Learning to be 5 again

So last week I was missing home quite a bit as the brief blog suggested although not so much missing home as perhaps just not dealing with the little privations of life over here. Life is certainly quite different in all the little day to day things that you either never thought you’d miss or never even noticed at all. Let me try and think of some examples….clean fresh washing, that smells good and isn’t damp; being able to grab your favourite sandwich whenever you feel like it (although the blissful arrival of a jar of marmite from Mum and Dad has really cheered me up); a comfy sofa in a cool room that you can stretch out on; most importantly time and space for Kate and I to chill out together and get some precious time alone. Living communally makes that last one very hard indeed, even when you think you’ve got some space, someone will pop up out of nowhere…and boy do some people struggle to take a hint J. I have all these noble notions of being ever so grateful for these small treasures and lifes little luxuries when we get back to the UK but in all honesty it probably won’t be long before I’m right back to taking them for granted again. Until then I’ll carry on with my current favourite pastime which is asking other people who are heading home, people on 5 week projects etc…what they’re looking forward to most and what they’re going to eat and drink first.

But anyway, how’s this week been then. Well all good really (yes, you can breathe a sigh of relief Mum J) . We’ve both been a bit ill, struck down with some sort of 24 hour bug but these things are so commonplace as to almost fade into the background really. You get used to having a slightly dodgy tummy most of the time. To be honest though that’s the first time in 5 weeks so we’ve been a lot luckier than most people.

We’ve had our first week on Forest, surveying the various animals of the local forest and collecting data on human disturbance which is all passed on to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) who do an amazing job trying to project the flora and fauna of Kenya. Monday we had training at the cottage on the mainland, so yes we had another week of electricity, proper showers (although the water is still cold and brackish), and a proper sit down flushing toilet…oh the sweet sweet luxury). On Tuesday we had our practical training in the Forest. Kate and I were the only 2 doing it so it was just Matt teaching us canopy survey techniques (guessing how tall a tree is) colobus behaviour surveys (wondering how the hell a 3 foot tall black and white monkey is invisible in a green forest), and bird surveys (trying to spot whether a sparrow sized bird in flight has a brown or blue crest!!!)…honestly it’d be easier counting how many leaves there are on a tree, at least trees stay still.

One thing the last few weeks has taught me though is an overwhelming sense of admiration for wildlife film-makers, the ones in the field anyway (sorry Bill Oddie but following Great Crested Tits around Oxfordshire and badgers in your back garden doesn’t count), no, the ones who spend weeks in the field who must cry themselves to sleep after a day where a chimp or a meerkat dances a tango right in front of them just as the camera runs out of film or the battery goes flat. The people you see on Planet Earth film crashing through baobab trees in Madagascar in some arcane flying contraption that surely belongs in a museum. What you don’t see are the weeks spent journeying across the most inhospitable terrain and washing with wet wipes, wiping bums with leaves (preferably not the spiky ones) and surviving on whatever the local diet is….generally rice if you’re lucky. Just 1 day in the forest hacking through dense vines and covering a mere few kms each day but being more tired than I’ve ever felt has given me a brief glimpse of this. Just trying to make a sandwich in the pouring rain so you can have at least something to eat is mission impossible. Watching animals skip and dance across your view as your camera becomes entangled in your binoculars strap for the umpteenth time, only to disappear the moment you free it. Or even worse just sit with their back to you and refusing to move whilst you wait for a glimpse of their face for a photo…and no it isn’t just a case of walking round the other side of the tree believe me.

But the joys of tramping through dense bushes, towering majestic baobabs who look older than the dinosaurs, snagging yourself on spiky vines and tripping over countless roots and old coral formations is all worth it for that fleeting glimpse of one of these creatures in their natural habitat. In just one day I saw colobus monkeys, sykes monkeys, a galago (bush baby), a yellow baboon, sunbirds and hornbills, drongos and parrots and enough butterflies to make a lepidopterist go weak at the knees. Not to mention a centipede 6 inches long with a pair of stings making up at least an inch of that! Apparently Matt, our instructor, had a friend who was hospitalized after being stung on the upper thigh by one…it was 2 inches long! (Don’t worry Mum, they hurt like hell but aren’t life threatening), so this 6 inch behemoth was enough to have us giving it a respectfully wide berth.

As a quick indication of the territory we’re covering, Shimoni Forest East is only 220 hectares (that’s tiny), yet it has been registered as one of 25 global biodiversity hotspots with more than 20% of it’s flora and fauna being endemic (that means they’re found nowhere else in the World). Honestly coastal forests like these make rainforests seem about as diverse as a plastic tray-ful of cress grown by schoolchildren.

So really just the sheer joy and wonder of glimpsing some of these animals in their natural habitat, flaying flapping, jumping, leaping, creeping and crawling has been a real thrill for both of us, it makes you feel like a little kid again. My best spot of the week was a young solitary male baboon glaring at me from the bushes not 20 yards away…that was until this weekend anyway, but I’ll talk about that next week when I’ve got access to the pictures on my camera. Ok, so I did manage to grab one good picture of this particularly chilling specimen displaying it’s raw aggression which is both terrifying and captivating to behold.

Another moment of childlike joy was as we were doing our training in the forest part of what we have to do is measure canopy density which is done by inverting your binoculars, which contracts the view of the canopy and then estimating density from 0-100%. My yelp of excitement as I did something as simple as look the wrong way through a pair of binoculars at the tree tops above me had Kate and Matt falling about in fits of laughter whilst I could only sheepishly grin and blush.

The ultimate being 5 again moment, however, was the grandly named Butterfly Sweep Net Survey…this as you may have guessed involves a group of fully grown adults running about a clearing like madthings, cavorting around with huge butterfly nets in hand, whooping with laughter at each other whilst swooping at butterflies. Catching these flapping fandangoists is no mean feat either as their erractic flight pattern, meant to make them harder for predators to catch them, works equally well on uncoordinated humans stumbling over tree roots and falling into bushes. Now and then though you manage to swag one in your net and then starts the difficult process of extracting it from the net bewteen finger and thumb with wings spread flat so you can get pictures of both it’s topside and underside for ID purposes. If you fear for the delicate butterflies and any damage we may cause then think again. These creatures are stronger than I EVER would have believed. They are basically armour plated muscles which can and often do flap their way out of your grip just as you’re about to photo them so it’s back to square one again! I was this weeks prize Butterfly Catcher you’ll be pleased to hear….yes I thought you’d be proud of me.

So before I sign off, I’ve added some photos from this and previous weeks and also, my two top tips for this week, get yourself a net and a pair of binoculars and have yourself some great fun. It’s certainly put a smile on our faces.

[Due to technical difficulties photos have been attached in a separate post...heh this IS Africa after all]