What a way to go (on safari)
#1
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What a way to go (on safari)
Looks like if I go gamewatching in the Okavango, it won't be in a canoe!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...ml?source=mypi
Root was in the lead dugout with the tour guide when a crocodile leaped out of the river, grabbed the UW physician and disappeared back under the water. Root was not seen again. Friedman said the clinic operators plan to name the facility after him.
#2
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Wow! So much for the "great, greasy green Limpopo River." ("I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner." - The Elephant's Child, by Rudyard Kipling.) Now we know what they have for dinner. (Admittedly, perhaps a swift death like that is easier... )
The Okavango is also full of crocs, some of them large ones - but I've never had troubles cruising in a makoro (dugout.) OTOH, one German lady who decided to sunbathe topless on the nicely groomed (by hippos) grass by the big deadfall at Xaxanaxa was taken by a croc about the time we were there in 1993... and I have some pix of us swimming at the bridge with the crocodile warning sign (one of us stayed out watching the upstream location they tend to come from.)
The Okavango is also full of crocs, some of them large ones - but I've never had troubles cruising in a makoro (dugout.) OTOH, one German lady who decided to sunbathe topless on the nicely groomed (by hippos) grass by the big deadfall at Xaxanaxa was taken by a croc about the time we were there in 1993... and I have some pix of us swimming at the bridge with the crocodile warning sign (one of us stayed out watching the upstream location they tend to come from.)
#4
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Originally Posted by JDiver
I have some pix of us swimming at the bridge with the crocodile warning sign (one of us stayed out watching the upstream location they tend to come from.)
I crossed the Limpopo in a canoe in February 1996, when the river was coming down in flood. Water levels were so high that the cable car at Pont Drif was under water. We started a considerable distance upstream. I sat in the front with my bag in my lap whilst the guide in the back paddled like crazy. He obviously had considerable experience, because we reached the opposite shore right in front of the border post. I must confess that I did not give crocs a thought during the crossing, tree trunks and other debris hurtling downstream were a far greater hazard.
By the way, February 1996 was also the time when the Limpopo crocodile population was considerably augmented. A crocodile farm on the aptly named Crocodile River, a tributary of the Limpopo, was flooded by heavy rainfall, and most of the crocodiles were washed into the river.
Johan
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#6
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My cousin was there, actually, in the same group. They had just held a free clinic the day before. They did not know the area was dangerous. She saw the whole thing happen. Apparently, the crocodile was 4.5 meters. I have not spoken to her yet, personally, but she said it was pretty horrible, as you can imagine. Needless to say, she's not going anywhere near a river for quite a while...
fuzz
fuzz
Last edited by fuzz; Mar 29, 2006 at 7:22 pm