Into Africa – personal and family

We landed at Harare airport fifteen hours after leaving England. USPG saved money by sending us out on Ethiopian Airways; which meant a stop at Athens and then transit at Addis Ababa. David was sick all the way which didn’t make travelling any easier. But the stop did mean we crossed central Africa in daylight and got brilliant views of Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro.

For a few days we stayed with Jack and Mary, a farming couple. This gave us a chance to acclimatise before moving to the Rectory and starting work. The rectory was fully furnished for us and the parish supplied transport and paid most of the bills. Quite lucky really as my official pay was £75 a month. Tony had gone to meet the wardens before we arrived and had laid down what the “new Rector out from England” would expect. He laid it on a bit – we had expected hardship and poverty – and we were well looked after, even if it was a bit paternalistic.

They put a freezer into the rectory and then kept it stocked over the next four years. I would go to a farm and have tea with the farmer and his wife and then get back to the car to find a sheep in the back. After the first couple of times I discovered that if I then drove to another farm, even before the car stopped, the door would be opened and the sheep killed by the farm workers. I could return in a day or two and collect freezer bags with the meat and the workers shared out everything else.

After six months we borrowed a tent to go up to Kariba for a cheap holiday camping. Just as we were putting the tent up in a malarial mosquito infested camp on the banks of the lake, we were met by someone who had just missed us, and followed us the 150 miles as he wanted to give us some holiday spending money – enough for us to move straight into the local Cutty Sark Hotel for the week.

It’s a small world. Among my parishioners for the first part of each year were Sir Henry and Lady May Abel-Smith. Sir Henry's cousin Tim was my first patron at Bengeo in Hertfordshire. In the next door parish were some farms owned by Lord Verulam - who was patron of Leverstock Green until it became the Chambersbury Team which I had just left to go to Africa.

Shortly after we arrived I was taken off by the local Headteacher to visit the sports and social club. It became a regular event and we would play snooker and drink beer. These regular evenings lasted until he got married and then he seemed to have other things to do. On one occasion I was beating one of the local Afrikaans farmers, not something you are advised to do. He then accused me of cheating and threatened to throw me through the glass doors, so I had to let him win. 

The social club was at the heart of the life of the local white community. There were regular events and we went to most of them.

As usual we got involved in the local arts scene. We joined Banket Players with me doing the lights and some acting and Sue playing as the orchestra. The company used the local social club for their shows and my first task was to install a lighting system. As there were few professional lights available I had to rig something up using domestic spot lights and dimmers. For the bigger productions I borrowed lights from other local clubs. Just after we left Africa I heard that one of the clubs had burnt down and for a nasty moment thought it might be my wiring. Luckily it was the Raffingora club (unlucky for them) and the result of a bush fire catching the thatched roof. But I could breathe a sigh of relief.

The plays were always ambitious for a small company in a remote part of the world. They included Oklahoma, Sound of Music, St Joan as well as many more informal shows. One of the advantages of being a lighting designer was that I got to be backstage during the fashion shows. The lighting desk was just where the models were changing in between items.

I produced a play ‘How the other Half Loves’ by Alan Ayckbourn; and later directed Cinderella. In that two of the local farmers were the ugly sisters and when Vince appeared in his mother’s dress, he looked so like her that it took a few moments to realise who it was. As I was directing, Sue musical director and Ali and Dave were acting, there was no one to look after John so we put a costume on him and he became the fox in the hunt scene and then an elf to help the fairy godmother.

Sue taught at Darwendale School, taking Alison and David each day, and became acting-head. She began to put on school shows including ‘Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo’, which I think was David’s first stage appearance. We hoped for a downpour at the right moment. When Sue became pregnant with John she only needed to take a term off. The school organised a nanny for the school day.

After eighteen months in Darwendale, Sue, Alison and David moved back to Banket School. The sixty mile round trip each day proved impractical with five month old John.

Then Anne Penn, the daughter of one of the churchwardens from my previous parish in Hemel Hempstead came to join us. She spent six months with us to look after John.   She also helped out with some of the driving, though on her first day out on a dirt road she did manage to end up in the ditch. But we also took Alison riding on a farm that trusted me with their horses.

At Banket Sue produced a musical based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory writing both the script and the music. David starred as the Little Tree in a school production of “The Tear of the Little Tree". He was on stage the whole time and sang several songs. Alison and David were Mole & Ratty in “Wind in the Willows”. And Sue co-directed the Good Companions.

As we lived almost next to the school we were able to use the swimming pool after hours. Occasionally this meant climbing the security fence as they sometimes locked us out. Both Ali and David were strong swimmers. On one farm visit after we had wined and dined and were relaxing on the veranda, we suddenly noticed that David was nowhere to be seen. A quick search proved he was not in the house and a look round the garden showed he was not there either. Gradually we became more concerned – had he wandered off into the bush – but the security gate was shut. Then with great trepidation we approached the swimming pool. There was David, grinning from ear to ear, sitting on the bottom and breathing the air being pumped into the water.

Sue’s sisters came to see us and we gave them the grand tour. Victoria Falls were so full at some times that it was almost impossible to see the falls through the spray. At other times only a trickle remained and they had to water the “rain forest” with hoses to keep the trees alive. One night I couldn’t sleep and went down to the falls at 1.00am. At that time they were unfenced and it was possible to walk along the falls at any time. The reward was to see the lunar rainbows in the spray.

Living in Africa was the best way to see the country. We were able to get to the falls several times and I went up to Kariba for work. After getting to know the families who ran Spurwing and Fothergill Islands on Lake Kariba, we also went there most years.

After a time I was invited to go out game viewing on early morning walks with them. We walked close to an old bull elephant and squatted in the grass so that we wouldn’t disturb him. Then there was a crashing in the bush which finally led to a group of buffalo breaking out and running towards us. Seeing us they veered off and ran away. But I was looking to see what had panicked them and there on the edge of the bush was a lioness looking out at us. Another dawn walk took me and a professional photographer into a thousand head herd of buffalo.

Most nights seemed to be clear. Away from the cities it was possible to see that the sky is full of stars and there was always enough light from them to see by. One night I spent in Mzarabani watching shooting stars all evening.

Halley’s Comet was clearly visible in March 86 but by April when it was supposed to be closer, and when hundreds of tourists were flying in to see it, it had become just a fuzzy blur hardly identifiable even with binoculars. Luckily we were among those who got up at 3.30am to see it in March.

Most years we had had 50 species of birds in the garden, with a few untraceable ‘little brown jobs’ as well. There were regular casualties of our windows including a pygmy kingfisher and a golden tailed woodpecker. A pair of Heuglin’s Robins took up residence which made up for the loss of the purple crested Louries whose nest was destroyed by an eagle. The garden often had a dozen or so species in it in the early morning or late afternoon when I took a break with a cup of tea. A barred owl was with us for a few days, but died after we tried to release it back into the wild. We were given two love birds which were joined by a third which flew into the garden. The fields were often full of white-bellied storks following the ploughs.

We were surrounded by bush when we arrived but it was gradually cut down for firewood. But in the early days the bush was full of life – small antelope, mongoose, and of course snakes. There was a python nearby, puff adders made a regular appearance and there were many tree snakes of one type or another. Most of them didn’t bother us and we left them alone. When a puff adder decided to cross the lawn between the house and David and John who were in the sand pit, David wisely kept John quiet until the snake had passed by.

I had to kill a banded Egyptian cobra which was living a bit too close to the house. It would come across the lawn regularly at 4.00pm and disappear down one of the holes in the lawn. So I filled the holes in. Then when the cobra returned I got the church worker to pin it down with a rake while I dispatched it. The next day a game warden came round and I asked him how long I would have if it had bitten me. About half an hour he said. The nearest anti-venom was forty minutes away.

Every year the bush would burn off. In the end I cut a fireguard around the rectory in the hope that we would be more protected than the previous year when the bush was too thick to get at the root of the fire when it came and it killed many of the young trees I had planted to replace those cut for fuel. After the fire went through the storks would come down to feast of the barbecued ready meals prepared for them.

Unfortunately for most of our time in Zimbabwe, the only lions we could find were in the Lion Park at Harare but apart from that we spotted most other animals. There were occasionally lion in the parish but they are rarely seen. We also had an elephant wander through until a local farmer shot it (illegally). The game parks then had a problem of too many animals and were offering most of them for sale. One local farmer hoped to get some giraffe, but no one locally seemed to want the rhino which were being relocated out of the way of the poachers.

Then in August 1986 we finally came across a pride of lion to (almost) complete our sightings of Zimbabwe wildlife. We were driving along a road under the Kariba power lines when I spotted a lioness in the road in front of us. It moved into the bush and so I drew alongside not realising that four other lionesses and a Lion were following the same path. After they had gone I was about to pull away when David pointed to nine elephants in the road ahead of us.

From then on we seemed to see lion everywhere. We were invited to go up to Mana Pools. It was done in style – the farm workers were sent ahead with the camping gear to set up the tents and especially the gas fridges for the beers. Then we followed to be greeted on the banks of the Zambezi by cold beers and a meal ready.

The camp was unfenced and the game free to move through it. Elephant came close to the tent; in the night hyena were licking the fat off the braai; and in the morning there were lion on a kill nearby. Mana is one of the few safari areas where it is possible to walk if you want to. They explain the risks and then it’s up to you. So I could walk around the edge of some of the pools always conscious that there could be a crocodile around the next tree. When there was one it was as surprised as I was and made off into the water.

You can see bits of Banket Parish behind Richard Chamberlain in King Solomon's Mines which was filmed close to the Great Dyke. Sharon Stone has since taken it off her cv. though I have photos proving she was there. Some parishioners acted as extras and we also knew the doctor on the set so we went down to see what was happening. After getting Richard Chamberlain’s autograph for David’s copy of the Ladybird King Solomon’s Mines we were chased off because they wanted to film the train and our car was in the shot.

 After four and a half years the work permits were about to expire and we had to decide whether to stay and seek permanent residence or return to the UK. Ali and David were ready for secondary school and my parents had been unwell, so we decided to come back to the UK.

But before we left I wanted to have a record of my life there. So I arranged for a farmer with a VHS camera to follow me around on and off for a month. We went off into the bush to remote churches. We filmed me leading lessons in bush schools we filmed my live reactions to the situations faced by the churches. I even prepared USPG for its coming. They would edit it and use it in their publicity.

Shortly before we were due to leave I went to collect the tape.

Tony had recorded the European Cup over it