National Geographic: Flight Over Africa Page #2

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I miss the most unbelievably

trivial things.

A bookstore.

A movie.

A long hot shower.

A pillow.

The only sound I hear

is a hyena in the distance.

I wonder where it is.

But I relish the quite...

the solitude.

May 17th. I wake up

at dawn and it's freezing.

I brush my teeth and

break down camp.

And then, almost as though

it were a part of myself

I see to the plane.

What I'm doing.

But of course

I think about it.

I check everything

and the I check it again.

Three pilots I met

in the Faroe Islands

were recently killed

when their helicopter crashed.

That makes 15 pilots...

since I started flying.

There's so much of flying

that's completely

out of your control.

So I try to concentrate

on what I can control.

Despite the dangers

and perhaps also

because of them

Claytor loves to fly

The whole world

goes upside down.

And yet everything inside

the airplane stays the same. Kinda fun.

If you do it wrong

you can really get

into a lot of trouble.

You can really really scare

yourself if you do it too fast

or too slow

or you stall the tail

hour heart drops...

so that's when I do it

by myself to practice it.

Because you don't want

to do it wrong

when you're trying

to show someone.

But the life of a bush pilot

is not all barrel rolls

and stunt flying.

With funds running low

Claytor needs to start looking for

his next paying job.

He decides to

leave Namibia

flying northeast

to Botswana.

Here, he'll visit an old friend

and fellow bush pilot...

Perhaps, with a little luck

he'll also get a line on some work.

Bush pilots everywhere

seem to have an

informal network

for news and information.

In Africa, many are

involved in wildlife

management and conservation,

like Lloyd Wilmot.

Just keep a nook out

for breeding herds

and any sign of

vultures and hyenas.

Wilmot runs a safari camp

in Chobe National Park.

In addition

he uses his plane to help

combat poaching

in the immense refuge

where he is an

honorary game warden.

Today, Claytor has become

along with Wilmot

to track a herd of elephants

just outside the park.

You've a huge herd

underneath you right now.

Roger.

I'm turning to the right.

I want to have another

look at that herd.

Okay,

I'm in on your left.

Now that they've spotted

the elephants from the air

they'll continue the

search on foot tomorrow.

Lloyd Wilmot is one

of the few wildlife experts

who routinely approaches

elephant without the protection

of a vehicle.

He and Clayton will wait

at a watering hole

for a close up view

of the animals.

What do you do if you're

surprised by an elephant?

Is there a trick to

not getting eaten?

There's no

real trick.

The thing is to try and

keep the wind in your favor.

If you

if you can see him

before he sees you

you can figure out

which way the wind's going

and then go down wind

of him and keep clear of him

but in the

ultimate analysis

if you are

confronted

you get to something

like a big tree, like that.

If you can't climb it

you just get behind it

and you have a clot of earth

like a lump over there

or a piece of wood,

and throwing that at them

often turns them and distracts them.

In their sort of terms

of reference

nothing has ever thrown

anything at them

so they get a bit

disconnected

when you actually

throw something at them.

Wow! There is

Notice how they skim

the top of the water

because that's where

it's cleanest and clearest.

The sediment sinks down

and you have about half

half an inch to an inch

of clean water on top.

So they suck

just on the top,

much like you see

them doing now...

you have to look carefully,

the ears are cocked.

Claytor approaches

a bull shoot some video of him

but the large make

has no interest

in posing for the camera.

What did you just do there?

It's a bluff charge.

It's to get you to go.

Just call his bluff.

Stay put.

May 22nd.

I have just been charged

by a wild elephant.

Lloyd laughs lightly,

like he's seen it

a thousand times.

Neither one of

us says much.

There's really not much

to say after an elephant charge.

After a while

a large group emerges from the bush.

Its an extraordinary thing

to be so close to

these magnificent creatures.

It's so easy to feel small

in the face of such splendid power.

Thanks to bush

pilot grapevine,

Claytor has secured a job

in an international park

in Zimbabwe.

the two pilots part company

in the Botswana sky

Claytor's headed for

Hwange National Park

in Western Zimbabwe,

but first he'll make

a slight detour to one

of Africa's most

spectacular natural wonders:

Victoria Falls.

I'm now flying low

over the Zambezi River

approaching Victoria Falls

and as you look ahead at the trees

you just see this mist

this towering mist rising

our of the trees

that are above the water.

And the Africans call it

"Mosi-oa-Tunya."

Which means the

smoke that thunders.

The Zambezi River

drops up to a million

gallons of water a second

over the 350-foot falls.

Even before it

comes into sight,

the roar of the plummeting

water is deafening.

The rainbow everywhere.

You see the mist

sailing the screen.

Look at that chasm,

and there's a rainbow

coming across it.

Wow, look at that

right below the falls

you can see there're gorges

that just zig back

and forth about five times.

And in these gorges

it also drops down

to this boiling

black water below.

It's spectacular.

May 26th. I can't resist

flying down into the gorge

even though it's risky.

Not only could I be killed

I could probably get arrested.

As I corner

the water explodes into

a torrent if frothing white waves.

Sometimes flying is

just a fast way to travel.

And sometimes

it's the greatest thing in the world.

Leaving the falls behind

Claytor reaches

Hwange National Park.

Before he can land

in a remote area

Claytor has to

clear the runway.

Collisions with animals are

one of the greatest

dangers bush pilots

face in Africa.

Okay, are you feeling

strong this morning.

On the ground,

Claytor gets some help

refueling and prepares

for his next

assignment in the air.

Conservationist and

researcher Janet Rachlow

has hired Claytor to

help track an injured

rhinoceros in the park.

Rachlow is part of

a controversial program

designed to protect

severely endangered rhinos.

Park officials in Zimbabwe

have been removing

the horns from dozens of

rhinos in a desperate

attempt to deter poachers.

Claytor was there during one

of the dehorning

operations and videotaped it.

The first time

I saw rhinos

getting their horns cut

off it was in the southeast

section of Zimbabwe.

This huge rhino was lying

there sedated

and this man pulled the

started ripping the horn off its face.

And you start to

ask yourself,

"why made clear tome

was that there's nothing

else that can do here.

The rhino Claytor and Rachlow

are searching

for is an adult

female named Zola.

Even though she

was dehorned,

she was shot and badly

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