24 replies to this topic

[Anita]

Found this on another forum and its been a delightful read with beautiful pics of Bongo, Sitatungas, Forest Buffaloes, Forest elephants, Duikers, Gorillas and such beautiful birds and small critters and of people- written very well and great pictures.

Thanks a ton to the guy for putting this together!


http://www.cokesmith...ional_Park.html

Edited by Anita, 12 September 2012 - 03:26 PM.

[ZaminOz]

I have only skimmed through it - but some stunning (and also disturbing) images.

[kittykat23uk]

Yes Same here Zaminoz! Those golden eles are really something though!!

[Anita]

yes I loved that golden ele shot...

disturbing in parts yes, but thats whats facing the wildlife in some of these central african countries

[inyathi]

Thanks for posting this, that golden elephant is extraordinary it’s amazing how the mud seems to cover the entire body; it looks a little bit like it’s just walked out of a tanning salon. Check out the photos on PBase of the golden elephant with some of the more normal coloured eles wonderful.

Also the explosion of bongo in a couple of the photos on PBase I counted 21 to even see just one would be great but that many wow!!

Aside from obviously the gorillas some of the other wildlife they saw is pretty amazing as well especially Lord Derby’s anomalure.

[AKR1]

Fabulous report. GameWarden I have invited ColeSmith to join Safaritalk.

[Nature Traveler]

Hello everyone! Really cool to see my trip report made it to Safaritalk! Thanks for taking the time to give it a look-see. We really enjoy putting the reports together. Of course we enjoy doing the trip more! Let me know if you have any questions. It was a phenomenal trip. I will be posting a few more reports in the coming days as we did a two month wildlife expedition and I've decided to do a report for each country separately. Thanks again for checking out the reports!

Coke Smith
www.cokesmithphototravel.com

Edited by Nature Traveler, 13 September 2012 - 07:22 AM.

[Game Warden]

Coke, I hear Rod's a bit of a character Coincidence that I've been talking with him this week about coming on ST. Great trip report and what an experience for the kids - those sights will stay with them for a long time.

[Nature Traveler]

Yes, Rod is very interesting. Sadly though he was not able to be at the lodge when we visited, but we did chat via skype quite bit during the planning stages of the trip. He knows his stuff very well!

[Anita]

Welcome Coke- have been browsing through your Trip Reports and each one of them is so wonderful!

[Nature Traveler]

Thanks for taking a look at them Anita!

[Nature Traveler]

Not sure if everyone knows but the situation in CAR has changed drastically.  They've slaughtered many of the elephants in my pics in the last couple days.  WWF and all expats are displaced and Bayanga village is under siege basically.  There has been at least one person killed there.  This is a very sad situation that is making no press in the west sadly....

[Paolo]

I was not aware of the latest updates.

Extremely tragic news.

[johnkok]

Not sure if everyone knows but the situation in CAR has changed drastically.  They've slaughtered many of the elephants in my pics in the last couple days.  WWF and all expats are displaced and Bayanga village is under siege basically.  There has been at least one person killed there.  This is a very sad situation that is making no press in the west sadly....

This is really sad to hear. Yet again, man does it to man, and everything else around.

[Rwenzori]

Always bad news. NGOs can't do anything against heavely armed groups.

After the coup d'état I assumed that such isolated regions, so far from Bangui were safe but they weren't.

[ice]

what amazes me even for than the TR are the rates for the lodge Nature Traveler stayed at - I couldn't believe my eyes 

[JohnR]

One of the NGOs I support, War Child, is working in the CAR and say it is very hard to get funding for their work there. It is also a very dangerous place for foreign NGOs to operate.

[Anita]

@Nature Traveler there have been sporadic news since March 24th's coup but if I understand your post correctly there has been a massacre of sorts of Forest elephants in the last 2 days? I could find nothing on that and this is very disturbing after the Chad massacre last month. The only things on elephant poaching I could find on the internet was that around 30 elephants have been poached in CAR so far this year.

Edited by Anita, 25 April 2013 - 11:49 AM.

[twaffle]

I had seen something on elephant poaching in CAR but not so recent. Makes the blood boil and the heart sick. I just don't know what anyone can do in these situations. This is what so many of us really care and worry about, seriously, and my concerns about how hot Ishaqbini will be, or whether I remember to take enough camera batteries just pales into insignificance.

[Rwenzori]

http://news.mongabay...car.html?fbfnpg

"Given the total absence of any type of law enforcement and rule of law in the area, there is elephant meat all over the place," Bas Huijbregts, WWF policy head against poaching in Central Africa, told the AP