Gorilla gorilla gorilla

I wanted to back date some posts, but internet and time wont permit this, so I've only got the chance to add one more, so I thought I'd give you another blast of gorilla habituation. This contact was only made a few weeks ago, but far surpassed any of my expectations, and since then they've only been getting better. Photos are mixed, taken during the past month from different contacts, but show just how rewarding all the hours of swamp walking and crossing can actually be.

19/07/2012
Just had to give Jorice his monthly pay. Feels really weird, because we’re work colleges, but its like I’m his boss now. And hes far older than me. Doesn’t seem right somehow. Going to feel a hell of a lot weirder with or Loic, because hes effectively my boss, and yet I’m going to be paying him. So yeah, I’m now in charge of all project finances whilst Chris has gone off for his month and a bit holiday. This means I have all the project money, have to do all the accounts, keeping note of everything spent on the economat, pay all the eco-guides, and pay the trackers when they leave, and then do all the finances for the trip to Waka when we go to pick up 4 more trackers. That’s a lot of responsibility when pretty much everyone I’m paying is earning more than me. But, at the same time I’m really happy that I’m having to do all this, its really, really good experience to have, puts me in a much better stead for when I finish.

And I have another 5 months to go. That’s a weird thought too. Like everything got reset, back to year 0. Still not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I think its definitely worth it considering the extra experience I’m gaining of being in charge of the project finances. Especially considering I am still only 22. Definitely need to keep reminding myself of that.

Yesterday the trackers returned from the forest saying that they’d finally found the Atananga group. I think its been at least about 2 weeks since we’d seen them, so we were all really happy. This meant that today we went out to where they’d left them, and pretty soon found their tracks, which lead to a set of fresh nests. We found the direction of their travel, across the arm of a swamp, and smelt the unmistakable smell of gorilla, meaning that they must surely be close. We crossed, and found where they’d just been feeding in a vitex tree. Smelling them again, we carried on following the trail, which then went abruptly cold as they’d presumably entered the dry forest. Whilst we were all turning in the small area to try and find some sign, any sign of the gorilla, we hear a chest beat reverberate across the swamp, and then the barking of gorilla. We deduced that it must have come from the other side of the swamp, in Mamma Helen, but despite searching the boarder, we could find no evidence that the gorilla had traversed, and then finally we found a fresh set of tracks in the opposite direction to where we’d heard the vocalizations. The chest beating and barking must have come from a second group of gorilla who were over the other side of the swamp, and was presumably a warning to the Atananga group not to come over. What I think happened was that the Atananga group were feeding on our side of the boarder, whilst there was another group feeding on the opposite side, and eventually the Atananga group moved off in the opposite direction to the other group. But when we followed the tracks, and as I said we must have been close as we could smell the gorilla, the other group heard us on the boarder and thought that the Atananga group was still there feeding, and so chest beat and barked a warning. Pretty cool.

So we followed the tracks away from the boarder of the swamp, and up a baffon, finding really fresh signs showing just how close they must have been, until eventually the gorilla had entered the dry forest at the end of the baffon. Here we tried to followed, but found it difficult as usual, until Kamaya made if easy for us by soft barking. Success! Finally! My first gorilla in 14 days! Genuinely excellent. And it gets far better than this.

Chillaxing with the gorilla. Evidently its a hard life watching the Atananga group.

Moutchie wanders out of the forest, and sits around 20 meters away, with his mother sat in the background. He comes forward, approaching us, and I try to take some photos. The clicking of the camera prompts him to stand up, and make a tiny chest beat, then pull some of the vegetation in a display. This in turn causes his mother to floor slap, and eventually moutchi makes a little charge, and then patters off into the forest, disappearing amongst the vegetation. We sit for a long time, with Kamaya sleeping in front of us, whilst every now and again he sits up to pull a few leaves off a bush and eat them, then lies down again. Hes gets up and moves off, and immediately we follow, finding him sat around 10 meters away. Over and over this happens, every time him greeting us with a ‘woo-woo-woo’, and over and over we see the little juvenile. The group stops to rest again, and we sit with Kamaya at about 15 meters from us. Almost immediately Moutchie comes out of the bushes again, this time not 8 meters directly in front of me, out in the open. His mother follows at a distance of about 10 meters, at first unawares of our presence, but she quickly realizes, stops, and then lies down whilst watching us. It is incredible. To my right I have a silver back gorilla at 15 meters, directly in front of me a juvenile at 8, and behind and a little to the left of him, an adult female at 10. It is one of the best experiences of gorilla I’ve had since being out here. Moutchie does his usual tricks, pulling the lianes, chest beating, and just sitting watching us as curiously as we’re watching him. After 10 minutes he moves off again, following his mother, and we sit watching as we see the shadowy movement of at least 3 adult females moving off. We followed, and managed to catch a glimpse of the adult female with her infant riding on her back crossing the path in front of us, and then two more females, a juvenile and finally the male.

Kamaya sitting not 10 meters from me, taken a week or so after this post, but still wicked.

Again they move off, with us following quickly behind. We were too quick, and Kamaya barked a warning, whilst a female screamed, but unperturbed, after they’d finished we pushed on. We had Kamaya directly in front of us in the bushes, and we walked in his direction. Then I see movement out of the corner of my eye and turn to see Kamaya walking through the forest not 10 meters behind and to the left of me. So I call to Loic and tell him that the male is right there. Loic turns, looks, and replies simply with “Je connais, on suivre les females”, and we continued after the rest of the group, with Kamaya right behind us. We’d effectively just side stepped a silver back and he didn’t make a noise. I felt kind of sorry for him, wondering if he felt slightly inadequate. After about 50 meters though, we weren’t sure which direction the gorilla had taken, and at this point Kamaya passed parallel to us making a little display by pulling some saplings as he went off after his ladies, giving us the bearings we needed. We caught up with the male again, as watched as he dragged a huge branch of baphia up the side of a baffon then sat to eat it, before upping and moving again. Again we find them, but the females scream and the male barks, and they moved on. Eventually Kamaya decides the time is right, or I don’t know, this patch of forest is especially good, or he just got frustrated with trying, and failing, to shake us off, but either way the gorilla finally stop moving and they all sit down to rest some more.

The adult female, called quite simply, 'Le female avec le rouge tete'. At least its descriptive. Shes a bit of a character, often floor slapping and chest beating at us.

We sit for about half an hour with Kamaya resting at 10 meters, and once again Mouchie comes out to satisfy his curiosity, this time to less than 5 meters from me, his mother watching from 8. I see another adult female watching from a gap in the bushes at about 15 meters, so I pick up my camera to take a photo, and at this instance she starts hooting. This prompts the male to get up, and charge to 5 meters all mouth and teeth and barks. He stands, looking over us as we all sit avoiding eye contact. I glance up to see if hes still there, and catch the adult female who originally hooted still sat watching the proceedings, joined by another female. It reminded me of two old ladies sat watching their favorite soap opera, which they themselves have just created. After the spectacle is over, the ladies move off, and we move forward.

Suddenly the adult female Essombay rushes through the foliage screaming at us as she charges to within 5 meters then running off. The male barks and rushes forwards, and at first we think its to charge us too, but instead he chases after the female, and on reaching her smacks her back using both his fists with full force. He sits there, at around 10 meters holding Essombay down on her front, directly in front of us. They stay like this for about a minute, until Kamaya relents and Essombay slowly walks off to join the rest of the group, followed by the silver back. We all look around at each other in amazement after having just witnessed this show of brutal enforcement.

The gorilla stopped next at the base of a big old saccoglottis tree, where the group spread out and started to forage for the fallen fruit. At different points we could watch the male putting each fruit into his mouth then delicately maneuvering it with his lips and tongue to scrape the flesh from the seed, a female picking through the leaf litter, and finally Moutchie carefully picking up each fruit and holding it to his mouth as he tenderly ate the flesh, allowing me to take some stunning photos.

One of the juveniles of the Atananga group, 'Moutchie'

The last we saw of the gorilla, Kamaya was stood to attention just at one of the crossings they use through the mangroves, normally over to Cola (I say normally, because after they’d ‘crossed’ we went over to pick things up on the other side, where we found zilch. They hadn’t crossed, the gorilla were just playing games with us…).

It was an utterly fantastic day, and as I’ve said before, quite possibly one of the best I’ve had with the gorilla, which can often be so damn illusive when they want to be. But this time, we managed to see every member of the group, from the tiny infant to the massive silver back. Its days like these that easily justify the hours and hours of swamp walking, crossing and relentless boarders of the dry season.

Birthday Beast

So I signed off claiming I’d be back to update as much as possible, but unfortunately that fell by the way side. Seems like all I do on here is apologize… But this is life. You set out to achieve certain goals, and for some reason or another, you get distracted, have too much of a good time (or bad), or simply forget about them, and they never get completed. This blog turned into a victim of many of the above when I was in Malawi and the months after. But by some miracle, there is actually wi-fi at the lodge, and more amazingly at the brigade (eco-guard HQ), and on my rare few trips out, I’ll see what I can do while checking e-mails. I mean, last time I could even surf the web on my kindle…a-maz-ing.

I thought I’d just post a few of the entries I’ve been keeping on my hard drive as a diary come blog posts, and as it was just my birthday (thanks for all the messages everyone, much appreciated), I thought I’d start by letting you lot know what I got up and how I spent the day, which far exceeded my expectations…

03/07/2012
Its been a very good few days. Was evidently my birthday, which everyone found out to their great amazement that I was only turning 22 (“You’re so young!”). Started off with that god awful start of 0550, which despite my alarm failing to go off, I still woke up on time in order to get up, heat water for coffee, and then cook pasta and sauce for everyone while the sun rose and the mosquitoes fed.

After this we were off to the forest, taking the daily boat commute over to Cola to try and pick up where the others left off the day before, which we quite rapidly did. We managed to follow the tracks from yesterday, through the forest and along the boarders of the swamps, finding a mixture of feeding signs, such as where they’d been feeding in a myrianthus tree or little piles of Cola flavoulatina leaves they’d been snacking on, and tracks in the mud. After around two hours of walking, and one swamp crossing later, we managed to follow the trail until their nests from the previous night, and so the race began. Quite simply (and obviously), we now have to walk faster than the gorillas. But whilst they just wander through the forest stopping and feeding at their will, we have to search for their tracks, determine their direction, and often make predictions based on our knowledge of them, their habits and the geography of the forest.

The almost daily morning boat trip out to search for the gorilla

We followed the tracks north, the gorillas making it easy for us by following the boarder of the Bonne Terre swamp, meaning they we’re leaving behind lots of helpful tracks and feeding signs, until finally they cross another arm of the swamp and Loic stops and gets out his mask, simply pointing at a wet patch on the dry leaves. Fresh gorilla urine, they’re close. We all take our masks out in preparation and continue, splitting into two teams, one to walk the boarder, whilst my team walked in the forest. Not an hour from when we found their nests, and minutes from finding their urine, when we start in the forest we hear the gorilla barking, and turn to see the male, Kamaya, watching us. We had found them. I take my camera out, and try to take a few photos, forced to use the manual focus as its too difficult to use auto when there’s lots of leaves and branches in between the camera and the subject, and the fact that the gorilla hate the noise it makes. I wouldn’t know until I return to camp whether they came out or not. And so we all settled down to watch as the Kamaya sat about 20 meters away watching us, and then an adult female came into view about 30 meters away to observe, and then sleep in front of us. It has to be said, I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day simply due to the fact that we’d actually managed to find them on my birthday, I was so happy. After about half an hour of relaxing with the gorilla, the female decided to strut her stuff, and did a little display of floor slapping as they often do, and eventually Kamaya joined in as we heard the ‘pok-pok-pok’ of a chest beat echoing though the foliage.

The beautiful silver back of the Atananga group, 'Kamaya'

Eventually the gorilla decided to move on, and we saw another adult female and a juvenile passing off, and we followed them, being greeting with the males little reassuring soft barks, until we followed a bit too close and heard the screams of an adult female as she obviously felt threatened by us. This in turn caused Kamaya to bark as they continued to wander off. As we were following, every so often we’d come across Kamaya just sat there, not 10 meters away, eating leaves or bark and keeping an eye on us as he let the females move off in front, doing his protective male thing, until eventually they decided to stop and rest and feed again. It’s clearly a hard life for the gorilla.

After maybe 20 minutes, and we’d taken lunch, we went after the gorilla again, who’d already moved off. We were following them, as usual, in dense forest, and pretty much managed to stumble upon the poor things as they were sleeping. I judged us to have been at about 15 meters and the females screamed and ran back by about another 10 before they settled, with Kamaya barking and coming towards us to about 10 meters. Now when I say the females were screaming, its hard to describe exactly how horrible a sound this actually is, and how distressing it can make you feel knowing that you caused it. Almost sounds like a woman being beaten. We’re evidently trying to win the gorillas trust (and especially the females), and so when they scream you often can’t help but think what you’re doing is wrong, even if it necessarily isn’t. Its now got to the point where its important we’re pushing them, trying to get as close as possible, and show them that we’re no harm. It’s the getting as close as possible that’s the problem, and whilst this is fairly easy with Kamaya, its proving fairly difficult with the females, who often scream and back off.

Mid birthday contact with two of the four trackers Alphonse and Ekoba

So after this, we evidently stopped where we were and sat down, waiting for the gorilla to calm down, whilst listening to Kamaya about 10 meters in the bushes feeding, as he formed a physical barrier between us and his group. Finally the little juvenile Moutchie managed to pluck up the courage and came out to see what all the fuss was about, before he moved off, with Kamaya following suit. And so we moved on to follow again thinking they’d all upped and left, but apparently not. The forest peace again was shattered as the females screamed again and again, and the male started his aggressive barking. After a few seconds, all settled down again, and Kamaya took to resting 10 meters away in full sight. We could watch him as he lay on his stomach with his head on his hands, then as he rolled over onto on side, with his arms bent and head resting on them whilst he dozed. I love watching Kamaya sleep, mainly because his postures are so human like, some of which I’ve found myself doing in the past. My absolute favorite is when he lies on his back with on leg propped up against a tree, and the other crossed over it. So chilled.

Eventually the gorillas upped and left, and I said this to the trackers, who appeared to be imitating the gorilla with their heads propped up by their bags, who told me that no, the gorilla were still there. As they’re often far batter at seeing and knowing where the gorilla are, I took their word for it and sat down, until 20 minutes later when Loic came over and asked where the gorilla where, and the trackers told him that they’d left. Typical. Anyway, after this, it took an age to find which direction the gorilla had left in, as they’d done a loop in the forest crossing over where we’d already followed them, meaning we had tracks going in all directions. After maybe an hour we finally managed to find the correct set of prints and followed them, but unfortunately they’d had too much of a head start, and we didn’t managed to find them again.

But we did at least manage to play a round of the game: elephant or gorilla? As weird as it sounds, the two animals appear pretty much identical when encountered in dense forest, when all you can hear and see is the rustling and pulling of vegetation. So when Loic stopped and pointed to a clump of bushes, and said that the gorilla where there, I took up my binoculars and pointed them to a patch of vibrating branches, just waiting to see if the trace of a gorilla could be seen. Instead, the whole view was obscured as a huge male elephant with big tusks sauntered out. He was so close that I couldn’t even see him all in the binoculars, just his back and ears. So I lowered the binoculars, and sure enough, he was stood not 15 meters away apparently unawares of our presence as he then started to wander over in our direction. We backed off about another 5 meters (or in the trackers case, another 20), and eventually he smelt us, stopped, then decided to walk in another direction and avoid the stinking people.

I was genuinely so made up with the fact that I was able to see the gorilla on my birthday (and even more so, take some photos), and to top it all off we even found an elephant. So when I got back to camp, my spirits were well and truly high as I was greeted by the Ozouga lot as they’d all come over for the night so we could have a party. The perfect end to a perfect day in the forest.

We had a lot of pastis, scotch, rum, wine and beer, so we definitely weren’t going to run dry. We ate and then drank and danced all night, knowing in safety that we weren’t going to be going into the forest the next day. The chief for the lagoon even came over to join in and say happy birthday, which was wicked and really nice. We stayed up late drinking and dancing, pumping music and laughter out into the thick warm rainforest night (for once it wasn’t cold at night, or was that just all the alcohol and dancing?) and out over the still lagoon whose dark waters were a perfect mirror reflecting the shimmering stars and bright moon. For once we were drowning out the continual chirp and croak of the forest, but the forest eventually won as the noise was swallowed up by the black night, the glittering stars and the impenetrable vegetation surrounding camp. After more than enough to drink, too much dancing, and far too many incriminating photos, the party broke up and we all drifted off to various parts of the camp in twos and threes, till sleep came heavy and thick and it was called a night. The next morning I awoke again to the clicking and calling of the forest, as if she was reasserting her territory, and reminding us that whilst we were only temporary, she was here to stay.

Dancing the night away. Photo wonky due to too much alcohol, or uneven surface? You decide.

The next day was spent with everyone lazing about camp, whilst the trackers who’d taken all the left over alcohol (including my unopened bottle of wine and half a bottle of rum, I mean seriously, you cant leave anything out around here) carried on drinking. I was so damn tired I pretty much slept through most of the day, waking up periodically only to eat or play cards (check, uno, finish), and then everyone was in bed by about 2000 in order to get up the next morning and go out looking for the gorilla.

So all in all, I had a really fantastic birthday, and its not going to be one I forget in a hurry.

The Warm Heart of Africa

So here I am, sat on my mothers veranda in Lilongwe, with Popeye the one eyed dog as company. I made it! Well, actually I made it over a week ago, after a long week or so of travelling and waiting. Although this is only my 3rd night in the capital, if you can even call it that, I've just had a very fun and thought provoking few nights at Senga Bay, Lake Malawi:

After flying in, via Nairobi, and two nights in the house, I departed by minibus for Salima along with an American writer, Marc. Here we caught a pick up truck, along with at least 15 other locals to take us to Senga Bay, a beautiful little piece of the lake only around 3 hours out of Lilongwe.

We both checked into a lodge called Cool Runnings. Not entirely sure of the connection to the Jamaican bob sleigh team, but either way its an amazing place, run by an amazing woman named Sam, who is easily one of the most inspirational people I have had the good fortune to meet. My first impressions of the country were very mixed. Even driving from the airport I could see that its a beautiful and incredibly green country (I'm here bang smack in the middle of the rainy season), but its a beauty I've never really seen before. Where ever you look, stretching right to the horizon, the whole land is cultivated. This was very conflicting, being used to unspoilt natural beauty, but its refreshing to have this point of view challenged. Despite my initial shock, there was still an incredible allure to the whole place, and as I started to learn over the next few days, it wasn't necessarily the stunning scenery you came to see (even though such places still exist as I found out down by the lake), but the warm, friendly and amazing people who live off this land. Everywhere you turn you have kids who wave and shout greetings at you, or someone to show you the way to the market, or just to have a drink with you and share their thoughts, and this is truly the making of this country.

Only a few hours after arriving in Senga Bay, I hired a local called Tony to take me on a hike up in the hills in order to get a better view of the lake. And what a view it was. We walked for about an hour through the bush, with the only human influence being the occasional goat or cow (presumably the land wasn't good for crops), and after seeing some Yellow Baboons (wildlife!) we clambered up some rocks and looked out over Lake Malawi, to Mozambique in the distance. It was absolutely stunning.

After the hike, Tony took me on a walk along the beach for maybe an hour and a half to see if we could find the Hippopotamus (one of the few animals to do well in Malawi) which are known to live in a river nearby. We passed through a fishing village, with all the fish drying on the racks, some beautiful beaches, and a big Baobab tree.

We couldn't walk 10 minutes without finding someone on the beach, either fishing, washing or just sitting. A stark contrast to Loango where we share the beach with only the animals. On arriving at the hippo pool Tony went to ask if the hippo had been seen today, and as he was doing so, I heard a large noise in the water behind, and on turning saw a hippo surface on the other side of the river. We had found them! Or one at least. We sat watching him on the other side of the river, and then a local came over and started clapping. At first I had no idea as to what he was doing, but then to my amazement the hippo started to swim over to within about 10 metres. Then it dived under and we followed it bubbles to the bank literally just in front of me. Unfortunately though as we had no food (a guy who stays regularly in the area feeds them cabbages), he didn’t surface, but made his way back to the other bank. It was good to actually be able to see some wildlife in this country still clinging on.

When I got back to the camp, there were some new arrivals. A group of ladies from the UK, three of whom were nurses (Natasha, Holly and Phillipa) and a teacher (Karen), had just set up camp, and Kuan and Dumi (Taiwanese and Malawian, respectively) checked into one of the rooms. For the rest of the week I pretty much spent my whole time with Natasha, Holly, Phillipa and Karen, who had just finished their electives in a town in Northern Malawi. From talking with them and Sam, and listening their amazing experiences and views of Malawi and the greater issues of Africa, my initial choices in life and my perceived step down the conservation path has become less clear cut. I’ve had a lot of time out here to question whether conservation is the route I really want to take, and it seems to becoming clearer and clearer that maybe it isn’t…

We simply hung around for the next few days, walking into the village to buy food and textiles, and going off to a club in Salima on one of the nights. The club was pretty much just a concrete warehouse with a bar and far too many mirrors and prostitutes. We didn’t get back to Senga Bay until about 4am, and even then me, Dumi and Kwan carried on drinking until the sun started to rise. On the Friday my mother and some of her teaching colleagues (Dave, Emine and Mary-Francis) came down for the weekend, and by the time it got round to Saturday, the ladies were due to leave back for Lilongwe. But before they left, I was able to organise with Sam that we all give blood in the local hospital, as she encourages those who stay at Cool Runnings to do so. I was also able to rope in Mary-Francis and a Canadian Josh. We all headed for the hospital, and were shown the blood bank for 340,000 people – empty. We all lined up and had samples taken first, to check blood group, haemoglobin levels and diseases.

After we were then sat in another room, and ~300ml of blood taken. I’m not entirely sure why they took so little, but the ladies were flying out the next day, so I think that may have had something to do with it, but at least it was still enough to save 2 babies.

This was the first time I had ever given blood (and the first time I’d found out my blood group: A+), and I was able to sit there and poke the bag of my warm blood, all very surreal. A couple of the girls felt a little dizzy after, and the needles were too big to get Mary-Francis’ very desirable blood (haemoglobin level: 17, blood group: O-), but apart from that everything went really well, and we all left feeling we had done something really worthwhile. I think it was easily one of the most amazing things I’ve done in a long long time.
Almost directly after giving blood, the girls hopped onto a minibus and headed back for Lilongwe, and I returned to Cool Runnings to get a lift back the next day in the with all the teachers. Again, the drive back was incredible, with views of fields in the foreground stretching out to big mountains nestled the horizon. The colours of the rich red earth contrasting with the vibrant green of the maize and the browns of the thatched huts were something else, and when you see all this, and hear the locals singing in church or just as they’re walking on the road, its impossible to deny its inherent beauty.

Just before the girls got on the bus back to Lilongwe

Over and out.

Fish for Christmas, Monkey for New Year

I thought that my last update before I leave Port Gentil (the boat is ready, meaning we leave Port Gentil tomorrow, finally!) should at least be a little festive, so the stores of chimpanzees, elephants, crocodiles and snakes will have to be put on hold for a few weeks until I’m sunning myself in Malawi, I’m sure you guys will manage to hold on till then. In the mean time, I thought I’d give you lot a little idea of how I spent Christmas and New Year out here, in the jungle, and with no signal. See, its alredy shaping up to be an fun story!

On the 23rd of December, after Christophe Boesch had left the day before (he visited Ozouga for a few days just to check on the project whilst he was in Gabon sorting out some paper work and such), everyone from the project, except me, Matchado and Loic, were leaving for the holidays, most venturing up to Libreville. As the signal coverage at Ozouga died the day before, the three of us decided to go to Yatouga to see if the situation was the same there, hoping that it was not. On the way out, we were dropped off with all our bags in the middle of the savanna so that were able to walk the 10km through the forest back to Yatouga. Even on the way to Yatouga we managed to find elephant, or well more specifically, it found us as we didn’t even noticed it till the last minute… And we finally arrived in Yatouga to…. No signal! Awesome! This was shaping up to be a very isolated Christmas. But just as we thought all hope was lost, that evening by some miracle the signal returned, and we were all very happy. But this was unfortunately only very transient. By the next day, were back in a dead zone. Loic got on with making a new fishing net, whilst me and Matchado tided up the camp as no one had been using it for the past 2 and a half months, and all of us were waiting with anticipation and hope for the fabled return of signal, and all to no avail. We spent Christmas Eve drinking beer and really rough local gin whilst playing Gerram (hmm, just tried to spell a French name phonetically, that’s never going to work…) and Uno (check, uno, finish).

Needless to say, I went to bed horribly late and woke up with a God awful hangover at 0630 in order to go out fishing with Matchado on Christmas morning. We managed to catch our diner, and then I headed straight back to my tent to try and sleep the worst of the hangover off. I woke up at around 12 in a fucking sauna, with my head hurting just as much, if not more than before. Merry Christmas! I tried to console myself with lots of biscuits and chocolate whilst watching films in the ‘office’, but even this had a limited effect. Matchado’s method was a little more direct, with him consoling himself with yet more gin and pastis (genuinely have no idea how the hell he managed it). After watching, ok I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but they’re Christmassy films and I’d just read both the books (hmm possibly making it worse), Bridget Jones’ Diary and the Edge of Reason (urgh, its a lot worse to say that out loud), we went back out on the lagoon to set the nets, and then I went for a swim in said lagoon despite the fact that it was actually a really cold day (well maybe 22/23 degrees, cardigan weather out here!). By this point it was time for diner, and for Christmas day we ate the fresh fish in a chocolate sauce. Its not real chocolate, but its what they call it out here. It’s made from the nut of a fruit called Irvenga which is found through out the forest in Loango, and a favorite food of the chimps and gorilla when in season, which it was at the time. For the whole of diner I had to refuse Matchados drunken offerings of gin, the memory of the night before still fresh in my mind (and banging at the back of my head).

Boxing day was spent pretty much as Christmas day, but the day after was slightly more interesting. Loic and Matchado had set the nets out the night before, and then went to collect the catch, but we caught more than just fish. At first I thought it was a crocodile, as Loic kept on describing it to me as a ‘crocodile-like’ animal, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Well eentually it turned out it wasn't a crocodile, but it did, however much it pains me to admit it (and I did feel very guilty eating it), taste really really good, especially after living off fish for 3 and a half months. So good in fact, we ate it for the next three nights, with plenty left over…

The next day, due to lack of signal, we decided to leave for the lodge on the northern edge of the lagoon, where we were to spend a week or so living in the local village with a couple of the eco-guides who work at the lodge. After the hour and a half boat we arrived at the lodge to… you guessed it, no signal! Wahoo! It turned out that the problem was not with the aerial closest to Yatouga, but one further out past the lodge, fantastic! But all was not lost, after only a few days, the signal was restored, so all was good, and I could get on with reading whilst lying in a hammock. I spent my days in the hammock, and my nights in the bar, needless to say it was a very trying time.

One of the guides we were staying with, Remy, organized with the owner of the bar, Crystelle, a party for all the children on new years eve day, and I was asked to help out. We had popcorn, sandwiches, biscuits and juice for all the little ones of the village. They loved seeing themselves on my camera, and loved even more being allowed to have a go with it, and I had a really enjoyable afternoon playing around with the kids. About half way through the party we had even more visitors, as the French military who were in the area for a few days wandered by and was wondering what was going on. When they found out, they got all their supplies of biscuits and sweets and water out and handed them around for the kids, it was all really nice and an amazing atmosphere, and felt good to make the kids happy, as they don’t have that much.

For the evening, we got invited around to Narcisse’s house, who works for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), for a bbq and drinks. We had fun at his, with the conservator (the manager) of the park, and a few friends and family. After, at around 2am we all went over the village to the bar, where all the locals were partying it down, and we joined in the fun there, drinking and dancing all night long. At one point, the French military found out where we all were and then they also joined the party, making for a very fun evening. I think it was possibly the best new years I’ve actually had, and one that’s going to be veryt difficult to beat.

On New Year’s Day the village was very subdued, and in true style I spent it lounging about in the hammock and eating biscuits and sweets with a few of the local girls who were obviously feeling the same way. Later that day I was then shown what was for diner, and asked if it was ok. It turned out to be monkey stew. I had always told myself that I would eat monkey if given the opportunity, but faced with the actual choice, I had a horrible niggling feeling in the back of my head. I decided to suppress this feeling and tell it to shut up, and got on with trying the monkey, which still had its skin… And it tasted…weird. Almost like beef, but with a bit of a ‘gamey’ taste, like you get with rabbit or pheasant. In the end (after trying it again the next day for breakfast…) I decided that I didn’t actually like it, and have no idea why everyone else seemed to love it. Evidently we all hard at work conserving the wildlife here, not to mention the fact that I ate Red River Hog just a few days ago in Port Gentil…

Over and Out!

Living with the Devil

I returned to Yatouga to meet the six new trackers who had been hired, but after a few days, it became apparent that problems were going to arise. It all boiled down to one of the trackers who the project had never used before. He was older than the rest, which meant that he took over the senior role within the trackers and therefore they all listened to him, but also that he often complained of being tired. The first problem we had was how he treated Julie, and during one of the first few days he shouted at her in the forest and was complaining that she was walking too slowly, despite the fact that Chris was even further behind her. We presumed that maybe he just didn’t like to do what Julie told him because she was a woman, and so we had a talk with all the trackers, and told them that they are there, pretty much, to do as we tell them.

Thinking all our problems were solved, everything went smoothly for a few days, until it was my turn to go into the forest alone with the new tracker and one other. Everything was fine for the whole morning, they did exactly what I wanted, but it then hit 12pm and all of a sudden they asked if we could go back to camp. I resolutely told them no, we work in the forest until 5pm, and told them to continue. They grudgingly agreed, but then at 1pm they asked again to return. At this point I was pretty annoyed, and again said no, but decided to take lunch as I thought that maybe they were simply hungry. We ate lunch quickly (there were a lot of tsetse flies about) and continued, until they lead me off the path we were meant to be taking, and onto one which lead back to camp. I asked them where they were going, and they said again that they wanted to return, and again I refused to give in, and made them take me back to the other path. I followed them as they walked around in the forest for about an hour trying to get back to the swamp, and eventually they took me back to where we had lunch, an hour and a half before. It should have been me who was really pissed off (and believe me, I was), but the new tracker then suddenly started shouting ‘This is where we had lunch! This is where we had lunch!’ and waving his stick at me in an incredibly angry way. This only had the effect to make me more pissed off, because it was them who lead us back there! Absolutely seething, I refused again to return and made them continue along the edge of the swamp. None of us actually wanted to be there, but I at this point I knew that whilst I was hating it, he was hating it more. After about 40 minutes or so, so that he knew it was my decision and not his, at about 3.30pm I had had enough and couldn’t stand being out there with them any longer, and I eventuqlly told them to return. But at least my plan had had the desired effect, and the new tracker was in a totally foul mood. Every time I told them to continue, I was very aware of the fact that I was playing with fire, because if they had decided to simply up and leave me in the forest, there would have been nothing I could do to stop them, but in no way did I want to give in.

Just ate a pear, mmmm, fruit, vitamins, healthyness. But I think I’ve negated all that goodness by eating a kilogram of cheese today. Well maybe not an actual kilogram, but it feels that way. Totally worth it. Think I’m going to go back to the jungle weighing twice as much than when I left. Growing fear that I may not be able to run away from charging elephants. At least I’ll have my new knife to save me. Trying to work out if its at all possible to stop a charging bull elephant with a 7 inch knife. Prospects don’t look good.

After about another week, Chris and Flo swapped camps as it was decided that Flo (who started at the same time as me) was now going to be working in Yatouga. After a couple of days the cameras were due to be done, and so me and Flo set off. As we do the cameras over two days, we were back in camp for 1pm. At about this time the new tracker and one other were returning from the forest, when they were meant to be out on their own looking for the gorilla. But they came back with great news. They said that they had seen and followed six gorilla just behind camp, and even better, it was the Atananga group. As it was only 1pm, and they’d found Atananga, me and Flo got up straight away and told them to take us to where they’d last seen them. Reluctantly, they took out of camp and not 10 minutes down the track to where they’d found six gorilla nests, pretty much directly on the trail. Then we found out that actually they hadn’t seen the gorilla at all, just found the nests. Great. We asked them to show us where they tracked them, but it turns out that they hadn’t even attempted to follow the trail from the nests off into the forest. Things were not looking good. We made them follow the trail all afternoon, and along the way collected feces for the dietary analysis, finally getting back into camp at about 5, with two very unhappy trackers. They must have found the nests in the morning (they were pretty hard to miss, directly on the trail), sat around for hours, and then decided to come back and tell us what they thought we wanted to hear (that they’d found Atananga), not realizing that this would mean we’d want them to take us back there. Trackers lying to you, just what you need when you rely on them daily to find the gorilla…

The next day was the final nail in the coffin. It was the second day for the cameras, and so Julie and Flo went off to do them whilst I took my rest day in camp with one of the other trackers. All of a sudden at around 12pm, the five other trackers who were meant to be out in the forest with Julie and Flo returned to camp, with out the girls. About 10 minutes later, Flo and Julie came storming out of the forest, fuming. It transpired that they had all sat down to have lunch near one of the cameras, and then with out warning the trackers had decided that they’d simply had enough and left back for camp without saying a word to the girls, leaving them alone in the forest. This is pretty much the worst thing that they could have done. We talked to them, and they told us that they didn’t want to work, and wanted to return to their village. The reasons they gave were far from clear, but seemed to involve a lack of sugar in the coffee, their tiredness, and the Devil being present in Yatouga. Despite their apparent tiredness, they proceeded to stay up late that night singing and dancing around the fires, and then the next day (16th October 2011) left incredibly early, without saying a word to us, for Ozouga, to go and get the two trackers working there, who had had next to nothing to do with the trackers in Yatouga. And thus, we were left trackerless. And with no trackers we could do no gorilla habituation.

We presumed what had happened was that the new tracker, who had taken up the role of leader, was not happy with the work as he was older and got more tired. Due to his position within the group, he pretty much told the others, most of whom had worked at Yatouga before and thus knew what they were getting into and had agreed to come back, that they were all to leave. As it was not possible to get replacement trackers immediately, Yatouga had to effectively close down, and we all moved over to Ozouga for what we hoped would be just a few weeks. And here we stayed for the next 2 and a half months. This means that I’ve actually spend more time in Ozouga, working on the chimpanzee habituation, then I have at Yatouga with the gorilla, and even as I’m writing this (10th January 2012), we still haven’t started the gorilla habituation up again, we have to wait until we’re back in the park in order to go and get some new trackers. Not that I’m complaining (despite having had to live in a tiny two man tent for the whole time), as it has been amazing chance to be able to observe wild chimpanzees, and I’ve seen some incredible things whilst doing it (think chimps crossing swamps on their back legs with hands in the air and male chimpanzees drumming on buttress roots and pant hooting not 10 meters from me). But hopefully, when we return back with the new boat (which should be in about 3 days time, fingers crossed), and when I the return from Malawi, I’ll be able to get back on with the gorilla, which I haven’t seen in about 3 months.

Over and out.

23 days... continued

Day number three was no less exciting, as me Julie and Alphonse the tracker set out to do the camera traps. At Yatouga we have 9 camera traps set out in the forest as part of a large mammal bio-monitoring project, which need checking (batteries, memory cards, and silica changed) every two weeks. They’re placed near animal trails, or points where the animals are known to cross the swamps, and we’re mainly looking out for capturing the elephants (and we capture A LOT of these), leopards (Panthera pardus), chimpanzees and gorilla, but in addition we also capture a whole host of other forest creatures, from duikers to squirrels to egrets.

Whilst out checking one camera, we heard a strange noise off in the forest, and turning to Alphonse to identify it, he said it was a leopard, quite close by. We didn’t think much of it, there’s no point trying to find it as leopards are near impossible to see in the forest (Chris has been here over a year and a half, and is yet to see one), and so we continued with the rest of the cameras. But then on the way back from checking the last camera for the day, Alphonse suddenly stops and crouches, pointing through the bushes. I follow suit, and look to see a leopard silently moving through the trees. We watch as it moves off, melting into the dappled light, its coat perfectly suited for blending into the shifting patches of shade. After spending two months in South Africa, I failed to see a single leopard, but by some stroke of amazing luck, I manage to see one in a much more challenging environment, and after just 3 days. Needless to say, spirits were high.

Over the next few weeks, as the days wore on, I was getting more and more concerned about my luggage, and despite the wealth of amazing experiences I encountered over this time, the thought of my luggage weighed heavy. Most of these experiences involved the Atananga group, being the most habituated and the group we set out to find each day. One such day, me Julie and the trackers found them, and we sat down to watch and record data. We had a pretty good view of Kamaya, and he was being his usual relaxed self, paying (or at least appearing to pay) no attention to us. Then we hear a noise in the bushes to the front of us. Peering at the spot where the noise came from we start to pick out the face of a little juvenile gorilla staring back. Hardly daring to breath, we keep watching, as the juvenile moves forward through the undergrowth, pulling and eating on the vegetation as he goes, until he comes to a stop about 10 meters from us, in full view. He sits there, watching and eating, then stands up on his back legs and ‘pok-pok-pok!’, giving us a tiny chest beat, in full imitation of his father but just in complete miniature. He repeats this a few times and then, deciding hes seen enough and his point was made, scrambles back through the undergrowth to his mother patiently waiting a little further back, and leaving us sat in awe at what we had just witnessed. It was an amazing sight I’ve been lucky enough to witness on multiple occasions.

As I said, being with the Atananga group is often your best chance to have some amazing contacts, and again one afternoon we were not disappointed. We had found the group, and were sat with them for a few hours, everything as normal. And then suddenly, from behind us we hear the 'pok-pok-pok!' of a chest beat ringing through the forest. With Atananga sitting in front of us, and an unknown silver back displaying behind us, things had started to get interesting. As we sat waiting to see what Atananga will do, we hear the pok-pok-pok again and again, getting closer and closer. All of were sat there, in stunned silence, but eventually Kayama simply decided he had had enough and upped and left. We all felt a little disappointed that nothing more had come it, and got up to start to follow the group. Just as we did this, we all turned to the left as we hear this padding through the forest, as if something big was running fast. And then all of a sudden, bursting from the bushes, this huge silver back gorilla crashes into a clearing, not 10 metre from us. All of us were completely stunned, and by the look on the gorillas face, he was as shocked to see us as we were to see him. After a pause of what must have been just a few seconds (it felt like minutes), he turned around whilst barking, and thundered off back into the forest, leaving us all to look at each other in amazement, and then burst out laughing.

After two weeks of being in Yatouga, the current tracker team was due to leave, and six new ones brought in. So whilst Chris and Julie went to the local pygmy village, I decamped over to Ozouga to help with the chimps. In Ozouga Anna and Flo (German and French, respectively, research assistants), and Yannick and Borance (local eco-guards), were working on the chimp habituation and chimpanzee tool use. The chimps here have an unusual social structure, which as yet still no one understands. It is unusual because they often go through cycles of being completely silent, making little to no vocalizations within the communities, unlike at all other known groups in Africa, where the chimps frequently vocalize. When I joined them, they were in the middle of one of these silent periods, and due to this it was incredibly difficult to see the chimps at all. In 10 days, I caught one fleeting glimpse. Due my time at Ozouga, I received the one piece of new I’d been waiting to hear, that finally, by some impossible way, my luggage had turned up, and more to the point, Freda was bringing it to the site for me. I was so happy, and everything just became so much better. I was free from worry, and after 23 days of living out of a 22 litre bag with a handful of clothes, I could finally start to fully appreciate this place for what it was.

Over and out!

23 days, hand luggage only

Hmm, 4 months is a long time, and a hell of a lot has happened during this period, as I’m sure you can guess. I’m evidently not going to bore you all with a detailed account, but I’ll try to pick out a few of the more interesting/entertaining tales, and pepper it with the odd photo when and where I can. Currently sat in the hotel bar in Port Gentil, Regab on one side, so if this gets more and more incomprehensible, then there’s your reason.

On the 1st September 2011, after 4 days of travel, I finally arrived in camp Yatouga, the site of the gorilla habituation (as opposed to camp Ozouga, where the chimpanzee habituation occurs). Yatouga is situated on the southern edge of Iguela lagoon, and as such is bound on two sides by rainforest, with mangrove and lagoon on the third and fourth. After the hour and a half boat ride through the lagoon, it was an incredible experience to step off the boat and finally get a look at my home for the next year. The first thing to strike was the assault against my ears, as the sound of the rainforest kicked in with continuous squawks, clicks, whistles and croaks, from an all manner of different creatures hiding amongst the trees and bushes. Accompanied by the dense smell of vegetation, and meeting the six pygmy trackers and Matachado (the camp chef), it was a lot to take in. My home was a tent, and my office, the rainforest directly behind the tent where the elephants, gorilla and chimpanzee roam. This was to be the beginning of a good year, though it didn’t get off to too great a start…

So as I said, I arrived in Yatouga after 4 days travel, but unfortunately, my luggage wasn’t so lucky. All I knew (and all anyone at the airport knew), was that it got on the plane in London, and somewhere between there, Addis Ababa, and Libreville, it went missing. Awesome. I was to leave Libreville the day after my flight in, so I had to put blind faith in Freda, who lives in Libreville and works with Max Planck, and who I’d just met. It wasn’t an ideal situation by far, but with my flight to Port Gentil (POG) already booked, it was all I could do. A few days later (via a 5 hour boat ride) we arrived in Ombue from POG, and had a few minutes to gather ourselves before we were whisked off to the head of police for the state. And in true African style, here we hit another speed bump. We needed him to register us to allow us to work in Loango, but he wasn’t in too pretty a mood. First, we needed two passport photos, of which I had none, then he claimed that our entry stamps in our passports were faked, then our letters of invitation to work in the country were simply not enough, so that finally, he wanted to keep our passports until all this was sorted. All these angry musings from the head of police was very difficult to take seriously, as he sat there in a slipknot tee-shirt.

Ok, just got back from diner, evidently with a fair bit of beer, and am feeling a liiittle tipsy, but maybe this’ll help the creative juices flow… Though as I have just read in Steve Jones’ ‘The Single Helix’ (which I found in Yatouga, Stevie J has made it to Gabon!), alcohol and creativity is just psychological, but tell that to the guy sat in front of the computer with beer and cigarettes. Oh wait, he did…

Ok, ok, focus. Foooocus. Where was I? Police, no luggage, Yatouga. Right. So I had one pair of trouser, one pair of boots, two tee-shirts, two boxers and socks, and that’s about it. Welcome to the jungle! Thanks to the generosity (or pity) of Julie and Chris (the two other French research assistants at Yatouga), I was able to acquire a pair of shorts, tee-shirt, raincoat and water bottle for the forest, and was, as such, set for the jungle for an indefinite period of time. My first day was pretty boring (we saw 1 buffalo and a few red river hog (potamochere in French, pota for short) in 9 hours of walking). But after that things picked up, to make an amazing first few weeks.

On the second day I was out in the forest with Julie and two of the trackers, and we found fresh gorilla tracks. The trackers, as is often the case, seem to have a sixth sense for animal tracks, seeing things where most see leaves and dirt, but eventually, they stop and point through the trees. Heart in mouth, I raise my binoculars and peer at the spot they indicated, and sure enough, there sits a huge silver back gorilla.

Julie starts tongue ‘clacking’ (the noise we make to tell the gorilla we are there), and almost instantaneously we receive a resounding ‘WOO-WOO-WOO!’ back. This is known as a soft bark, and it’s his way of telling us that he knows where we are. It’s difficult (even with this much beer) to describe the feeling of looking at such a creature, as he simply sits there and stares back straight back at you. It’s the age old question of, who’s watching whom? Due to his behavior, and his distinguishing features (a mole to the left of the silver backs nostril), Julie was able to confirm that this was Kamaya, the silver back of the Atananga group, one of the two gorilla groups habituated. We were in luck! We sat watching, as he sat resting and sleeping for a few hours. Every now and again, you’d look up to check he was still there, and see him staring back at you, to then look away as you make eye contact as if he wasn’t bothered at all. Whilst all we could see was the silver back, we knew, and could occasionally hear, the other gorilla of the group around him, and after a while, they upped and moved on. We waited, so as not to crowd or stress them, and then followed suit. The first thing to hit, as you move to where the gorilla was just sat, not 10 minutes before, is the smell. It fills your nostrils so that you can smell nothing else, and has often been described as a mix between animal manure and human sweat. I don’t think I could ever forget it, as it is an amazingly musky, but not unpleasant, smell.

Ok, I’ve just been chucked out of the bar, bad sign? I don’t think so, more of a ‘trooper’ sign. Alright, let’s get back to Atananga. It’s an amazing feeling, to be able to look down on a flattened patch of leaves and think, ‘a western lowland silver back was JUST sat here’. We look for feces and find nothing, and so continue trying to track them. We determine their direction and off we go, stepping and crawling over and under vines and bushes through the dense vegetation, pretty much as anyone would imagine traditional ‘jungle’ to be, with low hanging liana vines and plants with spines. At times it can be pretty hard going, hot and sweaty, and picking leaves and ants alike from your hair, and I haven’t even gotten to the swamps yet (expect leaches and a lot mud). After only half an hour we find the gorilla again. Julie lies down to get a better look, whilst me and the trackers remain standing, and Julie starts the clacking again. But this time, instead of the reassuring ‘woo-woo-woo’, we receive a full on bark and charge instead, with plenty of plant shaking and display included. Caught completely off guard, with adrenalin coursing through the system, I take an involuntary step back wards as a 400+ pound gorilla crashed towards us (Diane Fossey apparently peed herself when she was first charged by a silver back, so at least I’m one up from that). This was my first gorilla charge, and one I’m unlikely to forget. As we were expecting this to be the Atananga group again (with Kamaya rarely, if ever, charging), Julie didn’t even skip a beat even though she was lying belly down on the ground, but as it was so intense and impressive, I couldn’t help but try to distance myself, despite how futile it would have been. It seems that this second group, despite being not half an hour from our Atananga contact, was a completely separate, unhabituated group. This just goes to show how rich a forest Loango is, that two different groups of gorilla can live and tolerate each other within such a small distance. And the day, just my second out in the forest, marks the beginning of an amazing 4 months working in Loango.

Over and out