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an urban primate with a conscience
Browsing All Posts filed under »My African Adventure«
Germs
Before I left Kinigi I met up with the director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), Anna Behm Masozera. It’s one conservation NGO that has teamed up with other big partners to create an online gorilla pledge. The pledge is aimed at tourists and is to safeguard the apes from potential risks we pose. […]
The Gorillas
June 18, 2014
We must have trekked for about an hour and a half until we came to a stop. The air was crisp, cool but damp. The smell of the vegetation up there is unbelievable. A cross between eucalyptus, citrus and herbs. Magnificent! I stood inhaling the air deeply, catching my breath. As one conservationist told me, […]
Gorilla Permits and Bureaucracy
June 18, 2014
This morning my alarm went off at 0600. Today was the day I had been dreaming about for the last four years. I’d seen £450 swiftly leave my bank account in March for a slip of paper that wasn’t quite in my hands yet. Crazy I know. UC and I made a short walk to […]
Musanze
June 15, 2014
I didn’t really get a chance to explore Kigali. We arrived in the capital at 7pm after ten hours on the bus. Food, shower, bed was the order of play. (View from the motel this morning) This morning after brekkie UC and I headed back to the bus station to head for the mountains. We […]
Rwanda
June 15, 2014
It’s taken nine hours to get to the Rwandan border with just two pit stops. The roads have been amazingly smooth. Not surprising though given the number of articulated lorries that use this route – it’s tarmac all the way. Along the highway the landscape has changed from terracotta clay with large fields stripped of […]
Uganda
June 14, 2014
Coming back to Uganda has been a surreal experience. I fell in love with the country and its people after spending four months here in 2012 for my primatology research. In my experience Ugandan’s are generally bubbly, happy and helpful. So far after 2 days in the country this memory has been reaffirmed. The biggest […]
Drilling stopped in Virunga National Park but for how long?
June 12, 2014
As I prepared to board a flight to East Africa yesterday news that oil exploration within Africa’s oldest national park had been suspended broke. The environmental charity WWF was claiming this as its own hard-fought victory. It follows endless campaigning and celebrity endorsement which the NGO believes helped to safeguard the Democratic Republic of Congo’s […]
From elephant poacher to protector, the pygmy who is the latest eco-guard addition to Congo’s Odzala National Park patrols
February 14, 2014
The speed at which Brice Mouapele moves through the dense tropical undergrowth is impressive. The hot damp humid air is stifling, but Mouapele appears unaffected as he brushes past thick shrubs and jungle vines in his camouflage fatigues clutching his rifle. The 39 year old pygmy is the latest addition to the team of eco-guards […]
Bloody battle to save Congo elephants from ivory poachers
February 11, 2014
As a conference on wildlife trafficking opens in London, Congo conservationists claim Chinese in the country are boosting the supply of AK47 bullets to poor communities to encourage elephant poaching. Odzala-Kokoua National Park is Congo’s biggest national park and contains one of the country’s most intact savannahs, as well as a vast expanse of equatorial […]
Missing a flight
February 9, 2014
In all my 38 years I’ve never once missed a flight. In my 20s I had a few close shaves, but I always made it to the gate. The hairy moments were usually after a large night out where I had drunk too much, slept too long and left home too late. My best mate […]
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whogivesamonkeys 
June 20, 2014
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