7.16.12

Back to Panga and the lake.  We visited the scar in the earth, and the cliff behind the school at panga village.

We headed straight for a geological formation the large mammal team had found awhile ago.  I meant to visit it yesterday but we did not have the time.  Its in the forest of Panga and we explored a bit in the hopes of finding some animals.

We found some old buffalo horns but no other animals.

We headed back to my favorite lake again for an hour.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the hills of Panga.  Ghislain can drive anywhere with his landcruiser so that helped speed things up.  The area has been heavily logged, we heard chainsaws in the distance and throughout the day found old logs and logging roads off the main road.

At the end of the day we ran into the small mammal team again and I photographed them setting up their final station in the village.  A nice change of background for those small mammal photos.

7.15.12

*Better late than never! I continued to write in my blog/journal for the rest of the trip but never found the time to load the text and photos*

I’ve got my own team now, we are gonna canvas the area and take photos of everything, but focused on landscapes and any large mammals we see.  Its me, Guillaumier and Ghislain, and the awesome jeep landcruiser.  Its basically a landcruiser cut in 1/2 so it has all the power but is small and agile.

We headed to the beach near the Boume Boume, I had no idea it was so easy to get to the beach from there, the small mammal team had scooped it out while I was in Gamba.  We walked north and south along the beach.

There was an interesting spot to the south were an old mangrove forest had died.  I guess it was due to the fresh water no longer exiting at that spot, and the salt water taking over, but I am not sure.  But I was sure that it was dead, none of the trees were alive except for a few on the edges.  Kind of erie.

To the north we hit the Boume Boume where it exits, not as dynamic but we did find more lagoons and mangroves that were alive.  A nice pair of hippo tracks too.

Afterwards we headed to Panga and I took photos along the road.  I had not been to Panga much so I was kept busy with new things to photograph.  We ran into the small mammal team and they mentioned some ducks in a lake near the road, so off we went.

The lake is the flush with life and I could sit and fire away.  The ducks are hunting fish, and there are some other birds that hang out in the area in addition to insects.  I spent the rest of the day here until it was time to head back to camp.

The second day of wasmannia went well. We went to the far end of the study zone away from Gamba, towards the national road. We stopped at the end of the study area which is a ferry for trucks.  You can understand the need for a road after a few days, we see about 8 cars a day, and its the only way to Gamba except for boat or air.  The ferry fits one car and you have to pull it yourself! Thankfully there is a pulley to ease the work.

It was also the hottest day so far, the sun never hid in the clouds.  And we had another amazing meal… freaking lamb!!! A first for me in a field camp.

We took a walk to the ocean, 2 km trip took about 3 hours, and the return was in the dark.  We tromped through quite  a few marshes, which sounds bad unless you look down and see all the different types of orchids.  The beach looked like it did in Loango, big crashing waves and trash on the beach.  So much plastic.  There was also an illegal trawler fishing, close enough that we could see it, which is in the buffer, at least from what Tobi told me.

So far so good.  I like how I am shooting video with the photos.  I use it for scenes that will play out for me, it might work well with how I see.  Especially with scientists who do the same methodological actions over and over again as they collect data.

After a pleasant one hour plane ride, I’m in Gamba.  Shell Oil runs the flights so the plane was nice and everything was spick and span.  Smithsonian is partnering with Shell for this study so Shell is providing housing and logistical aid, in addition to funding.  My stomach is getting better (I caught something on the trip over), and my appetite is slowly coming back.  And I took my first photo!

Shell has been partnering with Smithsonian for about 10 years in this area.  The last big photo reportage they did was with Carlton Ward a few years back.  I think it is a good concept, bringing together industry and conservation, instead of the two constantly fighting.