of window, great view.
It was supposed to be a 2 to 3 hours thing.
We got to the farm where the vet was preparing the darts to sedate the animals.
A little later we were off to there, according to them, 'small farm' about 400 hectares.
The helicopter went up with the farmer and his gun with the darts in it.
Very quickly he shot the first Koedoe bull.
The vet timed it, it takes about 4 min to sedate him enough to collect him.
You can't be there too late because he might fall asleep and lifting a 300 kilogram animal isn't gonna work.
They brought him in, he got some injections (not sure what it was, maybe his annual shots :) )
And they load him in a van. Once he was put in, they measured his horns, and took a picture also of the teeth (I guess to determine the age maybe?)
After that they gave him a shot to reverse the sedation, and they had to hurry to close the trailer.
Within 2 minutes the bull was up and awake again.
Second time they were gonna dart a bull I went along in the helicopter.
So cool!!!!!
I always said: if I have enough money I want to learn how to fly an airplane, well, add the helicopter to my bucket list as well :)
So easy and fun if you could just take a heli from point a to point b! :) A girl can dream right?
What was supposed to be 2 to 3 hours, turned into 7 hours.
When we left it was still cloudy and not too hot. But after a couple of hours it was sunny and hot!
Of course, I did not bring any sunscreen. So you can guess it by now.
My arms look like a lobster... My shoulders are 50 shades of pink....
The African sun versus queen Modjadji 1-0
Since we've been up since 4:30 in the morning, we were getting really hungry by 12...
Actually, if you think about it, it's almost like a full working day. 7 hours.
They collected 2 or 3 bulls, and 3 cows.
But they notices one of the cows was lactating which means she must have a little one.
They went looking for the baby koedoe and found him stuck in the electric fence. He kept jumping in and in and in again.
They pulled him out but he was in too much stress. The vet tried to resuscitate the deer, heart massage and mouth to snout, but it was gone.
Sad moment.
Around 1pm it got too hot so we were invited to have lunch.
'Pap en boerewors' I think it's like polenta and sausage.
Wasn't bad actually and we were so happy to eat something :)
We said goodbye and got back into the helicopter.
Marc said: 'do you mind if we stop at a friends place?'
Since we had no schedule, of course, no problem.
This guy Barry, beautiful house up a hill, owns a game farm with mainly bulls.
We took a drive with the 'bakkie' on his 'small', 600 hectares, farm.
We saw a lot of bulls, they decided which 6 ones they were gonna sell.
After the visit (by helicopter) we left and flew back to Tzaneen.
What a day!
Normally 3 hours, turned into a whole day of adventures. Happy but tired we ordered some sushi and I went to bed a little after 9 pm :)
This morning woke up at 7 en around 8 we walked the dogs for an hour. About 5 km on this beautiful property than I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I'm very excited about my tour, but I'll miss my friends and the farm and the doggies who greet me every morning. It's a special place here, it calms me down. No stress.
This zen girl is now gonna put on her bikini AND sunscreen and will dive into the pool, because it's getting hot again!
x
Tania
Zooooooo jaloers ... maar het is je gegund. Wou dat ik ook daar was. xxx
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