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| Côte d’Ivoire |
Côte d’Ivoire, the land of Ivory. This suggests the great presence of elephants which today are extinct in Cote d'voire according to recent articles published. This is sad and the Civil War has not made it easier. However there is a new hope with the Civil War behind and the people focused on restoring justice and a way of life. There may just be a small population of elephant (whether forest or savanna) left in the country.
Korhogo was our first stop in Côte d’Ivoire and we settled in at the Mission Baptiste bible school. This gave me sometime to catch up on my M.Sc degree editing for articles. during this, one afternoon Rod and I went out to climb a hilltop (koppie) just West of Korhogo. The place was magnificent, in reaching the top we scared-off four Lanner Falcons which proceeded to bombard us. it was a great act of aerobatics on their part, they eventually realized we were not a threat and then stayed flying around the koppie. The height we were at, and the shear drop below us gave a spectacular view of the surrounding terrain. Almost like the town of Nelspruit in RSA, we were on a granite koppie with large granite boulders over looking tropical plantations, yet not as much a hillock as nelspruit. We were on one of about four granite outcrops in the area. Looking down on could see the small villages and their layout. The over utilized land apart from the sacred forests, kashew nut tree plantations and poorly agriculture land could be marked out, typical of the terrain in the general area.
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| View from the top, over looking the village one could hear the villages pounding ngam, the odd shouts and murmurs, wood being chopped and motorbikes heading in and out. |
From Korhogo we headed on down to Bouake and spent a week there. I explored the possibilities of starting up a conservancy within Côte d’Ivoire as the country regarding wildlife is in dire straits. The national emblem is that of an elephant, yet most of the people haven't seen one and don't even know where to go to see one. On the cards was a visit to a local lodge called Nzi River Lodge, run by a local Ivoirian who understands the value a wildlife area can have. He runs his set-up based on the concept developed by South Africans. He welcomed my visit to his place. The lodge is incomplete but has huge potential. It was here where we saw 3 different monkeys within the same general area. Camping on the deck of the lodge we were woken up by a green monkey barking at the guard walking down the road towards us. Then a group of pata monkeys when driving around and mid-afternoon when back at our tents we watched lesser spotted nosed monkeys feeding in the forest canopy. The birdlife amazing! The location is great and has the potential to become a great lodge (I strongly suggest a visit there). We spent a few days driving around and walking with the game guards. When walking around we came across, Pata monkeys, buffon's kob and warthog. The warthog were so busy feeding that they didn't even notice us, we sat patiently as they slowly fed towards us. it was only until they were within 6 m that they realized we were there and they ran-off. Buffalo do occur on the reserve, yet we did not see them, however we did come across fresh tracks.
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| Buffalo tracks at Nzi River Lodge |
Apart from a visit to Nzi River Lodge I spent my time with the local Mission Baptite, Journey corps and the DMG ministries, chatting to them about the concept of a conservancy and how important wildlife is to the Christian life and how can it assist in missions. Many a interest conservatio later we were heading down to Abidjane to fly back to Benin. Stopping at Yamoussoukro to change a flat tire one sees the largest domed Bassilica in the world (not the tallest). It is a bit out of place as it towers above the rest of the city, which hides away among the trees. After the short delay we were back on our way to Abidjane. One is constantly reminded of the significance elephants had in shaping Côte d’Ivoire, even a church in Abidjane is said to take on a modern artistic impression of a Elephant. Despite this I never saw an elephant in Côte d’Ivoire. While waiting for our flight we spent 3 days in Grand-Bassam, I read an article publish this year stating that 6 people had been killed by elephants in the south-west of the country, maybe there are still a few left, but with very little being done to protect them will they last...
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| Storm rolling in over the ocean at Grand-bassam, Psalms 29:3 "The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters" |
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| The Republic of Benin |
Back in Benin and nothing has changed, busses run late or don't run at all and motorbikes everywhere with almost anything being carried on them. Without wanting to spend the night in Cotonou, we caught the 1 o'clock bus up to Parakou, with an incident along the way we got in at 23h30 the same day. We had to sit for more or less an hour alongside the road, this was due to the luggage compartment being left open after a quickly dropping off a passenger. having realized this 15 min after it happened, we stopped to check if everyone's bags were still on board. After unpacking everything and repacking it all there was one lady's bag missing. To be accommodating we had to wait while she went back to try and find her bag. after the inconvenience and no bag, everyone agreed the right thing to do was to carry on with the journey, because the bag was not found and the bus scheduled for tomorrow can look for it. With everyone on board (included the lady whom had lost her bag) we headed on into Parakou. After a long day, I went straight to bed.
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| Rod Ragsdale and I touring Nazinga |
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