Park Boubandjida Cameroon • Paul Bour Safaris Photo

March happened without anyone noticing no heat ... gradually moved nights and chilly mornings again until 23, to our delight, 16, 17 ° at sunrise the day, a real treat. Now the depletion of water sources accelerates and focuses the wildlife that abounds everywhere. Surprises with an astonishing density of giraffes, and elephants, elephants everywhere. Eland are there too, the fiercest of course, but many with multiple observations in all areas of the park. Difficult to take a day without several encounters.

Of surprises too, with the discovery of a lion "wired", snared, and especially a panther, whose severed head is placed on the road in defiance by poachers ... - I'll spare you the photo -
The poachers they wanted to challenge us? Frighten us? They have only managed to wake my rage I can not unfortunately share with many people ...

A couple of exceptions, it moves people ... But the incident may be good. It awakens my enthusiasm to fight and I decide to work twice before the start of the rainy season, to reconstruct a valid monitoring team. It remains to find funds. By providing us with such arguments, the poachers we will be rendering service to properly fund and at least the anti poaching should be about thirty thousand euros per year, and especially in a sustainable way, because there is nothing worst periods of hollow after a more prosperous ...
Any takers and generous souls, a patrol of 8 people, cost about 100 € by integrating all costs.

In the meantime I levels, and creates new tracks in sectors. Each time the same conclusion: the poaching pressure is enormous, all around us, sometimes our eyes! The team is well grader repeatedly identified by hundreds oxen - we're right in the period of transhumance, and spends sleepless nights to watch his equipment ...
She puts on several occasions poachers on the run and destroyed a rear base where it burns a mountain of meat, "taller than me" tell me the mechanic, who fortunately is a little jig!
It even managed to seize a weapon, reflecting level of vigilance poachers, when you consider the noise made by the machine. The trail network now reaches 700 km, and again the maintenance budget is huge. But it is effective. Unless I'm missing, however, ULM more! Again, for the fans, the park has a track 800 m long and if there was some traffic with some leisure flights, it would certainly deter ...
Here it would be really combine business with pleasure!
(Thanks to Claude Dornier overflights for these last days we have also a nice picture, seen from below)
April promises to be difficult with a nice crowd and it is not sure we have time to leave "the city" ... In the meantime think about how you can help!