With a group of friends, we went to the Coesewijne savanna last Saturday. After about 2,5 hour drive south, we reached a little camp built next to a creek. On our way here, we had a flat tire, which was noticed by the large trucks with wood. Here in Suriname, everyone helps one another, no matter what. These men got out of the truck and were panting and sweating together with the bus driver to change tires. The camp, which only needed a waterproof cloth on the roof to complete it, was going to be our home for the night. That night Dick and Randy went into the woods first and found a giant monkey frog in a nearby swamp! Later that evening Dick came back with a two-coloured green tree snake which he saw sleeping in a tree above the swamp. However, after we went on our own little walk, we found very little apart from thousands and thousands of leaf-cutter ants all over the ground and trees. The next morning, we bathed in the creek and chilled like we had all the time in the world. Armed with hamburgers, marshmallows, and pancakes, we survived this back to basic moment, and were picked up on Sunday around 16:00. On our way back the engine apparently lost part of its support, causing an unhealthy noise. Fortunately, the Surinam drivers are very handy with their own vehicles, leading to a simplified construction of timber found in the woods to support the engine and hold it back in place. Once we got home, we unpacked all our stuff and went to bed to catch up our lost sleep.
Saturday March 14th, we left for Brownsberg in the early morning with our mentor and his assistants. The familiar climb up the mountain with the bus seemed less frightening already. Up on the mountain, we unloaded the trunk, and prepared lunch. All that was left for the day was checking plots and transects, already made by the group. The day after, we walked two transects in the evening with the assistants, Rawien and Usha. These kind people, have been studying species and environmental climate change respectively for many years, and are very knowledgeable and eager to share experiences. The morning after we repeated the same transects, as the night-active and day-active frogs/toads differ in presence. This we repeated for other transects on the Monday night and Tuesday morning, and the Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. During noon though, we were free to go visit waterfalls and creeks found on the mountain. Dick went together with Dimitri (our mentor's son, who's studying the area as well) to the Witti kreek, translated to white creek, which is a long walk through a terrain with various altitudes. They were told that on this track the gold miners, which are very abundant around the Brownsberg, burned an area of forest to the ground to make it less attractive to visitors. They discovered halfway the mountain that this area was way bigger than they expected. However with the heavy rainfall and the incredible view on the Brokopondo lake gave this place a quite an extraordinary atmosphere. After having a swim in the creek with all their clothes still on, since they were drenched already from the rainfall that day. They came back to the camp quite a while after sunset and where able to join the last evening transect. Unfortunately, we were heading back to Paramaribo around noon on Wednesday, so we said our goodbyes to Rawien, Usha, and Dimitri. |
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