Best Day Yet

Woke up to a beautiful day (and some yoga) and my nose stopped running – which was a huge treat. Akos let us sleep in an extra hour – 7 AM breakfast followed by a very full day. Had a game drive – saw tons of buffalo (some so cute and expressive). Also first sighting of red river hogs – beautiful auburn color. Lots and lots of birds and a few elephants. For me the highlight was seeing a monkey run across the savannah. Gabon is mostly rain forest but this park has savannah habitat as well. Much easier to spot wildlife.

Stopped at a research station – where a British PhD student told us about the gorilla habituation project she was working on. The idea is to get groups of gorillas and chimpanzee to get used to humans sitting with them for a while. This will allow tourism in the parks to grow. The project is 2.5 years in and at least 2 years to go before there is any hope of a troop ready for visitors. Such patient work.

Had lunch at a bush camp and more driving – this time it felt a lot like a roller coaster. Got questioned about climate change, the IPCC etc. Again, waaay too much like work, all of these questions. Wish I were Claire who works in banking. More driving then a short forest walk (through the actual rain forest – cannot believe I did that) and on to a boat to get to Saint Catherine Beach Camp. It was a gorgeous setting – would have liked to spend the night there but maybe it is a good thing the camp got washed out during the storm as Mark’s feet are a mess already from bites and sand. Went for a walk with Laurie so Mark drank my champagne. Went in the water a bit but it was quite rough so no swimming. Akos then told us we would “30 meters” to the boat because the sea was too rough to take off from the beach. By this time Mark had to ditch his boots so he actually walked bare foot through the rain forest like a native :-) Mark of course only brought one pair of shoes so he could not afford to get sand in them. I hope he can find some flip flops or something along the way.

Akos gave us his usual lecture and Claire asked a million questions, which sometimes makes me impatient but she does ask some vey good questions. Was given the option of skipping the 6 AM drive – so we took it. Don’t have to be at breakfast till 8 AM – and it is only 10:17. Very nice dinner, learning more and more about Akos and Jessica – such fascinating people.

When we came back to our room the luster of extra sleep wore up a bit on account of the chameleon who is sleeping with us tonight :-( Not a big guy but I do not wan him to crawl over me. Shall have to brave it – hopefully the mosquito netting will keep him out.