Heavyweight logistics operation comes up trumps

A regional freight company
recently played a vital role in
relocating 22 black rhino into a
Zambian national park.
“This was the result of a
complicated game swap agreement
between SA, Namibia and Zambia,”
said Adrian Friend, SA-based MD of
Celtic Freight.
The company’s Zambian operation
was contacted earlier this year by
the Frankfurt Zoological Society to
assist with one of its projects, he told
FTW, which saw the North Luangwa
National Park being restocked with the
black rhino.
“The plan was to airfreight the final
five rhinos from Durban,” Friend
added, “and heavy rigging equipment
and crane trucks were needed at the
bush airstrip and boma to offload and
relocate the rhino.”
This saw Celtic Freight moving
rigging equipment, trucks, spares,
tools, and workshop staff along dirt
roads, river crossings and a steep
escarpment into the Luangwa Valley.
“On the morning of the move
tension mounted amidst the dust
and heat, with the SA and British
ambassadors having arrived by small
aircraft to join the local authorities
and dignitaries there to view the
spectacle.”
News of the successful departure
from KwaZulu Natal’s new King
Shaka airport of the Safair C130
Hercules with the five rhino on board
was passed around, with a planned
arrival at 12:30 at the Lubanga airstrip.
“The spectacular site of an aircraft
that size landing on a tiny dirt strip
was something to behold,” Friend
said. “Clouds of dust, the noise of
the engine brakes, together with the
cheering of the crowd, waiting for
the arrival of the final rhinos in this
ambitious seven-year project.”
This was when the rigging and
transport job really started – with the
crates containing these 1.3-tonne,
rather bad-tempered beasts, being
slid out of the rear of the aircraft,
manhandled to a tractor-pulled trailer,
and then rigged on to the waiting
trucks to ferry the short distance to the
rhinos’ holding bomas.
“The rhino experts advised us that
it was essential to keep voices to a
minimum, to prevent the animals
panicking,” said Friend. “The National
Geographic film crew on site making a
documentary of the whole movement
advised that it was the first ‘silent’
rigging operation they had witnessed
– with hand signals and facial
expressions used to get the job done.”
The next morning was the task of
getting the rigs back up the Luangwa
Escarpment – with chains, winches
and a grader all assisting in the fourhour
battle over some 50 kilometres.
“This was achieved without
mishap,” said Friend, “and the trucks,
staff and equipment all returned safely
to the Lusaka base.”