Mike Fay has been keeping us very busy as you have seen, but we owe you an update on some of the missions we have flown in past couple of months. In fact, we go back to Dec. 2003.

With the kind and generous help of Nicola Colangelo of Coastal Aviation, Baby Ollie and Karen Trendler of WildCare were flown from Lanseria to Wilson (Kenya) and then driven to Daphne Sheldricks Orphange in Nairobi National Park. What a welcome they got as the day drew to an end on December 24th.  Karen emailed me when she got back two days later to say that she could write a book about how to keep a tiny elephant entertained for 7 hours.  Ollie, re-named Madiba, quickly settled down to life with 9 other baby elephants all of which will eventually be released back to the wild.  - A wonderful Christmas Story.

But this was not year end for The Bateleurs.  On December 29th Ivan Tockar flew Andrie Loubser yet again over the granite koppies near Britz.  The flight, the 3rd at yearly intervals, resulted in some pretty damning evidence about the illegal mining carrying on and the fact that, according to Andrie, no rehabilitation has taken place.

During the past few months we flew three missions which provided aerial footage for 50/50:
On December 14th 2003, 50/50 showed a programme on our founder-pilot member Paul Dutton and his Super Cub "Spirit of the Wilderness" with which he has done so much environmental work.  Harry Antel flew the second plane providing the air to air footage.
Paul gave us really good exposure and recognition.  Hope many of you saw this insert.
Another programme had about a five minute story on Baviaanskloof and the three Bateleur fixed wings that took farmers, community leaders, conservationists and US Congressmen over the core area and the adjoining areas which could possibly be incorporated into the MegaBaviaanskloof.  Pilots Chris Booysen, Etienne Le Roux and  Steve Mandel did a marvelous job.  Read more about this mission below.

Three of our Microlight pilots Donovan Barton Hobbs, Melvin Luff & Dirk Booysen facilitated the aerial footage on the 50/50 programme by producer Sandra Herrington on Lake St. Lucia.  They helped the camermen document the extreme drought that had beset St. Lucia and showed the large numbers of hippos and crocs that concentrated at the last remaining fresh water.  If anything vindicated the decision not to mine the dunes of the Eastern Shores of St. Lucia, this did as the only fresh water to reach the lake came from the aquifers in the dunes.

Just days later Melvin Luff flew the cameraman up again to get videos of the flash flood that came down the river into the lake.  According to the environmentalist it would be short-termed relief if more rain did not fall.

Microlight pilot Donovan Barton Hobbs flew a Natal Nature Conservation Service ranger over the Eastern Shores Reserve to look for telemetary signals from the Cheetah which they could not locate.  We had helped with the relocation of these cheetah from De Wildt some time ago.

The Bateleurs and Coastal Aviation come to the rescue of Baby Ollie, reuniting him with other orphaned Elephants in time for Christmas. The Bateleurs of South Africa, a company flying for the environment, and Coastal Aviation of Tanzania have agreed to fly this little baby Elephant from Johannesburg to Daphne Sheldrick in Nairobi free of charge. Little Ollie attached himself to a farmer's wife as she was walking her dogs in Botswana about a month ago. (His mother was found shot dead in the vicinity).

Karen Trendler of Wildcare, which is an organization dealing with orphaned animals, brought him to her place near Pretoria and he has done exceptionally well under her care. Karen, like Daphne, has received many awards for looking after orphaned animals, and in particular, orphaned little rhinos, but Ollie would have been the only elephant there and we all know that elephants need the company of other elephants. Karen has arranged for Daphne Sheldrick to bring baby Ollie up we and truly hope that one day he and the other orphaned Elephants in Daphne’s care will get on together and be friends.

The flight, which was scheduled for Wednesday 24th December 2003, was successful so he was with his own kind for Christmas. Karen Trendler said that she could write a book on how to keep a baby elephant busy for seven hours, which was what she had to do on this flight!

Special thanks to Gerry Weiss and Bateleur members Raymond Steyn, Tim Webster and Sven Kreher.

Purpose of Flight:
Engaging various sectors in the momentum for the Baviaanskloof mega-reserve project.
Requested by:
Wilderness Foundation
Bateleur Pilots:
Plane 1 - Etienne Le Roux (& 5 Passengers)
Plane 2 - Steve Mandell ( & 5 passengers)
Plane 3 - Chris Booysen ( & 5 passengers)
Route:
Depart from PE.  Fly over Groendal, along Winterhoek Mts to Cockscomb Peak, over Grootrivier Poort, over Cambria, Berg Plaas, Geelhoutbos and west along the western Baviaanskloof to Nuwekloof, turn south and fly return leg over Kouga river and dam back to PE.  Flight duration +/- 90 minutes.