GHANZI

DEATH IN THE KALAHARI

Over the years there was a lot of tragic incidents in the Kalahari, but the one of the most tragic hunting expeditions, in 1968, will always be remembered.

Lester Wilkins, Josh Levy, Jack Coetzee and Dennis Wilkins were looking forward to having a great time in the Kalahari.

They were invited to a hunting trip, Mr. Thomas Brushfield Hodges was wondering why they would be late, but circumstances those years were much different, and there was no communication possible. The next day he made enquiries through telegram and was told no plane was cleared in Gaborone.

The District Commissioner, Simon Gillet, and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Simon Bradley, started to make urgent enquiries.

That night, Simon Waks, drove into Ghanzi after a terrible trip through the Kalahari. He was expecting the hunting party to be waiting for him. He was hired by the hunting party to bring supplies from Mafikeng to Ghanzi. The transporters always kept record times and the record time was 16 hours, his was much longer, he had 14 punctures. It was a big shock to hear that they had not yet arrived.

He took a lift by plane to Mafikeng and learned that indeed the plane took off. Now he knew something was terribly wrong.

The South African Airforce was asked to assist in the search. A Hercules transport aircraft was sent to Botswana but there was not enough fuel and it had to return. Then two Dakotas and a helicopter were sent to take part in the search on the very same day. In addition, there were three local aircrafts and police search parties taking part in the search but nobody knew where to start looking, remember there was no flight plan ever handed in.

The whole day nothing was found - the Kalahari does not give up its secrets easily.

On the eighth day a Dakota spotted an abandoned aircraft standing on a salt pan and at last the search parties knew where to start. Two private aircrafts of Cecil John Rhodes and Spencer Minchin landed on the pan and found the letter of Josh Levy.

The same afternoon the first land party arrived at the pan. Henry Vickerman, Manie Lewis, Stanley Peacock and two Tswana men were all experienced trackers especially Manie Lewis who was just as good as the bushmen that were still roaming free in the area. They soon realized that two of the men had headed off first and two had followed later. The search party decided to focus on the fresher tracks because they might still be able to help. They were driving through thick bush and veld with trackers running besides the vehicle.

The later it got, the quieter they all became. The tracks were telling them an incredibly sad story.

When it was all over, the thing they remembered most vividly, was the deep and heavy sadness with which they read the discouraging signs of the tracks.

Jack Coetzee and Dennis Wilkins had no idea of the direction in which they were going and had crossed over their own tracks many times. The trackers found the bodies just eight feet apart. The story they read in the sand was that they had spent two days in that same spot, unable to move. With them was an empty water bottle, smelling of whiskey and a rifle that had not been used. They had crawled on their hands and feet; desperately clinging to life.

Henry Vickerman, Manie Lewis and Stanley Peacock, cattle farmers from the Ghanzi District, heard the plane was spotted and started their own search party.

The second land party, Hugo and Grieta Lemcke, Dawid Goosen and Thomas Brushfield Hodges, were followed by police vehicles. They were working with two Bushman trackers, who were employed by Hugo Lemcke. There was no full moon, otherwise they could have tracked right through the night.

On the way the Bushman trackers found the remains of a lion that had been shot. The tracks went into the Okwa River that had been dry for a hundred years.

Five miles away, there were two aircraft flying in formation searching for any signs of survival. Bill Naude radioed to Tinky Booysens “I found them!” Unfortunately, the details of how they found the two survivors on land got lost. We only know that they could both walk to the plane.

Later reports from their families said they were never the same again.

The story told by the survivors to journalists in short:

Lester Wilkins chartered an aircraft in Pretoria. He flew to Klerksdorp to pick up his brother and Jack Coetzee and then to Klerksdorp to fetch Josh Levy. Before entering Botswana the party put down to fuel at Mafikeng where they handed in their flight plans.

At Mafikeng Les Wilkins took a drink from the tap. As later reported : “Already the dye of tragedy was cast, cupping his hands to catch water, Les Wilkens never thought to fill their water bottles. He was not to know this would be his last drink of water for 11 days.”

Lester Wilkins later said that at one stage he saw the fuel tank of the aircraft registering nearly empty. At first, he thought it was a mistake but later he decided to tell the others. “We are not going to make it. I am going to veer off to the west and try to reach the Okwa River and the road to Ghanzi.”

He spotted a clear yellow patch of pan from the air and decided to land the aircraft there. He could not make radio contact. Sitting in the aircraft, in the middle of the Great Thirstland where even the San did not roam this time of the year, the group had to make a decision.

Jack Coetzee and Dennis Wilkins were both fit and healthy. “We shall be back in 24 hours” Jack Coetzee said. They planned to walk to the dry bed of the Okwa river and from there to main road to Ghanzi. They took with them a hunting knife, a rifle, ten rounds of ammunition, a few nartjies, two tins of meat and a water bottle filled with whiskey. They had no water.

John Levy and Les Wilkins remained at the plane and arranged their food neatly in the shade of the wings: a case of nartjies, two boxes of apples, two pockets of oranges, a box of tomatoes, butter and six dozen eggs. When it became dark, they went to sleep completely unaware of what was waiting.

On the third day, John and Les, started to realise how thirsty they were. They sucked out the oranges and cooked eggs in a kettle. In the afternoon they decided to follow the other two, they took with them: 20 rounds of ammunition, a bottle of whiskey, a few oranges, their sleeping bags and packed everything else back into the plane; left a note on the windscreen and set off…….

On day six Les and Josh did not know that an aircraft search had begun. Early that morning they had their last orange because they could not eat every sip of whiskey made them vomit. They could not speak. They could only see the fear in each other’s eyes. Les Wilkins tried to dig for water but to no avail. Everyone remembers what happened that night, a lion approached them and they shot it.

On the 7th day without water, they cut open the lioness and found it was in whelp. They cut out the cubs and filled their water bottles with the thick bloody liquid. Unfortunately, the liquid made them vomit. They fried the heart and liver but did not have enough saliva to swallow it. On the same day, Les took a compass reading and realized they took the wrong direction. That is when he realized they lost their companions, they had no compass or map.

They knew they should have stayed at the aircraft but were by that stage too weak to return and the thirst was overwhelming. When they picked up a pen they recognized as their own they came to the realization that they were walking in a circle. One can just imagine the disappointment.

That night Les Wilkins wrote a letter to his parents:

‘Dear Mom and Dad,

This is my final word to you two. This is, I know a very terrible blow to both of you, but please take over Dennis’s children, to fill my gap. I suggest you sell up and stay with Suz. My little money and goods can go to Den’s kids now, my aircraft, motor-car and money must go the Den’s kids at the age of 25, split evenly. The money you get for the aircraft can be put on fixed deposit and you must take the interest.

My deepest love, Lester, your son.”

He asked Josh to shoot him but Josh refused. They contemplated suicide many times. Josh Levy even gave Les Wilkins some of his heart medication.

On the 9th day they started to drink each other’s urine, and according to Doctors, this saved their lives.

On the 10th day they saw two planes flying in close formation: “They are looking for us!” “It is too late we cannot make it”.

From the plane, Bill Naude, flying in formation with Tinky Booysen, spotted the two men. Oranges and a crate of fruit were dropped from the aircrafts but they could only lick the juice once it landed on the ground. Les Wilkins saw a canister of water being dropped by parachute. He struggled towards the spot where he had seen it land, found it, opened the tap but did not have the strength to lift it. He lay down beside it and felt water trickling into his mouth. Then he passed out.

The dramatic events from here were lost, but that we know, would like to hear from anyone who can contribute.

The planes landed at Lone Tree Pan and informed the helicopter they found them. From Ghanzi they were flown to Gaborone Hospital in the private aircraft of President Seretse Khama.

References:

Scope Man Magazine article written by Fanie Hattingh

We would like to thank Kobus and Magda Badenhorst for keeping the article safe for more than 50 years. We could find nothing on the internet, so without these articles we would not be able to tell the story.

 Please have a look in the Photo Album ; Death in the Kalahari