Strange Hunt

The wind blew from the Atlantic to the land and sound of drums coupled with African flutes filled the air. Preye and the crew were on their way out of the aircraft when they received an email from the crew of Captain Harry who said that they should be given some time to recover from the shock of what they termed, attack from a strange creature. They pleaded to be given a few hours to clear their minds of errant thoughts after which they promised to join the party in clearing a path to the virgin ponds, whose location was still being expected.

Captain Gilbert replied, assuring Captain Harry that he will transmit their location to him as soon as they arrived. They all hurried out of the aircraft and headed for the village. Preye noticed that they all saw him differently after yesterdays explanations in the aircraft because they were all stealing a glance at him every now and then.

The music got louder as they approached the village square and they saw the village warriors divided into five groups. Each group was to wrestle among themselves and the one that threw the other down was the winner. Three winners are meant to emerge from each group and a total of fifteen warriors who are also highly skilled hunters will be selected to board their war boats before noon.

They spent few minutes watching the young men in wrapper trying to throw each other flat on their backs, as they were continued their walk to the kings compound, the thin young man finally got the fat one on his back and was carried by the crowd as a hero. They were just a few yards away from the kings court when they saw him walking out of his compound in the midst of the Elders.

The Captain asked Preye why the people of the village that were used to following them around in excitement stopped all of a sudden. I was wondering what killed the excitement that our presence have over the people, said Claudius. The king said it was a breach of your privacy and anybody caught in the act will be punished, Preye said.

They finally walked to the palace and met with the king and his party. The Westerners doffed their hoods in respect for the king and the Elders who did the same. Preye and the king spoke their language with the Elders and what he told them was very obvious because their faces brightened with joy all of a sudden and they all bowed. I told them you were set to leave for the pond and he said you should please use your aircraft for the trip so you can scan the area for the elephants from the sky before landing, said Preye. Its alright by us, said Captain Gilbert.

The king spoke to the Elders and they all hurried towards the village square, while the king and the crew strolled behind. Except for a man, the village square was empty when they got there. The man spoke to the Chief, while Preye interpreted to the eight man crew. He said three groups concluded the wrestling contest with a total of nine warriors, and the Elders also selected the six most radical hunters in the village and ordered them to join the hunting crew, while the others came after them with their food stock, guns, cutlasses, axes and other relevant hunting, Preye interpreted. Let us wait for the others to hit the sea before we hit the air, suggested Captain Malcolm. They all agreed and bid the king farewell.

Captain Martins inspected the boat full of Christian literatures and supplies and suggested to the translators and preachers onboard to wrap the supplies consisting of Bibles, radio, canned foods, outdoor musical systems, microphones and tents just to name a few, in a buoyant material that will enhance their floating ability and to stay in the route they were sure of. Ive got these funny feelings that I get when things are bent to be faulty along the line, he said. It is ok Captain we will be fine, said a young Christian officer that was directing the Christian campaign tagged Oily Lands for Christ.

The boat sailed and the young Christian officer was excited about his trip to the Oily Lands that Thursday morning. Without waiting for breakfast in the aircraft carrier they bid the others on the carrier goodbye and headed for the Oily Lands. The voyage was smooth until after a fishing port, while approaching Sangana River. The Captain of the boat decided to veer to satisfy his curious mind and when the others on board the boat demanded an explanation, he told them his new route was shorter. Shortly after the deviation from the drafted route, the boat ran into a sand bank. Within a few minutes, the boat turned side wards into the rising sea and the supplies in the boat added pressure and the boat capsized sideways into the sea.

As the passengers were thinking of their journey to eternity, the supplies wrapped in the floating device rose to the surface and maintained buoyancy and the passengers held on to it for their precious lives. Before the boat capsized into the sea, it was not possible for anybody to go down the boat for life jackets, so the people on board went to the topmost part of the boat because they did not expect it to sink, but it began to sink and the fierce waves descended on it with a great force.

After they had managed to suspend themselves on the floatable, the Captain tried to explain to the others. It was that trawler; he said and looked around at the sea which appeared calm. The fishing trawler was overloaded and since I am not familiar with the route coupled with the fact that our boat ran into shallow and turbulent waters, there was little I could do to save the boat and any of us, he said. The radar of the boat refused to function so I could not measure the depth of the sea which resulted in the boat getting stuck in a shallow part, he continued. Shut up and reserve you strength, replied the young officer.

They all prayed and were relieved to hear the sound of an aircraft which they recognized immediately they saw it but it passed without taking notice of them. A passenger in the boat felt his hands could not hold in any longer and was trying to hold with his last strength when he felt something like a gun in the floatable giving them buoyancy. As he tried to pull it out he heard the sound of another aircraft which he also recognized. His hands slipped and he lost hold of the floatable and went back into the sea.

The Captain of the aircraft saw a flare from the sea and took a nose dive to have a clearer look, when he saw some people struggling to stay buoyant on the water. Oh my God, said a member of the crew as he looked through the binoculars. Who are they? he asked as he took a closer look. Our crew at the carrier, replied Richard and immediately Captain Gilbert landed. The waves generated by the aircraft almost drowned them. They survived the waves and were rescued by their fellow aircraft carrier partners, who took them back to Preyes village and left them in the care of Preye and the king, while they headed back for the ponds, hoping they will still identify the village warriors on their way. Instead their radar picked the presence of another aircraft and the Captain identified himself as Captain Harry.

Happy to meet you Harry, I never thought we would be flying through the same route, said Captain Gilbert. I thought you were supposed to have arrived at the location, said Captain Harry. As a matter of fact we had a situation so we had to return to the village to ensure the rescue operation was finalized, said Captain Gilbert. Can you be a little more specific or is it classified, asked Captain Harry.

A boat from our aircraft carried loaded with Christian supplies sank and we had to drop the crew off at their location after rescuing them. What is their mission, asked Harry. To enlighten the people of Oily Lands with the word and introduce them to Christ, replied Captain Gilbert. That is the first awareness they need, but I hope they did not record much casualties, asked Captain Harry. They are all okay and are determined to carry out the task with all vigor since the thoughtfulness of Captain Martins secured almost all the supplies, said Gilbert.

Do you have a visual of those two wooden war boats, asked Captain Gilbert? I think I do, they are heading into the mangrove creek, replied Captain Harry. That is Malcolms aircraft but I suggest we take a 360 turn around this thick forest, that I doubt light can penetrate, said Captain Gilbert. Is that a polite way of asking us to scan the vicinity for elephants, asked Captain Harry. Whatever men, replied Captain Gilbert.

After the circular flight around the forest, they landed next to Malcolms aircraft. The whole crews were happy to see each other once again and Tari was introduced to the complete crew and they told him they had a swift-minded boy called Preye who was with them on their way but volunteered to stay back and help the young lieutenant and his crews arrange their crusades in the surrounding villages.

Several war boats approached the aircraft and the Captain decided it was time to inflate their inflatable rafts. The people marveled at the three air filled rafts that the crew inflated right in front of them. The crew sailed into the mangrove swamp that was nearly a leveled plain with soft mud along the sides of the creek.

The soft tide in the creek propelled them further into the mangrove swamps and there was little they could do but read their booklets containing the geo-characteristics, river, climate and other information relevant to the Oily Lands.

Captain Harry opened his booklet to the chapter that discusses mangroves and associated flora and fauna. He read that the mangrove forests of the Oily Lands, occupy lands cut through by tides in a large zone of tidal creek behind the barrier islands. In some other region, mangrove forests occur only as a thin band along the coast and are directly exposed to seawaters. The mangrove of the Oily land zone is up to 40km wide, but narrows in the estuaries dominated by flood where the tidal saline waters is pushed back and diluted by the discharge of the Niger. The detail of the relationship between river and tidal waters differ for each river system and estuary and is responsible for several local ecological variations in the mangrove ecosystem of the Oily Lands.

They went further in to the typical mangrove forests in the Oily Lands which consist almost entirely of the red mangrove tree rhizophora racemosa with its stilt or prop roots. As they went into the depths of the mangrove forest they realized that the trees grew tallest along creek edges where fresh mud is deposited. Further behind, in the old-growth back swamp areas, trees are very stunted, especially in areas not receiving nourishing ocean or the Niger flood.

Probably the black swamp may have other, smaller mangrove species. Rhizophora mangle and Rharryonii, the white mangrove Avicenna Africana and the black mangrove laguncularia racemosa, said Steven. Were you involved in any special course that enlightened you asked Captain