#12 From the Treehouse to the Kenyan Coast – recap & a sneak peek

Jul 2, 24

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Episode 12. From the Treehouse to the Kenyan Coast – recap & a sneak peek

[00:00:00] Charlotte: Welcome to the East Africa Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Charlotte Beauvoisin, author of Diary of a Muzungu.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the first episodes as much as I have. You know, when I’m back home at Sunbird Hill – I’m traveling back in a couple of days – I’m so inspired by the sounds of nature. And even though I know it’s full on, and it’s intense, and it’s immersive, listening to it when I’m in Kampala, on the back of a boda boda, going through the traffic is a whole other experience. It’s absolutely mind-blowing: the intensity of the bird calls around me. I feel very lucky that I’ve been able to capture a little sound of all that nature and, you know, that happy environment and I can reconnect with it so easily by listening to my own podcasts.
[00:01:10] Anyway, give me your feedback on the first few episodes. It’s not perfect, but I’m trying my best. You know I’m new at this, don’t you?
I’ve been threatening to launch a podcast for a very long time(!) since lockdown. In fact, it’s taken me a lot of work to get to this point, but I’m still making lots of rookie mistakes.
[00:01:29] So please bear with me on the occasional mistake here and there with the editing.
Back in episode two, I said that we often hear chimpanzees and we occasionally have them in the family compound, but I bet you didn’t believe me, did you? But in this episode, I just wanted to share how difficult it is sometimes to work when I’m back home at Sunbird Hill, because there are endless distractions.
[00:01:52] I mean, you never know when a great ape is going to crash into your compound. Anyway, I’d like to share one such moment with you.
Keep listening. I’m going to be giving you a bit of a recap on the first episodes. I’m also going to list a few of the interesting people that I’ve been talking to recently who are in conversation on the podcast over the next couple of months.
[00:02:13] I’m also going to tell you a bit about my trip to Kenya. I’m just back from two weeks traveling through Nairobi to Mombasa, and Diani. I’m in Kampala today, recording this intro to the podcast, and in fact, I’m inside the wardrobe! I’m experimenting with my microphone, trying to make sure I give you the best sound quality, while blocking out the sound of the occasional boda boda motorbike going past on the road outside.
[00:02:39] Anyway, without further ado…
The Chimps are super close. I’m sitting, looking into the forest, sitting in my house and they’re in community land. They’re outside the national park. They might be on Sunbird Hill land or they might be crop raiding our neighbours.
[00:03:07] Chimps! Dogs!
It’s very cute when you hear the local kids imitate the chimps.
[00:03:18] But yeah, I can hear them to the left of me which means they are most definitely outside the forest. I wonder what’s going on.
[00:03:58] I’m going to investigate.
[00:04:15] Chimpanzee. Very close.
[00:04:22] It’s amazing how such a big animal can be so quiet. He’s jumping up and down on the branch now, trying to disturb the dogs and swinging through the trees. Now he’s looking down. He’s above the tree house. It’s quite something to see a chimpanzee in such a familiar sight to me!
I’m looking out from my balcony.
[00:04:49] I’m like 50 meters. Less. And there’s a chimpanzee scratching his armpit in the tree that the treehouse is built in. It’s he or she, I can’t tell the difference. More scratching. I think he’s on his own. One of the other dogs was barking and I thought it was such a big ….
[Sounds of chimpanzees in trees and making pant hoot noises].
[00:05:18] Ooh! Swinging through the tree, the branch collapsed. This is very, very unusual to have chimpanzees in the compound, by the way. And then at a certain point, the dogs scarpered and they’re all hiding under one of the main buildings.
Oh my god! Well, I’m sorry you can’t see it and it would be very difficult to capture on video because the sun’s gone in and the chimpanzee is looking at it through the branches of another tree.
[00:05:52] I can just about see its outline The dogs are poised, looking up at the tree Their tails are erect.
[00:06:07] Gosh, what a lot of excitement. I know the dogs are sat down now. They’re here for the duration. And you know what, I’ll probably look around and find that there’s another pair of chimps up in the tree that I haven’t even noticed yet. They’re all still here. Who’s going to move first?
Okay, chimps!
[Dogs barking]
[00:06:35] Oh my god!
[00:06:41] Right, well, I don’t know if, um, if the chimp misjudged that one.
[00:07:21] Chimpanzee has swung from the tree house into another tree, another fig tree. Can’t see it, but it’s still there. I’ve got three dogs barking now. I can’t see the chimp. It’s still there though.
[00:07:45] Les: How many are there, Charlotte?
[00:07:47] Charlotte: There’s only one, Les.
[00:07:49] Les: There’s only one? Is it a young one?
[00:07:59] Charlotte: I don’t know.
[00:08:07] Les: Ah, there he is! I can see him from here. He’s coming down…
[00:08:22] Charlotte: Yeah, I think he’s…
[00:08:36] Les: Can you see him?
[00:08:37] Charlotte: Yeah, but he’s receding towards the forest. I’ve just watched him or her swinging through the tree house and then across to the other tree.
[00:08:49] Les: He was in the treehouse?
[00:08:51] Charlotte: Yeah, it’s in the treehouse because it moves from this fig tree here.
[00:08:56] Les: This one here?
[00:08:57] Charlotte: Yeah. This is where they’re feeding.
[00:09:00] Les: Is it really?
[00:09:00] Charlotte: Yeah. I mean, there aren’t many figs left now, but it’s been up there and I didn’t even hear it come and, that’s happened the last few days. It’s only after they’ve been there a while and the dogs have disturbed them that I’m aware they’re there. Quite something, wow!
[00:09:24] Les: So were there more than one here before?
[00:09:26] Charlotte: I don’t think so.
[00:09:28] Les: Oh, okay.
[00:09:28] Charlotte: But there, there were four in the tree the other day.
[00:09:31] Les: You get them on film?
[00:09:34] Charlotte: Yeah, I’m doing a podcast as well.
[00:09:37] Les: You’re doing a podcast of it?
[00:09:38] Charlotte: Yeah! Not quite what Julia wants, really.
[00:09:44] Les: I know, I know.
[00:09:45] Charlotte: But, even she’s been excited to see them this close, so. I mean, they’re such an exciting animal. Thrilling to see them that close in an environment that you’re so familiar with. And they’ve been breaking various branches on the tree where the tree house is.
Oh, what fun. Oh, that was a lovely little interlude.
[00:10:13] Well, wasn’t that fun? I mean, when you have that kind of unexpected intervention by nature in your very house, you can understand why you simply have to launch a podcast and share all these amazing stories with you. If you’re interested in chimpanzees, and they do feature regularly in my content, because I’m absolutely fascinated by them, then you might enjoy [00:10:34] Chimp Empire, which is a Netflix series. I think there are three parts to it. I’ve written a blog post about it. I’ll put that in the show notes. It’s an absolutely extraordinary docuseries. It took them two and a half years to film and edit. And if you’ve ever been in a forest, you know how dark it is and how difficult it is to take good photographs and to document a family of chimps in the detail that they have and to create a very beautiful story about their interactions is absolutely incredible and not the easiest conditions to work in.
[00:11:09] Interestingly, Netflix refers to it as Ngogo Forest; it’s actually the Ngogo section of Kibale Forest, and it’s a couple of kilometers from where we are. In fact, Brian is one of the researchers there. Hi, Brian! Brian is from the local community. He researches chimps, working with the Jane Goodall Institute, I believe. And he is a good friend of Sunbird Hill.
[00:11:32] In fact, he’s learned how to identify birds through taking part in the Saturday morning birding with our team here.
In case you’ve missed any of the podcast episodes so far, let me just give you a recap on what you’ve missed. Some of my favourite episodes are simply walks along the edge of the forest.
[00:11:50] It’s incredible after five years of living on the edge of the forest, I’m still so blown away by everything I see because there’s so much that I’ve seen many times, but there is always something new. And in fact, my blog and podcast and social media capture just a fraction of what we see and hear on a daily basis.
[00:12:11] If you want to know what the East Africa Travel Podcast is all about, then you can listen to the trailer or episodes one and two. I’m passionate about conservation and nature and promoting interesting people who are doing great work across East Africa. And we’ve had some really interesting guests so far.
[00:12:28] Well, I think they are! Please tell me what you think.
We had the Nnaabagareka, that is the formal title for Queen Sylvia of Buganda Kingdom. It was really wonderful to chat with her after gorilla tracking in Bwindi Impenetrable forest with Dr. Gladys.
[00:12:44] The Nnabagareka of Buganda Kingdom: Seeing the gorillas is just amazing. One of the most exciting things also is just the tracking itself, because you’re literally going through the forest.
[00:12:55] There are no roads. You’re just moving through surrounded by trees and just trying to make your way nowhere to somewhere. You don’t even know where you are.
[00:13:05] Charlotte: In episode four, I spoke to Rob Walker or he spoke to us. He’s a commentator, so he has plenty to say about Uganda, and his passion for the country is so contagious. It makes me fall in love with the country and its people all over again.
[00:13:20] Rob Walker: I’ve probably travelled and worked in 40 to 50 countries around the world. I’ve been a broadcaster now for nearly 25 years. Other than births and weddings, and really significant intimate family moments, it’s probably been the most amazing thing I’ve ever done as one trip.
You’ve only got to get people here once. The country does its own publicity because the people are so friendly.
[00:13:43] Charlotte: By the way, Rob has just published his first book. It’s called Record Breakers at the Summer Olympics. It’s written for kids. I’m sure it’s going to be a great hit.
In episode 6 of the East Africa Travel Podcast, my guest was Dr. Richard Wrangham, a fascinating man and very lovely.
[00:14:00] Dr Richard Wrangham: When I think about chimps, I think of days when they are incredibly relaxed and very soft hearted and very comfortable with each other. And very comfortable with researchers hanging around. You know, the sort of classic day of the shaft of sunlight coming down into the forest and there, a mother lying on her back with a baby bouncing on her tummy, and she just patting the back of the baby, and then another one totters over, and the two of them start interacting, and so on. These are the calm, human-like, delightful interactions that really characterize them.
[00:14:37] Charlotte: Episode 7 was the first episode from Tanzania, when we visited the Original Maasai Lodge.
And in episode 9, I was in conversation with Philip Briggs, best known in Uganda as the author of the Bradt Guide, but author to dozens of books of guides from around the world.
[00:14:56] Philip Briggs: We saw lots of baboons, which seemed very, very relaxed, walking past these big males, and they just look at you and carry on with what they’re doing. We saw several groups of red colobus monkey in the trees. We saw several red-tailed monkeys. We heard the Uganda mangabey, which is the only monkey species endemic to Uganda.
[00:15:18] Charlotte: Philip also features in episode 10 – in case you missed that one – when we visited a brand new camp in Kyambura Game Reserve. I’d love to know what you think of the honking hippos. I did have a laugh recording them!
[00:15:30] And in last week’s episode, Number 11, I talked to Chris Ketola from Fauna Forever, deep in the Amazon. He was traveling around Uganda for 10 weeks and he has so much to say about the biodiversity here.
[00:15:45] Chris Ketola: So I asked the guide, is it okay if I go closer? Because I am very experienced with venomous snakes and I know to be safe. And so I was able to get quite close safely because the cobra’s head was hidden and it wasn’t any risk to me.
[00:15:55] And I will just say for the listeners, don’t do that unless you know snakes. But what happened is: after a few minutes I happened to just look up and about two meters from me were two chimps staring at the same cobra.
[00:16:08] Charlotte: Oh my god, wow.
[00:16:10] Who’s up next? So we have Ian Redmond, OBE, one of my conservation heroes.
[00:16:15] I was lucky enough to meet Ian a few years ago when he was in Uganda working with The Gorilla Organization. I’ve also met up with him at Kwita Izina the Gorilla Naming Ceremony in Rwanda. Ian’s an expert in great apes and worked for Dian Fossey for three years. Ian’s a fantastic communicator and I always learn so much from interacting with him, whether in person or on social media.
[00:16:38] Other guests coming up soon include Dr. Michael Ochse from Germany, who is a lepidopterist. He’s an expert in moths. He’s a regular guest at Sunbird Hill.
[00:16:49] Another close friend of Sunbird Hill is Pam Cunneyworth of Colobus Conservation based in Diani on the Kenyan coast. It was lovely to get to know her better up in the bird hide at Sunbird Hill, and we were interrupted at one point by baboons, which was hilarious because it turns out they’re her favourite primate species, even though she’s best known for studying black and white colobus monkeys.
[00:17:09] We also talk about things to do in Destination Diani, where I happened to be last week. Diani has incredible beaches.
[00:17:17] Also coming up on the podcast, we have Rowan Martin and our very own Nick Byaba talking about the African grey parrots and the work of the World Parrot Trust.
[00:17:28] We’ll also be talking to some African friends from other corners of the continent.
[00:17:33] I’m just back from Kenya, where I had a chance to chat to my great friend, Harriet Owalla, a travel journalist. I spoke to Harriet at a sustainable tourism conference on Shanzu Beach outside Mombasa. I spent a night in Old Town, Mombasa, so listen out to a future episode all about Mombasa and things to do on that corner of the Kenyan coast.
[00:17:54] I didn’t unfortunately get to talk to my friends at Watamu Marine Association. I really want to invite them on the podcast so we can talk about whale watching and the citizen science you can do with them going out in the boats, helping to identify dolphins. You might have heard there were serious floods in Kenya some weeks ago so my friends were busy rebuilding a camp in time for the summer season, but instead of whales and dolphins, I went to a sea turtle festival in Diani and met some young Kenyan conservationists who invited me to watch baby turtles being released into the ocean.
[00:18:31] That was a really magical moment and the next day they heard that a turtle had come onto the beach to lay eggs and invited us to help them move those eggs to a safer part of the beach.
[00:18:43] It’s been quite an exhausting couple of weeks actually and you may have noticed that this episode is a couple of days late.
[00:18:51] I decided to travel from Uganda to the Kenyan coast by public transport. Needless to say it took quite a long time. And it was great fun, actually, to do it, in one way, anyway! I took a bus from Kampala, which, I don’t know, took about 12 hours. Then I took a train to the coast. I took a ferry that I then went in a tuk tuk.
[00:19:12] And of course, a couple of weeks later, I had to do that journey in reverse. But, you know, the good thing with public transport is you’ve got a much better sense of place. And because I travel solo a lot of the time, you meet more people. You know, if you’re a couple or a group of friends, you don’t always talk to other people, to strangers.
[00:19:31] I did talk to lots of interesting people on the way there. On the way back, I think I was a bit tired. And to be honest, perhaps I should have flown.
[00:19:42] Anyway, I get a lot of questions about how to travel by bus and train. So it was really good research and had a lot of fun on my Facebook page. The Diary of a Muzungu Facebook page had lots of interactions and questions and people coming back to me saying, “I took the train based on your blog of 2018.” So that really encourages me to update all that kind of information for you Anyway, lots to talk about!
[00:20:09] There will be several episodes from Kenya all about: how to get there, things to do on the coast particularly at Mombasa and Diani, and an episode dedicated to sea turtles.
[00:20:19] If you’ve listened this far, congratulations! Thank you very much for listening to the East Africa Travel Podcast hosted by me, Charlotte Beauvoisin, author of Diary of a Muzungu.
It’s been wonderful to reconnect with you via the podcast. There are transcripts if you listen on Diary of a Muzungu or Apple and links are in the show notes.
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