Former Fenelton resident and award-winning author Sue Tidwell and her husband, Rick, returned to Africa on May 26, so Rick Tidwell could hunt crocodiles on the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

Mozambique is a long, narrow country located on southeastern part of the African continent, bordering the Indian Ocean.

After leaving Seattle, the Tidwells and their friends Rod and Sue Fogle, of Washington state, spent 23 hours in flight and had several layovers before finally arriving in Beira, Mozambique, for a 12-day safari.

Then the Americans climbed aboard a bush plane for a one-hour flight to a grass landing strip near the remote village of Inhaminga. The village sits about 55 miles from the Indian Ocean, almost in the middle of the country — a few hours of bumping, grinding land travel from the famous Zambezi River, which was the crocodile hunters’ ultimate destination.

Sue Tidwell said, “We were greeted by a crowd of men, women and children — not because we were anyone special … but because seeing an airplane land was pretty special.”

They then had a two-hour drive through the country to the Mphingwe Lodge in Catapu, which they would call home for the next six days.

The areas the Tidwells and the Fogles visited were not touristy areas, she said. There were no national parks, tourist amenities, infrastructure or scenic beauty to draw most general tourists. The country they traveled was very remote with very few conveniences that most travelers expect.

As for the actual hunt, Tidwell said, “The truth is Sue (Fogle) and I had ZERO idea what we were getting ourselves into when we agreed to go crocodile hunting with our husbands on the Zambezi River.

“Even though it is a world-famous river, we pictured it (as) a quaint little river with hippos and crocs lounging about as we traversed the shores of the river. After all, crocodiles must be hunted from land,” she said. “What we failed to realize was that we would be hunting from islands within the river … and the river is 3 to 5 miles wide where we were. Plus the current is fast, with lots of sandbars and dangerous currents.”

The Zambezi River is famous for its high population of crocodiles, some of which can reach up to 18 feet in length and live to be 75 years old.

Nature not only gave the crocodiles a lethal set of terrifying weapons, it provided these prehistoric creatures almost supersonic senses. Their sensory organs allow them to detect touch, temperature, chemical stimuli and pressure waves. They can sense the smallest disturbance in surface water, detecting vibrations and small pressure changes as small as a single drop.

The placement of their ears on the upper portions of their heads enables them to easily detect sounds when their bodies are mostly in the water. They are blessed with keen senses of hearing and smell.

“To top it off, they are incredibly smart. Because of all these traits, they are extremely difficult to hunt and hard to kill,” said Tidwell. “There is no room for mistakes.”

Tidwell said in the rural areas of Mozambique there are very few jobs and most people survive on a day-to-day basis.

One of the benefits of well-managed hunting, she said, is that it provides jobs and income for the people living in remote areas.

Aside from buying goats sometimes used to lure crocodiles out of the river, Rich Tidwell hired people to drive the boat and carry supplies each day, as well as hiring trackers, skinners, tent attendants and cooks for the camp.

Hunting crocodiles involved getting into a 14-foot metal boat and navigating crocodile and hippo-infested waters to reach an island where the hunters would set up.

Since the Zambezi is known for big crocodiles, Rich Tidwell was searching for a prize longer than 12 feet.

Once a potential target was spotted, a blind had to be built for the hunters to hide behind — preferably within 40 to 50 yards from where the crocodile would exit to sun itself.

An accurate shot is critical. If the bullet doesn’t hit the spine or the brain, it will escape into the water.

On the first day, the Mozambiquans built a blind for the hunters to hide behind and staked a goat out as bait. Then it became a waiting game which ultimately resulted in a futile eight hours before they returned to camp empty handed.

A crowd of Mozambiquans awaited the hunting party’s return. Tidwell said partly they waited out of curiosity but mostly they waited hoping the hunters returned with a crocodile, providing them meat and one less man-eater in the Zambezi.

Most rural communities are majorly protein deficient. Instead, the villagers of Mozambique depend mainly on corn, rice, and cassava (a potato-like tuberous root that can be used in many ways). Most westerners take meat for granted, eating it on a daily basis. For Mozambiquans, meat is a precious, highly valued treat.

The second day was much the same as the first. After spotting a crocodile on a sandbar, the Mozambiquans built a blind about 40 yards away and the hunters settled in to wait.

Tidwell said, “It only takes minutes before you are excruciatingly miserable. The African sun is beating down on you. You feel every dip, bump and root underneath the grass mat they put down for us to lay or sit on. Your body aches from trying to remain so still. You hear 5-pound cane rats scurrying around behind you in the tall grasses.”

Rick Tidwell had not planned to hunt hippo, however he learned on the fourth day of his hunt that he could hunt a “management” hippo for $2,500. A designated number of “management” hippos are allotted to the hunting concessions each year. A hunting concession is a managed wildlife area open to hunting.

These hippos are to provde meat only. No trophy (tusks, skull, or skins, etc.) is allowed to be taken home by the hunter. The government does this to help out the people while also still making income from the harvest.

“After our interactions with the villagers and the children, we felt driven for Rick to provide meat to the people,” said Sue Tidwell.

Bull hippos are huge, weighing approximately 5,000 pounds, which would provide approximately 4,000 pounds of meat for the people.

After her husband shot the hippo, Tidwell said over 40 men in canoes showed up to process the meat and carry it back to the villagers in their hollowed-out log boats.

“Later that day while sitting in the blind, we could hear drums up and down the river. They were signaling to other villages and people to come for a celebration; there would be hippo meat to share,” said Tidwell.

“I can’t tell you how moving all of this was. Here in the States, we hunt for sustenance. We eat the meat but it is not required for our survival. We have grocery stores and other ways to access food. Providing meat to a protein-deprived people affects you viscerally. I’ll never forget the sound of those drums and what it meant to the people.”

Rick Tidwell shot his crocodile on the fifth day of the hunt, a 13.5-foot long reptile.

The day after Rick shot his crocodile, the Tidwells drove five hours across the country to the Mupa Concession.

It had thick coast forests and was very wet. The grasses were high, often over 5-feet high, making it difficult to spot animals other than the taller antelopes. Getting stuck in the mud was a common occurrence.

“The next five days we searched for a bush pig, but Rick never succeeded even though we drove through the concession almost eight hours a day. In other words, we spent over 40 hours being jostled on the back of a Land Cruiser looking for a really odd-looking ugly pig,” she said.

On the 13th day, the Tidwells headed back to the tiny grass airstrip near Inhaminga for the bush plane flight back to Beira. Then it was onto Johannesburg and the United States.

Tidwell said, “While the Zambezi River was terrifying, the experience was something that I will always treasure.”