Into Africa

A while later Anthony Norden from Manchester, England, was sent to Selebi-Phikwe to keep an eye on a clothing factory in which his mother had invested a great deal of money. It was his first trip to Africa. He landed at Selebi-Phikwe airport with Air Botswana and from there he flew with Clinton and a party of businessmen to Shakawe in an eight seater plane. Tony had never flown in a smaller aircraft than a Boeing, so Air Botswana already had him a little nervous. He was very apprehensive when he boarded the Cessna.

The flight over the Kalahari Desert was daunting; the landing even more so. Tony was appalled when he thought Clinton was going to land the aircraft on the road, but completely lost it when he saw Clinton was going to miss the road. He jumped up and tried to grab the joystick to pull up the plane. His fellow passengers grabbed hold of him and forced him back in his seat. He went berserk when the plane landed smoothly next to the road –on the real landing strip that happened to be slightly camouflaged by the long grass around it. He felt ill and thought these Africans were mad.

Once out of the plane, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a vehicle approaching. Their hostess had arrived with sandwiches and tea. This all in the middle of nowhere! Nothing made sense any longer.

Later that afternoon they were taken on a booze-cruise on the Okavango River. Everybody was relaxing and enjoying another exquisite African sunset. After dark and en route to the camp, Tony asked about the shiny objects in the water. He was informed they were the eyes of crocodiles and hippos. He laughed at this ridiculous story and implored their hostess to tell him the truth. She steered the river barge closer to the bank where she shone the spotlight straight on to some crocodiles. A fascinated Tony immediately took some photographs. He just knew nobody in Manchester was going to believe this. The boat was now directly opposite their camping site. Vere van Heerden, a helicopter pilot, decided to be helpful and lifted a meter long croc out of the water. He held it by its tail and head for Tony to get a good close-up shot. When Tony turned around he was shocked to find himself sharing space with a real live crocodile right in front of him. He was not going to stay on the same boat as a crocodile and jumped ship without hesitating. He ran, swam and thrashed through the water towards the bank. According to the men on the boat he just about walked on the water in his desperate flight to safety. He might even have stepped on a couple of surprised crocodile heads! He never even noticed the scores of crocs around him in the water. He headed straight for the bar and ordered a triple. His first day in Africa had him suffering from severe culture shock.

He had just downed his drink and was telling the amused barman about the crazy people on the boat. He turned around and saw the same crocodile come swaying into the bar! He landed on the bar counter screaming. Vere had carried the young crocodile up from the river and released it at the bar entrance. Clinton and the other guys followed Vere into the bar and were laughing themselves silly. The croc was returned to the river and everybody settled down with a cold beer and some more hearty laughter.

At this stage nature was calling and Tony excused himself to have a leak outside. The next moment he was back, white as a sheet and stuttering. He saw a tree and did a wee against it. The next moment the tree walked off and he realized he had had a leak against the leg of a hippopotamus. Everyone packed up laughing. He was either drunk or still in shock. Even the old bush hands thought this preposterous, until they went outside to check out his story. Sure as anything, there they saw the heavy imprint of a hippo foot and right next to it a wet patch. Everybody agreed that Tony had had a most exciting introduction to Africa.

On his return to England nobody believed him and he was nicknamed Crocodile Dundee by his family and friends.

After a couple of months he returned to Botswana with his wife, Deborah. The first facts she wanted to establish were the details of Tony’s first day in Africa. Clinton retold the story exactly as it had happened and Tony beamed from ear to ear! At last his amazing tale was verified and his wife was impressed, to say the least.