Explore. Dream. Discover.: The Rainforest Part One (Bush Life)

The past two weeks have been such an incredible and intense experience that it's hard to express what I experienced in a few words and pictures. I will try my best to highlight the main things and the rest will come out upon my return.

I suppose my adventure really began in Lagos around May 4th. I took an early morning flight out with my father to attend an event, geared at promoting commercial trade between the UK and Nigeria. On the 5th, I took a boat ride in and around Lagos and Victoria Island. The ports were massive and the hustle & bustle of Lagos gave it real character. That night we attended the party. It was a great evening and I was able to see new products from Land/Range Rover, Jaguar, British Airways, JCB, and Penderlyn Whiskey. The next morning I woke up around 5 a.m. and set out on my own for Cross River state to start my rainforest adventure.

I arrived at Calabar airport around 9:30 a.m. and met up with Graham from CERCOPAN. Everything that was normal stopped existing at that point. We met up with CERCOPAN director, Claire Coulson, and set out for their field site. It's about a 2.5 hour drive, about 1.5 hours of it is driving off-road through the bush. We ran head on into a heavy thunderstorm and a steep hill that proved to be the demise of our truck. After about 2 hours of trying to dig out the truck we decided to hop on the back of some local boys motorcycles and get to Iko Esai, the host village for CERCOPAN. I was riding 3 deep on a cheap chinese motorcycle, over off-road terrain, and in the middle of a termite hatch. Not only were we speeding through the bush in slick mud over treacherous terrain, but our driver was also looking down half the time so that termites wouldnt fly into his eyes. It was only a fitting introduction to my stay there.

Rhoko Field Site, my home for the next two weeks, is about as basic as you can get. No electricity, No water, no gas. This mixed with 100+ degree heat and 130% humidity let me know right away that this wasn't going to be an ordinary "vacation". I was joined by four other people staying out there. A frenchman with dreads-Sylvain, Two americans-Sagan and Cary, a Canadian-Janice, and a fellow short term volunteer from the UK-Rosy. I was also informed that Calabar airport was now closed for two months.

The second day there I lost my glasses on one of the trails--for 36 hours--and it stormed three times. I was walking along the trail towards Rhoko river when I suddenly realized that I have stepped in an ant hill---my legs were covered with hundreds of ants crawling up towards my waist. I managed to fling off my glasses in a frantic frenzy of ant killing. Luckily, the next day I set off with Manson, one of the local staff from Iko Esai and he found them in no time. Manson would grow to be one my favorite people I met on this journey.

The next evening we headed into the village for some supplies. This being the rainy season, we got caught in yet another thunderstorm. The village is about a 45 minute drive from camp and our truck decided to die about a quarter of the way down the road. We stashed everything but the beer in the truck and started to trek back towards camp. Along the way, we made three river crossings. Just so you get the right picture...I was wading chest deep through rivers at eleven o'clock at night, in a lightning storm, carrying my belongings on my head and REALLY hoping that the sound of our movement would scare off any crocodiles or snakes that might be lurking. Two hours later we arrived at camp safe and sound. It was a night I will never forget!

It happened to Sylvains birthday that week as well. What better way to celebrate it than to slaughter a chicken. We bought a cockerel from the village that eventually turned into the toughest meat/rubber I have ever attempted to eat in my life. Props to Rhoko for the kill though, it was a grand birthday gesture. I'll spare the slaughter details for another time.

Part two of my journey will be posted soon!