Day 7

This morning we had a call set up to talk, by radio, to Tomo at the WWF building in Bomassa to find out about the permits. Tomo said everything was in order and we told Tomo we hop to have the permits within the next day or two.

We also had an interview scheduled with Andrea, the elephant researcher, who has been living and studying here for nine years. She describes what she does as watching a soap opera and even after all this time is still hooked on it. This morning since she didn't make it to our camp we made preparations to leave early for Dzanga-Bai and hopefully do her interview there. We also hope to get lots of footage with all the scopes, notebooks and pointing. I also wanted to get an interview with our naturalist, August, with William acting as translator. William and August are extremely proud of their country, and because of this pride and passion for their forest, I feel we got some of the best information possible from their interviews.

The people here are friendly and easy to work with once the language barrier and customs are broken through on both sides. We had more than a few instances where their structure and planning was completely blown apart by our frequently changing plans, even though we had thought we were perfectly clear when we changed them. Our African hosts got in the habit of asking us about our plans several times a day.

When addressing each other formally, they put Mr. in front of the first name. Since Jim handled all the business details with the camp management, he was always referred to as Mr. James or a slightly less formal, Mr. Jim. So Pete and I adopted their custom and began calling Jim Mr. Jim.

After getting August and William down on tape, we piled into the old Range Rover we have already come to know so well. Only six of us this time (oh boy!), hunched over on the rear seats placed sideways facing each other. Off again to the Bai-only to turn around for the always forgotten binoculars, then turn around again for the forgotten key to the reserve gate. This took quite some time to find as we drove from town to the WWF offices, back to camp, back to town and finally found the necessary key. We turned around one last time to head down the extremely rutted (now also filled with water after the rain) and narrow road to Dzanga-Bai.

Our first shot took advantage of the easy location where bats lived in a tree right by the path. Fun location for a fun factoid segment. Out on the Bai there were only about 70 elephants this time (less than a week in Africa and I'm already spoiled-imagine using "only" to refer to 70 elephants!) We got a great interview with Andrea right on ground level in front of the elephants. They were so close you could feel their rumbling vocalizations in your bones and their eyes locked on, checking us out. We trusted Andrea to let us know when we were in danger. What an incredible experience.

As we set up to shoot a few stand-ups for Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures, a female was rooting around a water hole about 25 yards away. She had an older calf with her and both of them were watching us about as closely as we were watching them. Pete was placing me into position for the shot, getting the sun right, the background, etc. He asked me to say my lines so he could get the sound level right, when all of the sudden from behind me I hear a quick movement. Pete grabbed the camera, Jim the tripod and Andrea and I ran for the mirador (observation platform). The elephant wasn't bluffing, she was charging! Andrea quickly climbed to the top, followed by me. The guys were right behind, lugging equipment quickly and awkwardly up the uneven bamboo scaffolding. So there we all were hanging onto the side of the tower, with an upset elephant looking for a way to get at us. I asked Peter if he got the charge on film and when he said no, I replied, "What kind of camera man are you?" We stayed hanging off the side for about five minutes while the female retreated to a nearby water hole. She kept an eye on us, moving slowly and setting herself up for her next opportunity to charge. We just waited by the tower until she decided to move away. We definitely did not want to provoke her further.

We ended up with the sequences we needed, but time always just sped by when we were out there. Near 5:00 p.m. a herd of rust red and white stripped Bongo appeared at one end of the clearing. It was a great treat, as they rarely appear out in the open and Andrea said she had never seen this group before.

On the walk back, three large male elephants were wading in the same stream as us about 50 yards away. What a spectacular sight. Bright green forest foliage, slowly moving river (we were all sludging through), and three big bull elephants (we couldn't have run from them if we tried). As we moved closer, the males moved off, intimidated (or merely bothered) by the size and sounds of our rather large group.

SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database
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