Banio Lagoon

Just returned from 2 days of surveying all the major rivers on this lagoon. Stayed in this wonderful house with lagoon on one side, beach on the other and savannah all around it. Ate a wonderful salad from the garden. One bummer- I walked out t o the beach and found alot of fresh oil. There are alot of oil rigs off the coast here (they are so close you can see their lights at night) so oil spills are inevitable.

Duiker feeding under the house. They’re like small deer.

Plenty of manatee fodder in the lagoon, but didn’t see the elusive beasts. I think I need 6 months here and a kayak. The lagoon is 75km long, so the point of the surveys this week was mostly to get a sense of the place and look for suitable habitat and feeding sign.

At the mouth of the first river we visited this morning, there were literally thousands of fruit bats flying around. They are adorable- like little flying dogs. Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I only wish the light had been a bit brighter. If you’ve noticed that all my pics are grey, it’s because the rainy season is about to start and the cloud cover will stay this way until it does. They say after rainy season begins the sky will clear up and be blue again… somewhat counterintuitive, but I’m looking forward to it.

Every river has logs fallen across, so at some point our boat couldn’t continue. This is why I need the kayak. I’m sure manatees are up there, happy that none of the humans can reach them.

We saw 4 forest buffalo at the end of today. Yes, the brown lumps are them. Unfortunately this is the only shot I got before my camera bettery died. I’ll try to do better next time!

Good night!!!