Spent the last week in the Tambacounda region of Senegal, in the far Southeast of the country to attend an Ecotourism retreat. It almost felt like late summer in the US. Big trees and lots of them, with a soil that has more clay in it, a deeper red. The huts are thatched, the wells are more crude. This is the vision of Africa I had before coming- more heat, more naked women with babies on their side, more ethnicities mixed in the town. I really liked it but sweated liked crazy. At the Peace Corps regional house, it was 105 degrees at 10PM. I slept on the roof under a mosquito net and actually felt a bit chilly at 8AM when it was 88 degrees.

Eight hours of overland travels has taken me and the other Ecotourism volunteers along with our driver, guide, and makeshift camping gear deep within Niokola Koba Nationla Park, Senegal’s largest big game park. Mount Asterick, the highest mountain in the whole park at 311 meters sits in the distance, a rocky plain filled with lush trees blankets the other direction. Only a few yards away are about 30 baboons, excited and upset at our unanticipated arrival to the park’s old primate research station.

After filling our water bottles at the nearby spring and adding a few drops of bleach to kill any unexpected friends, we’ve started a fire and will eat sardine sandwiches for dinner. Yuck.

It seems like we’ve been here a long time already but it was only two days ago that we left Tambacounda to tour the park. We’ve seen hartebeest, gazelle, some sort of small deer, green and red monkeys, warthogs, and on the boat tour this morning of the Gambia river, crocodiles and hippos. The amount of wildlife is incredible, not the occasional deer or rabbit you’ll see over the course of an entire day in the states. The fact that we have lost so much of our wildlife in abundance in the US, except in Alaska and remote regions of the West, strikes me as a real loss of something much bigger than a few fuzzy creatures. It’s a primordial connection to the world as it once was, where we hunt and dress wild animals for dinner, where we listen with alert ears and sharp eyes as animals that threaten to eat us share the same space.

Going to the spring the last morning of our trip I turned a corner on the path to the spring and in front of me was a giant male baboon, his fur dark, his eyes dark yet bright. His muscles were tight, and he barked at me, frightened at my intrusion to his morning. He moved his head and shoulders up and down and he stared at me, still barking. Clearly I had been around the baboons for over a day now, but at this moment I was only 15 feet from an angry male. I started backing up and averted my eyes from him. As I turned around, I stopped. Behind me was another male, this one not as large, but on the trail and not moving as well. I didn’t fear getting attacked by baboons, but my flight or fight mechanism was hungry for a reaction. I just started talking to the baboons and telling them to chill out because I just wanted to get some water like them. They ran off the path and I kept going.

When I got to the spring, two other volunteers getting water asked me if I was talking to someone on the path. I just laughed and said yes.


This little bugger stole one my mangoes when I wasn't looking as we left the Hotel Simenti


Giant termite mounds abound in the park


A troupe of baboons on the river


Like the crocodiles, the hippos would only reveal a portion of themselves from the water, sometimes blowing water as they came up for air


Baboons scrambling up the riverbank upon seeing our boat


A fish eagle above the river


The crocodiles were charismatic on land, but in the water all you would see were their little eyes above the surface


Warthogs sniffing for snacks. Notice how they kneel down on their front legs so that their snouts touch the ground more easily


Looking down on the Gambia River in the park from Simenti where we spent the first night in the park at a nice lodge


This is a fromagier tree, which have spikes on them for their first 100 years of growth which protect their developing crown from monkeys. Fromagiers are the preferred wood for making pirogues, the african fishing boats


At least there's water if you fall, even if it does have crocodiles


Crossing the Indiana Jones bridge over the Niokola River



Amy swinging with kids from Molly's village Dar Salaam, at the entrace to Niokola Koba National Park