Nineteen fifty seven found Ray Hewlett without work and on a pitiful pension, at the time that I was starting out as a first year medical student at UCT. Through Civil Service contacts in Dar es salaam, he was fortunate to obtain a specially-created post as Vermin Control Officer in the Lake Province. Taking with him five members of his staff from Ngorongoro, including the hunter-tracker Ndoro Ali and the steadfast Ali Makanya, he moved into a small government house in the District headquarters town of Malya, from where he undertook many safaris into the countryside surrounding the south-eastern edge of Lake Victoria, including Smith Sound. For me, returning home from Medical School, those times with my father, always including a safari, were really happy. The Lake District was well-watered, with magnificent rock outcrops, and excellent bird-shooting (figs 17a, b).
A number of British expatriates with expertise in engineering, irrigation, forestry, veterinary medicine and such-like were also stationed in Malya, providing stimulating company, especially Guy Yeoman the vet, and with the cultivated assistance of Major Bill Baillie, the District Commissioner at Ngudu, we acquired a high-fi record player, and were able to listen to serious music for the first time in my East African life. We were the last of the old British Civil Servants to leave Malya, and on the night we boarded the Kigoma-Dar train, many Africans came to say goodbye to my father. Ndoro Ali was weeping.