…And Re-Planning

Sometimes logistics are difficult here. I can spend weeks setting up plans for fieldwork- which includes flights, boats and other transport to a location, alot of gear that also has to get transported, lodging, food, planning camping for survey trips, buying hundreds of liters of boat fuel, arranging boat guides/drivers, trainees or other people who come along (sometimes I collaborate with other researchers), etc. Unlike the USA, nothing gets arranged on the internet, so everything is in person or over the phone. And sometimes despite the best effort, it all falls through at the last minute.

This happened late last week when the lodge I was planning to work with had 3 boat engines break at the same time and also miscalculated the number of tourists coming this week. So suddenly I was left with no trip to the Fernan Vaz. I’ll reschedule it later, because I still need to go there, but for now I’ve switched gears. I’ll spend this week in Libreville and on Friday I’ll go to Gamba, and from there I’ll start work at N’dogo Lagoon.

Here’s an aerial view of part of N’dogo Lagoon, taken last year. I’m really looking forward to getting back there.