Research treks at NRCP
Added to website: 19 July 2003
Day-break
We wake early, around 6am. Still aching from the previous day’s exhausting trek to the Aeroplano site, we stumble into the kitchen where breakfast awaits - usually some rice and fish but occasionally fried eggs and pancakes. After breakfast we’re assigned a daily chore helping to keep the base camp clean and tidy before final preparations for the day’s trek.
Jungle trekking
We set off around 7:30am, carrying weighty backpacks filled with science equipment, team supplies and our own personal necessities, and begin the long, weary but exciting journey to ‘The Crater’. Ten minutes into the 3-hour trek we begin to feel the strain of steep uphill walking. Jungle trekking is all about pacing yourself and our journey is thankfully broken up by water and energy snack breaks. It’s tough, but the more your body adjusts to the strenuous activity the more enjoyable the walk becomes. The harsh environment of the rainforest is full of nasty surprises that never fail to disappoint - from the bloodthirsty mosquitoes and spiky bushes to hungry leeches lurking somewhere on your body…
Jungle research camp
We arrive at the Crater absolutely shattered to be totally taken aback by the awesome sight of this natural geographical phenomenon. After lunch, we set up our temporary group shelter and individual hammocks that’ll be our home for the next 3 nights, before moving our scientific monitoring equipment into the designated survey sites. In the evenings our research focuses on the mist nets that we erect to catch bats, allowing us to record, measure and subsequently release them back into the forest.
Nights in the jungle
A well-deserved supper of amazingly tasty spaghetti bolognese is cooked on tranjias or MSRs and scoffed down without a scrap wasted. Dinner is rounded off with a cup of nectar (hot Milo) and our evening jungle card-games are interspersed with mist net monitoring. At 10:00pm, the nets are safely packed away and we crawl into our suspended hammocks. We lie awake reflecting on the days events relaxing to the sounds of frogs, insects and night birds calling from the mystical rainforest before slowly drifting to a much needed sleep.
Anon, Volunteer
