Heart of Dixie

Notes from the Cameroon Rainforest

Sugarfused Deb was correct when she said I must be going on another adventure when I posted I wouldn't be around for a couple of weeks. The adventure was to the rainforest in Cameroon, a country in west Africa near the Congo. Rather than reinvent the wheel, below is an article I wrote for the magazine put out by the Alabama Chapter of Safari Club International.

Notes from the Cameroon Rainforest – a Woman’s Perspective

Tips while in the rainforest

1. You know you’re acclimatized to the area when the scent of “Eau de Native” isn’t as bothersome or offensive as it once was.
2. You know it’s time to go home when you no longer notice the scent of “Eau de Native” and think it’s quite possible that it’s the same principle as eating onions—i.e. you don’t notice that someone has onion breath when you’ve eaten onions yourself. If that logic was hard to follow, quite simply – you smell bad!
3. Anything exposed to the air will get damp. If you have something that must stay dry, keep it locked inside a hard-sided suitcase. Better yet, leave it at home.
4. When (note that I said when, not if) the inside of your boots get wet and squishy, put a Wal-Mart plastic bag over your socks before putting on your boots. Works like a charm. It keeps your feet dry but doesn’t feel uncomfortable or make any noise when you walk. If this isn’t manly enough for you, wrap duct tape around the top of the bag.

What I liked about the rainforest
1. There were cookies in the breakfast bread basket.
2. The humectant qualities of the rainforest made my skin look at least 10 years younger. The Oil of Olay stayed in the bag.
3. The water made my hair soft and shiny.
4. No cooking, washing dishes, or cleaning. You sat down at the table and voilá! Delicious meals were placed in front of you. After you were through eating, the dishes were removed and you were free to go about your activities. When you returned to your cabin, you found the bed made, the floors swept, and clean clothes (albeit a bit damp). I realize that these are normal, every day experiences for most of you guys, but for us ladies, this was sheer heaven!
5. Did I mention that cookies were served with breakfast?
6. On the morning it rained and I didn’t go out on the hunt, the cook and his assistant brought my breakfast to the cabin, complete with omelet, coffee, toast, jelly, and cookies. I sat on the covered porch, ate breakfast, drank coffee, and munched cookies while reading my new Patricia Cornwell book. It just doesn’t get any better than that!
7. I ate like a horse and lost weight. Not sure if that was due to walking 4-6 hours a day or the fact that the dining room was up a steep hill from the cabin.

Things I didn’t like about the rainforest
1. Deet-resistant flies.
2. Deet-resistant no-see-ums.
3. Deet-resistant gnats.
4. Being munched on by the aforementioned Deet-resistant beasts until my newly revitalized skin looked like I had leprosy or some other heinous skin disease.

Close Encounters of the Leopard Kind
During one of the bongo hunts, we arrived at a certain clearing at 9:30 a.m. John suggested I wait there because he knew that the PH intended to go to an area that was almost 100% covered in that boot-sucking muck that makes walking very difficult. Jeu said they wouldn’t be gone more than two hours. I found a semi-sorta’-kinda’ comfy spot under a large palmetto frond and settled in. Roget, the best guide and hunter amongst them all in my opinion, stayed with me, and soon both of us were stretched out and snoozing away. Upon waking, I sat up but quickly figured out that for some reason the bugs were more bothersome if I were sitting up, so I stretched out on my tummy and waited.
About 2:15 that afternoon (yes, we were still waiting on John and company to return) I heard something that sounded like someone saying “heh” in a breathy voice. It definitely gave me the heebie-jeebies. I just knew that a big gorilla was standing over me! “Okay, it was nothing,” I told myself. “Probably just my hat scraping my shirt.” I lay very, very still to ensure that it really was just the sound of some part of my clothing. Or maybe it was to convince the gorilla that I was dead and rotten and totally unworthy of his attentions. Then I heard it again..and again. Five times I heard the same sound. Five times I imagined what the gorilla must be doing…and thinking. After the fifth time, though, I knew I had to face the gorilla and quickly raised up to look around. I didn’t see the gorilla but I did see Roget look over my way to make sure I was okay. About then, the pygmies arrived to let us know that John and Jeu’s walk had taken them closer to camp than the clearing and that Roget and I should to head back to camp.
After walking about three-quarters of the way to camp, we saw John waiting on the path for us. He gave me the details of the unsuccessful bongo hunt and then I casually mentioned hearing the breathy “heh” sound as by then I had convinced myself that it was probably just a bird or a monkey or something. A rather strange look crossed his face. It was then he told me that what I had heard was a leopard. In fact, in following the bongo tracks, they had come close to the clearing where I was waiting and that they had seen a leopard track inside the tracks we had made walking in that morning.
Later that night, when I related the story to Jeu, he told me I was very lucky. “Lucky how?” I asked. “Lucky that I heard a leopard or lucky that I’m alive?” He never answered me.

To go or not to go – that is the question
No contest here – GO. The vast majority of people associated with SCI are travelers and adventurers. The places we visit and the experiences that we are privileged to have help shape our thoughts, beliefs, and ways of life. The rainforest of Cameroon is such a place. Besides that, you’ll be better equipped to empathize with Rover when he’s furiously scratching his fleas.