In the Summer of 2010 I shall be going to Uganda as a research volunteer on the Semliki Chimpanzee Project. I will spend ten weeks following and studying the chimpanzees of Semliki Wildlife Reserve, learning the ropes as a fledgling chimpanzee chaser. This blog will chart the memorable animals, people and events that I encounter along the way and my experiences with the stars of the trip, the Semliki chimpanzees.

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

A test of nerve

With the support of the lovely camp staff and UWA rangers it didn’t take me long to settle into life in Semliki. However one aspect of camp-life took me a bit longer to get used to.

The camp toilet is situated about 30m outside the main camp and can be reached by a gravel path lined on either side by head-height grass. When I first arrived in Semliki I found walking along this path at night somewhat unnerving, probably not helped by the number of horror movies I’d watched involving various terrifying creatures emerging out of long grass!

While I kept telling myself that a snake would not be lying on the path at night, and that the chance of a leopard leaping out of the grass at me was infinitesimally small I still felt uneasy making the first few night-time toilet trips and it was not until my third night in camp that I was able to walk to and from the toilet without a noticeable increase in heart rate.

Written on Friday 9th July

No comments:

Post a Comment