Recently I went to the Northern Sector of Bwindi, with a small team (Badru Mugerwa, botanist Robert Barigyira and visiting student Fredrick Ssali), to locate the proposed plots for global monitoring (TEAM; see Doug’s blog ‘WHAT IS THE POINT?’ for the background story). The first day was not easy and ended in an unexpected way. What do I mean? Walking in Bwindi is hard to imagine; in this forest you may look around and think of reaching a point, but it can take you by surprise. Let me tell you about our experience that day, which was very tiresome but also interesting.

For our daily duties in the forest, we have equipment like compasses for direction, GPS (Global Positioning System) for positioning locations, and a machete for cutting a way through the undergrowth. But it is not simple to walk through the forest, directed by a compass and you still have to look around you to remember where you have passed, not to get lost: we walked through thick bushes and thorny plants and climbers were a problem as they pierced our hands and our rain gears. We also had to climb down steep slopes and found river valleys with deep water, where we had to look for possible crossing points. You must be committed and courageous! We had Frederick with us, a student from Mbarara who wants to come and do his research from ITFC, who had never been in the forest- new adventure- and he needed encouragement to get through such moments! When one is going down the Ishaya slopes, you can’t believe the steepness and depth of its valley: wonderful to see and hear, but not easy to cross!

That first day we had walked for three and half hours when it started raining. Writing in heavy rain becomes impossible and we were forced to go and get out. But imagine that it had rained for two hours already and we almost failed to cross the Itama and Ihihizo rivers, which had increased in volume.

We managed to cross these two rivers and get back, but knew we had to come back the next day… How does one feel about going back to a place that you know is so hard to reach? The truth is you have to go back and collect the data despite the challenges; the next day we went back by the same route and reached. Unfortunately, the two days work, despite all the hardships, ended up with rejecting the proposed points because the terrain was not uniform enough. Like it or not, we had to continue our trip to other areas to assess some other proposed points.

So you see, my normal duties have great challenges, and commitment and courage is needed. Waiting to hearing from you and best wishes.