Jungle fever

9th of April 2008.
A parrot woke me up this morning; the shrillness of it seemed to demand that I get up.

We began walking along another path that would hopefully take us to some monkeys. Straight away I felt tired after the strange nights sleep I had had on what was effectively a block of wood. I had jungle fever too, man the sweat was just pouring off me, pretty uncomfortable and to tell you the truth I wasn’t enjoying myself.

Then suddenly we stopped as Joseph was craning his neck skywards, we looked up in vague interest as this was the twentieth time he had done this, then we heard the loud call of monkeys and rustling in the canopy above. I fumbled for my camera and looked and looked, the noise was surprisingly loud considering how high above us they were, and then I seen the unmistakable shape of a monkey silhouetted against the pale-blue sky, its tail curled as it leapt from branch to branch. It was a Red Colobus Monkey which are highly endangered so Joseph was pleased to see them, not as pleased as me, I was ecstatic. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a photo but I had a new found respect for these people who film Attenborough documentaries.

We walked along the path and I felt somewhat invigorated by my simian sighting, but this feeling of elation was quickly quashed by the many empty shotgun shells we found strewn along the way. The illegal bush-meat trade coupled with rangers who get paid very poorly, so poorly in fact they accept bribes from poachers they catch, has resulted in a drastic depletion of many rare species in the park. I found myself cursing humanity as I stumbled along wondering what it would be like if I, nor any other human had ever walked this path.

So tired, I wanted to lie down and drink cold water until my stomach burst, my eyes were stinging from sweat and it felt like my breath was only reaching my skin “how much further Joseph?.” We eventually made it out after seeing countless more butterflies, but alas, no forest elephants. We crossed the Manu suspension bridge for a second time and I felt a deep, pleasurable relief to be stationary.

We got back to the Boseme Café and had a much deserved beer and some more delicious food prepared by our chef Tobias. I had an interesting chat with him about the bush-meat trade and he said it was awful in Mundemba, he could take me to the market or any restaurant near-by and I would see bush-meat being sold in abundance. I agreed that while I’m here I’ll write to WWF who are based in Limbe and send as many e-mails as possible to the right people. He said this would be good as all the park needs is a small constant supply of money to keep good rangers on a salary. I think though there needs to be more education on the dangers of hunting rare animals for bush-meat. I understand that a family must eat but I didn’t see any chickens, goats or pigs in Mundemba, attitudes must change as well as practices.

A thunderstorm rolled in gray and heavy and I watched the rain and sipped on my icy-cold beer. Some German botanists and marine life experts showed up and we chatted to them about the park. They were on a mission to collect fish from all the countries on the 13th degree line of latitude. There was also an Estonian guy visiting the park for his PHD, he was collecting rare mushrooms that grow on the roots of trees, he chatted away in a stoical manner about mushrooms and I feigned interest, he was a nice guy but there’s only so long you can talk about mushrooms in my opinion. I sat back and listened to the group chatting in English with accents and I felt very European. I went to bed feeling rinsed.

Now in my previous blog I told you of the road to Mundemba and the death mobile, well we had to do it again, but this time we were all in the back and there was no rotund lady taking up a lot of space. I rode the whole journey with my head out the window and I felt totally free as children shouted ‘white man’ at me, the pitch changing with the Doppler Effect as we zoomed by. We were stopped at every check-point by strange men looking for handouts. I’m afraid you’re not getting a bribe off me pal, here is my passport and here is my yellow fever certificate, I’ll be on my way shall I?, thanks……..