A Family Trip to Zakouma

Last weekend we (Matt & kids) joined Becki's flight which was taking a team of pastors to the South then picking up a group of doctors from America, who had been working at a hospital in Bere, and taking them to the East. It was more cost-effective for the aircraft to stay for the weekend rather than make two flights so we grasped the opportunity to come along too and spent 2 nights at Zakouma National Park. MAF do not often fly there and when they do, it is to drop off supplies or bring staff in/out so it was the first time Becki had ever been able to go out and see any wildlife there too. 

Heading out to the Caravan

                           

Landing at Bere

 Crowds gathered to watch the MAF plane come and go

            

Bethan and Luke both had turns in the right-hand seat. We kept our final destination a secret for as long as possible so they thought we were just going to Bere and back. Bethan's expression on the right was just after she discovered where we were heading! Below are some photos from the game drives we got to go on:                                              

An Olive Baboon

Defassa Waterbuck

We frequently came across small groups of giraffe

A saddle-billed stork

Unidentified bird that was eating a snail!

A yellow-billed stork

Another baboon with a baby on its back

Luke amused our fellow game drive passengers by describing this scene as "loads of puffins"

Luke using his camera to photograph a giraffe

We spent a lot of time sat in the vehicle by the water watching the abundant bird life

Becki called on the driver to stop driving and reverse so she could take a photo of this pretty blue bird...

...and while we were stopped, the driver spotted three lions recovering from a meal of waterbuck

Two lions panting heavily after their big meal

To Luke's great concern, the driver parked very close to the lions. When this one stood up he decided it was time to go!

                           

The giraffes were very interested in us

Becki's favourite bird, an Abyssinian Roller

Hyena hiding amongst the trees

The water buffalo were very shy and kept their distance from us.

Central African Savannah Buffalo 

At the end of our second drive, we came across these elephants enjoying a splash in a lake.

A fourth elephant joined the group and greeted it's friend with affection

                                    

A red-throated bee-eater landed right in front of us

Two West African Nile Crocodiles lazing by the water. Luke was concerned!

On our final drive we saw Hartebeest

An ostrich who got up as we approached to reveal 8 large eggs

Our driver, Ramadan, went off the beaten track after a call came through on the radio. After much driving around we spotted a cheetah. Sadly he/she didn't hang around long enough for a decent photo.

                                                

Piccadilly Circus

The last few weeks have felt like Piccadilly Circus on the compound, all four houses have been full and there has been a constant stream of airport runs. Three weeks ago our new program manager and his wife left for Morocco to learn French, a few days later the Henderson family left for a two week break to visit their eldest daughter in Kenya, leaving us as the only permanent MAF family in town.

Before the other families left an IT team arrived from Ashford and spent 10 days installing our new server and security cameras, and also bringing chocolate and TV shows so we could catch up on The Crown! While they were here a short term pilot Eivind arrived to help me out with the flying. He needed some refresher flying and a supervised flight on each aircraft before being released to fly solo so we took the IT guys up for a flight before they left.

Steve and Sam joining Eivind and I in the C182

Eivind and I flying in the C208 to collect passengers in the south

Since the end of January we have also had Hans, a Cameroonian communications contractor who is spending six weeks in the program writing stories about MAF in Chad for donors and the magazines. He was able to join me on a 2 night trip up to Bardai where we visited the hospital and took a walk out of town to see ancient rock carvings.

Rock formations in the Tibesti

By the beginning of February both our aircraft were due for scheduled maintenance inspections, so Geoff Linkleter from Uganda kindly squeezed a two week visit into his busy schedule and came to join us on the compound too. As well as completing the maintenance tasks due on the aircraft he was able to start training up our new apprentice.

Theo and Dieudonne working on the aircraft

Last but not least, we had two pilots from Uganda join us for a night as they flew one of MAF Uganda's aircraft 5X-SCO from Liberia to Uganda, meaning that our hangar was as full as our compound. 

TT-BRT, TT-BER and 5X-SCO parked in the hangar overnight

Sharing a meal with some of our visitors