2013 and Affi Mountain

2013 started off with cornflakes and real cold milk!!! A miracle :-) 

Then came a bit of a disaster, apparently 1st January is the worst day possible to travel anywhere and we had to make the journey from Obudu to Affi Mountain. After much searching and great negotiations, most notably from Alan, and more Naira than we'd planned, we finally set off to Affi in the afternoon. We drove down the mountain road - a great experience and some fantastic hairpin bends! Then had another negotiation session with Okada drivers who drove us from the road into Affi! But as soon as we arrived in Affi and saw the scenery we soon forgot any niggles and were astounded by the view - the place and the scenery were truly stunning, as were the cute little cabins we were staying in.

The view of the mountains

The communal area

My lovely cabin!

 

My bed!

View of the monkey from my balcony!

But of course the drill monkeys were the highlight - they are an endangered species only found in the Nigerian/Cameroon border area. Affi has 5 groups of drills with a 6th group being based in Calabar. They are having great success with keeping the monkeys and are hoping to release some back into the wild this year, which would be a great achievement. Feeding time in particular was great fun to observe! 

A baby drill, just a few days old!

The coloured bottoms are a sign of male maturity!

Fast food monkey style!

The 'female of the day' - ready for breeding!

Then we met the rescued chimpanzees - they were so human like, but also dangerous, one tried to throw a rock at us! They have all been rescued from homes where they were being kept as pets, so sad. But at least they have a happier life at Affi now.

Me next for food please!

A chimp from Cameroon

Then we had hoped to go on the canopy tree walk and swim in the waterfall, but a huge landslide just after the rainy season  in 2012 meant this was no longer possible as huge layers of earth and sand had moved and changed the layout of the area. So Chris the Affi volunteer took us on a hike up the river instead so we can see the damage and changed scenery for ourselves.

That evening several of the group (not me) went on a night hike and got attacked by biting ants! They form great long trails across paths, and if you don't look at where you are going then you become part of that trail! Apparently the ants bite too - thankfully I wasn't a victim of the ant attack! 

 

All too soon our stay was over and I would have loved to have stayed another day or two, but Calabar and work was calling. We of course had time for a group snap:

Our Affi family

Before heading back on the Okadas to the road and then back to Calabar!

Gilbert my okada driver