Had a good night’s sleep. Prayed in that way that one gets to when it is obvious you are in waaay over your head and the only way to make it through is to remember the prayer Bev gave me when I was in England – “Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I can’t handle together.” I wish I could talk to Bev – but I know Carl is praying we get out of here alive – and I truly believe Jesus’ promise that he would answer the prayers of two or more ….Our group plans a 7:15 AM start. I am up by 5:30 AM (to pack for the trip back to Brazzaville – via Ouesso) – the lights eventually do come on (ahhh – how we miss the relative order of Gabon – where there was a published schedule for electricity ….). Meet Akos on the way to breakfast – Jessica has gone with the gorilla group and Akos will come with us to make sure we are on time. Spirits are much improved after sleep – and Mark admits the hike almost killed him – but as he put it he was not going to let two old people (me and Andy) do something he could not do. He is nuts but at least a realist!
As we are not doing the hunt we do not need gifts for the BaAka pygmies (the group the day before did take gifts as the pygmies were putting on a show – funny Akos thought the experience was not that great while Jessica loved it). The pygmies are interesting – such a simple way of life – in dirt huts. But they do not seem unhappy – there is a school, a church. The children are so cute – they love posing for photos and being shown their images. The adults do not seem small to me – I am taller but do not tower over them the way Mark towers over me. I refer to the Village as “The Normal Sized People” Village – and Claire and Sharon agree. We are right on time (Akos, Jessica and Jean-Pierre have talked to everyone – determined to overcome “Africa time”).
We drive to the Dzangha Bai – a 45 minute hike (some through water and elephant dung – which does not bother me – cleanliness is a long forgotten thing – I have never showered so often and yet been so dirty). But now “The Worse the Better” comes true – what a sight (Akos, Sharon, Claire and Bjarne having a look). Tons of elephants and the elusive sitatunga (I do not think it is rare – it has just been rare to us). The bugs are better and hI ave learned to coexist with the millions of butterflies. No longer jump when they land on me. We leave at 11 AM – in the car after 45 minutes of hiking. Once again hear a gorilla next to the road – I guess you cannot control habituation that much – if they are comfy with people in the forest – I guess they can be comfy on the road. The worry now is the gorilla group (Jessica, Sanya, Laurie).No sign of the other group at camp – we are all sitting around anxious to go. They eventually show up – with another “fantastic tale” – they hiked and hiked and finally Jessica told the guide to turn around. He kept going deeper and she grew more desperate. Finally she got through to him and as they turned back they saw the gorillas. They got 5 minutes – but at least saw them. We get packed up – and after some struggle to release the boat (Akos, Jessica and Andy jumped in to help—to the horror of the locals who worried they would fall in (steep drop) and of course the crocodiles). We are off by 2:20 PM (which I never would have thought possible ….. for once the Africans were on time -- we were late!).
No comments:
Post a Comment