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!
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
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.
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.
Monday, 9 January 2012
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!
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!
Sunday, 8 January 2012
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
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
Friday, 6 January 2012
Guess whos back?
First, I think I owe all an apology, as this blog kind of died before it had even started. When I said I'd be living in the middle of the rainforest, it really genuinely is (think 3 plane rides, a boat, a car, and then a boat again, and then you're there!). Phone signal is a huge luxury that intermittenly comes and goes. This renders the idea of internet beyond email, unfortunately, quite laughable. And hence, the current failure of this blog.
BUT! I am here now in Port Gentil to pick up a new boat for the project (the last one suffered from that common nautical problem of too much rain, and had to be rescued from the bottom of the lagoon), and thus I should have a few chances to update this place with a few stray photos and stories to match over the next couple of days.
I would start here and now with a current photograph (so you can all see the biology babe I've become), but as I've just found out this computer has no USB connection, doh! I'll have to see if I can find myself a new cybercafe...
Over and out!
BUT! I am here now in Port Gentil to pick up a new boat for the project (the last one suffered from that common nautical problem of too much rain, and had to be rescued from the bottom of the lagoon), and thus I should have a few chances to update this place with a few stray photos and stories to match over the next couple of days.
I would start here and now with a current photograph (so you can all see the biology babe I've become), but as I've just found out this computer has no USB connection, doh! I'll have to see if I can find myself a new cybercafe...
Over and out!
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