Tuesday 23 Aug
Yesterday we made some attempts to ask about exploring the forest trail and maybe spot-lighting in the evening, only to be met with a wall of “no I don’t think that’s possible” and “the management can’t accept liability” and gentle yet definite refusal. So this morning we took the “Guided Nature Trail” activity and met the resort’s local guide, Eric. Luckily absolutely zero other tourists are interested in mooching around the forest at 7am so we had him (and the forest) all to ourselves.
I think that our silent progress and our ability to spot the mammals in the forest before he could impressed upon Eric that we are genuinely interested in wildlife! I saw a new kind of squirrel behind him while he was explaining to us about the strangler fig (note: there is no forest anywhere in the tropics in Africa, Asia or South America that you can visit without your guide showing you a strangler fig and explaining how it clambers up another tree and then strangles it!) and near the end of the walk it was us who spotted a troop of beautiful Angolan colobus monkeys in the trees overhead. Here’s a short video… https://youtu.be/dPWqgz8L2Sk
So then Eric introduced us to chap called Atti, who turned out to be the guy who owns all the land the resort is set in, and is also a keen wildlife watcher. After chatting with him for a bit about mammals, it seemed that the staff’s objections to us night-spotlighting magically melted away! So after a walk along the beach, a dip in the sea, and a bit of lounging around we met up with Eric again for a night walk!
As I said before, night spotting in forest is such a game of luck. We went out for 2 hours but could have stopped after 5 minutes! Because less than 50 yards from the start we got a perfect view of a rarely seen Brush-tailed Mongoose, jet black and seemingly not too fearful of us (I think perhaps we were in the way of where he was trying to get to, so he was just watching us and hoping we moved away). The other hour and fifty minutes? Nothing really! A few skittish coastal suni, another type of tiny antelope.
No photo of the mongoose, by the way. It was a very good view, but not enough time to get my camera up and fiddle with the manual focus. Yeah, it was that close the autofocus wouldn’t work.
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