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July 23 Two eventsWhilst having lunch
today a hippo left the water and stood not a few metres from
diners.
Most of the time
they were unaware but eventually somebody noticed the askari keeping a sharp eye
on the bushes.
This caused a mass
rush to view.
I can't
underestimate how stupid a move this was, the hippo is the most dangerous animal
here by far. It can outrun you or I and has massive tusks that will make short
work of anybody.
The Mara River is
stuffed full of the beasts, which like dolphins and whales make clicking sounds
underwater as well as the loud noises we hear. Scientists believe they are close
relatives,to dolphins. This branch of the family grew
legs.
So that was that
excitement. I then checked to see if the Bill Gates balloon flight email had
made its way onto my blog space and it appeared not to have. Had to rectify
that.
The pictures and
video obviously were also missing, I have put the text up and thought I had
uploaded the pictures but they don't seem to be there. My internet connection
kept dropping so I could'nt upload the video to my company website at http://www.airborneadventuresafrica.com
and then run it in a media player window. Gloom.
All this I will have
to try and sort tommorrow.
On the way back from
the office askaris once again alerted me to danger and there right next to me
was an elephant. Mike made a short video clip of them passing right by the pilot
house, this too I will have to add!
Tourists once again
were oblivious not 30 feet away sat by their tents reading.
I often think that
as Governors Camps do not have fences people believe there is no way any harmful
animals could come by. Surely we could'nt be allowed to have people staying
truely in the wild.
Quite often at the
balloon launch site we have elephants milling around the woods and dispite our
pleas to passengers to stay by the balloons they still wander off and take
pictures or do whatever it is groups or herds of tourists
do.
As for the
migration....
There are now very
large numbers of Zebra and Wildebeest on the plains at the end of our flight but
it is not the migration proper yet.
G
-- July 20 The Richest Man in the WorldWell he came he saw he flew.
Steve Rowlands, pilot had a sleepless night and looked scared but the job was done!
It was he that flew Mr Gates and family, mightily relieved he was too when it was all over.
According to Steve, Bill as we like to refer to him now was a very nice passenger lots of sensible questions and no ego. I think Steve was more impressed by how pleasant the Gates children were. Expecting as I suppose most people would, uber brats.
The pressure that surrounds taking Bill Gates ballooning was not inconsiderable and we reckon Steve did a top job. We even had camp Doctor, Peter tag along with the crew just for in case.
No you can't see Bill and the family clearly. You will just have to take our word for it that it was him. Have to give the chap a slight bit of privacy!
The flight was as normal except Steve was moved from his normal number two launch position to number three or last off and Bill and family signed in and had coffee in a separate area about 50m away. We have been debating whether we should put the seat of the very throne used by Bill on Ebay and see if we could turn a tidy sum for charity!
I had a photographer on board and took off as normal as lead. I then hung around at low level keeping slow and allowed Steve to catch up. Mike climbed out of number two and the shot and then became a great big Piball.
Very normal flight flying down the plain and a stretch of the Mara River, the video shows a few seconds of that. Flying and taking video at the same time is a little challenging!
Mike and I flew on allowing Bill to have a private landing and then be whisked away to his own bush breakfast. He even signed the visitor book.
We met up with Steve at our normal breakfast to get the low down on the big man. Of course we shared a special well done glass of champagne with him.
Again I will try and attach pics. Really not sure if that works when emailing blog entries.
The whole Bill Gates visit was supposed to be the worlds greatest secret.
Travelling with a host of security and private 757's makes that a difficult one to achive!
Being an MSN Blog I should let the workforce know how the boss is getting on ;-)
G
Oh the picture of a garden will seem a little strange but it was probably the most interesting thing that happened yesterday. Its one of Colins shambas in which he grows fresh stuff for us. You can hopefully just make out two indents in the chicken wire. Thats where a large bull elephant pushed his tusks through. Whilst it was doing that the back of the elephant was resting against Mikes car and broke off a wing mirror. Damage from both ends.
July 17 Well who would have thought itSo quick
entry.
Have been thinking
alot about UAV's or (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).
Last year Dr Richard
Estes or more particularly his son Lyndon and I talked at length about having a
UAV for animal research and border patrol.
I made a few
enquiries and it looked possible and thats as far as I got.
Now I sit with
beautiful weather every day and wish I had made more progress. I wonder if I can
get an US army UAV over here???
The most exciting
subject today is that the balloon company is flying Bill Gates in the
morning!!
So everybody is
running around like headless chickens and very nervous.
I will post pictures
of the flight tommorrow!!
-- July 13 Its been a whileI'm not sure how
people find the time to keep these things up, or am I lazy.
So much has happened
dear diary!
First off Elly
Kirkman my fellow pilot has left Governors Camp to work with her husband at Fig
Tree whatever would convince her to do that I can't be sure.
Good luck
Elly!!
If I can remember I
will add party pictures to my gallery.
The mini migration
from the Loita Hills is well under way with many animals making the crossing and
heading down to Tanzania to join the big herds and return with them shortly.
This morning I saw several hundred Zebra and Wildebeest at the end of our flight
near Serena.
The Tanzanians are
burning like crazy on their side of the border in an effort to keep the
Wildebeest from crossing into Kenya.
All it seems to
change is where the animals come in. Looks like they will enter the Masai Mara
in the Keekorok area just as they did last year.
Colin is busy
building BBC camp for the Big Cat Diary people and we look forward to their
arrival in August.
With it being winter
the weather is slightly chilly but nothing for somebody from Europe ;-) The wind
has started to increase as well which means exciting
arrivals.
The migration of
tourists of course continues, the camp is full now most days and we are flying
three balloons daily as well.
I have been too lazy
to create any new podcasts but as I did last year I think all will be recorded
in August, the month we really expect the migration to arrive and when all of
last years characters, with the notable exception of Elly will be in
place.
Another thing I must
put online is the map I created a couple of years ago and GPS
waypoints.
I had a laptop
stolen and thought it was lost, yes I did back the map up but the fellows
nicked my backup spindle of CD's as well. Anyhow I found it on another CD
in box that they did'nt get to. Blimey what a long story, I shall just have
to put the map back online now.
Cheers
G
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