The 10th – 12th April was the BE training weekend at Beaudesert Park near Lichfield. It was attended by all the Young Explorer’s, leaders and BE team, and was an excellent opportunity to start getting to know everyone. We were camping, having previously organised ourselves into small groups over Facebook. The nights were pretty cold and uncomfortable, but I guess I will be having to get used to that (yes, even in the jungle, as apparently El Friaje can cause temperatures to drop suddenly for a few days to around 12-14 degrees Celcius at night, which might occur when we are there).
The Young Explorers are divided into three fires for the three-week expedition, and two fires for the five-week expedition. I met the other members of my “Fire” which will be called “Tamandua” (or “Taramandua”, which was our original, misspelled version of the animal, which we might stick with) – the Southern Tamandua Tamandua Tetradactyla is a small anteater without any teeth, which feeds on ants, termites and bees, which we may see while there if we are lucky. It has extremely long claws which it uses for foraging or in defence. I really like the people in my fire –the people I will be spending the 5 weeks with – six boys and three girls, though one person was unable to attend the weekend, and one or two more girls may join the group. On the expedition we will have a couple of trainee leaders, as well as an Adventure Leader and a Science Leader, bringing the group up to around fifteen in total.
The Southern Tamandua, image from: "T tetradactyla 1" by Sinara Conessa - Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:T_tetradactyla_1.jpg#/media/File:T_tetradactyla_1.jpg
The weekend was very fun, useful and informative, with a range of team-building sessions, guidance on equipment and talks about a wide variety of topics from health to the biodiversity of the region, and from camp-craft skills to learning some techniques for the scientific work we will be doing. One of the things we learnt was the calls of a few bird species’ we might hear, including: Chestnut-Tailed Antbird, Little Tinamou, Speckled Chachalaca and the Southern Nightingale-Wren. We also split up into small groups, completing a night-time Transect looking for plastic frogs, butterflies and small rubber snakes (carefully concealed in trees at head-height).
The Speckled Chachalaka, image from: "Ortalis guttata, Speckled Chachalaca" by https://www.flickr.com/photos/jquental - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jquental/14573363297/. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ortalis_guttata,_Speckled_Chachalaca.jpg#/media/File:Ortalis_guttata,_Speckled_Chachalaca.jpg
After arriving in Manu (it will take around four days to get there), our fire will start by working (whilst still in the “acclimatisation” phase) at a settlement on the other side of the river from the main base camp, helping the locals in the creation of bio-gardens, sustainable living (as most of their food is imported from the major cities), better use of resources etc. I realise that a crash-course in Spanish will be useful, as I only studied it for a year in school, which won’t get me far! After around ten days of this, we will move to the base camp (which the three-week fires will have just left). They will have started working their way up the Pini-Pini Ridge at 1150m above sea level, cutting trails which we will then follow and extend, hopefully onto the top of the ridge, undertaking important scientific and conservation work as we go, which will help the CREES Foundation. This area is relatively unexplored, and could be home to many undescribed species.
I feel that I learnt a huge amount at this training course, but will save the information for future blog entries. The flight has been booked, and I have received a bill for this which I hope to pay later this week. It was actually a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than predicted, so my fundraising goal has moved a little bit closer now!
I feel that I learnt a huge amount at this training course, but will save the information for future blog entries. The flight has been booked, and I have received a bill for this which I hope to pay later this week. It was actually a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than predicted, so my fundraising goal has moved a little bit closer now!
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