We did not all fly directly home from Johannesburg.
Mark Mullen, the Director, met up with his partner Sue, and stayed in South Africa for a two-week holiday.
They spent a week in Kruger National Park, and then a week in Cape Town.
Mark was sitting quietly in a Cape Town bar near the end of his second week when two South Africans started up a conversation, which went something like this.
South African: First time in Africa ?
Mark McMullen: First time in South Africa, I’ve been in Africa before.
SA: Oh, where?
MM: Zambia, I’ve just been up there.
SA: Oh, we’ve just had a holiday in Zambia, our first trip there. Where did you go?
MM: Lake Tanganyika.
pause
SA: Really, are you part of a television crew?
MM (surprised): Yes, I’m the Director.
SA: Were you filming with that red bearded snake guy, O’Shea?
MM: Yes, how did you know?
SA: You were looking for a water cobra and you didn’t find it.
MM (pint forgotten now): That’s right, how did you know?
SA: Well as you were coming down the lake you passed a tourist boat going the other way and the people waved and you waved back, that was us!
SA: And when we arrived at the lodge all the locals thought we were you and came rushing to meet us, insisting we go with them. There was a big water cobra swimming in the shallows and they couldn’t understand why we did not want to catch it.
Well it took C.J.P.Ionides twenty-six days to find his first water cobra, mine turned up after nineteen days.
It was just a pity I left after eighteen.
