By Hannah Thomas

Got up at 5.30am for a terrestrial transect, I was woken by Jack and James next door singing! Our Peruvian guides were Manuel and Franco, and Dot came with James and I. It was so beautiful, and just like I imagined rainforest to be before I came here – up until now it’s almost felt like a remote part of England, but with the hanging vines, tall towering trees and green canopy with light filtering through it felt just like a David Attenborough documentary, especially when we saw the group of 65+ squirrel monkeys. Also saw bats sheltering in a tree, and the cutest family of racoony-type things called coati. Overall our transect was really successful – we say an estimated 160+ monkeys in total, including capuchin, tamarin, red howler and woolly monkeys. We also saw a ‘jungle chicken' (!), small snake, two types of squirrel, tapir tracks, jaguar scratching posts and lots of birds. At one point Franco and Manuel cut a vine down, which contained about 5 litres of pure fresh drinking water! They were really enthusiastic, and enjoyed showing us the animals when they spotted them as well as all the most exotic trees and plants.

Manuel asked me today what England is like, and what kind of monkeys we have! It’s so hard to describe! I said we have no monkeys, less trees and more roads and people, though to be honest I’m not sure that paints much of a picture for him.

We’re back from the transect now, and Als and John are drinking too much coffee and playing Irish snap. I might go and join in – it sounds fun as I can hear them from downstairs!

By Anna MacDonald

Today was the first day of transects after wild camp, which was a nice change. We were all put in to groups of 4. I was in a group with Dan Betney, Als and Kyana. Each group was allocated different surveys each day. Today we did the turtle survey which theoretically meant we would get a lie in. But that wasn’t going to happen. Most of us had breakfast around half six and the terrestrial transect groups left shortly after. Until ten we sorted our kit and relaxed, then we left.

Our group and John got into a peki-peki (motorised conoe) with Betty our Peruvian scientist. We floated for 5km downstream looking for turtles but no one apart from Betty actually saw them (They’re hard to spot!). After we had completed the survey we went for a refreshing swim and even managed to persuade Kyana to climb in! Betty also swam for the first time in the river and it was so enjoyable to see someone have that sort of new experience and appreciate it so much. We climbed back in and had a biscuit! Travelling back up river a baby dolphin decided to play with our boat.

Lunch was ready almost as soon as we got back – nice! For part of the afternoon people read, worked on projects and slept. We also had a drawing session with Dot. I drew a leaf and it was pretty appalling, but Emily’s and Dani’s were really good, amongst others. A really relaxing afternoon which was just what we needed after 5 days of wild camp. Around 7pm, after tea, I went to change and pick up the survey sheet for the caiman survey. We left at eight and spotted many incidents of ‘only eyes’ whilst travelling down river(Caiman eyes shine red when you shine a torch at them, but lots of them ducked under the water when we got close). On our way back we sped up and suddenly there were flying fish everywhere! Kyana was terrified and jumped in Als’s lap! The Peruvians found it hilarious and shined the torch at them, encouraging the fish to jump.

We arrived back at quarter to ten and by then I was more than ready for a good night’s sleep.

By Als Everest

Today was our last day of wild camp! I’m going to miss our camp, we spent so long making it perfect! It has stacks to keep the canoes in the bay, a roped walkway from the shore to the fire and sleeping area, and a handmade communal area made of tarps and wood. I woke up to the two Dans (Betney and Hughes) cooking breakfast! Although the sooty smoke from the fire seemed to be getting the better of them as they both had tears streaming down their faces! Hannah was leader for today and kept us busy as she told us about our tight time schedule which we failed to keep track of! We packed up our group and personal kit and left our base camp for the last time. Although this was sad I won’t miss the sound of mossies buzzing past my ears! We floated down the river in the current with the forest on either side of us just sitting in the comfort of a group silence looking and watching the vast range of Amazon birds.

We then canoed to a tributary with Jack expertly steering Hannah and I, while also doing the majority of the paddling as well! As we entered the tributary there was an overgrown area across our path which was hard to cross. With Hannah in the middle calling 1-2-3 we eventually got through it! As it was nearing 11am we were getting hungry so cracked open our flap jacks. As it started to rain we headed back to the Pithecia for a much needed shower, rather than a swim in the river! Knowing we couldn’t do this until we emptied the boat we unpacked in double time, thanks to the other fire on the boat who helped out.

Once we were showered and had washed our clothes we had a debriefing meeting with Andy over which were the good parts of the expedition and how we could improve anything for the next group setting out tomorrow. Once all this was done the rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the top deck on our roll mats. In the evening Hannah and the rest of Ucayali made henna from Andy’s mix, and then having been in the jungle for 5 days I decided to have an early night!

By BSES Dot

This morning, having decided to make our new camp the permanent base camp as the location is so lovely, a group of us went back to collect the rest of the kit from Base Camp 1 while the rest of the fire went fishing with John and Pedro. We drifted down river peacefully in anticipation of the tough long paddle back with heavily laden canoes. Once back at camp the fire was split into two again and whilst half set up the HF radio which enables us to contact the base boats on the expedition, the other set about improving the camp site. With Pedro, our fantastic jungle guide’s help, they made our boat area a proper harbour, and cut a path from there to the camp site, even lining it with a vine handrail.

We had a siesta after lunch and then a creative afternoon with some people trying their hand at wood carving and the rest of the group making furniture for around camp. Pedro got much enjoyment out of being much better than all of us at everything!

We had a great dinner of veg pasta, and the girls made a proper sauce to go with it which improved the ration packs no end. As a last day treat they also made a chocolate dessert. There was lots of chat before bed, I think everyone’s finally adjusted to living with the hardships of the jungle, and now we’ve made the camp so nice it’s a shame we’re going back to the boat tomorrow. Still, it will be good to share our stories and get started on the science research.

By Lorna Johnston

Woke up from a very good night’s sleep in a hammock. Didn’t get bitten much because Karina’s legs ended up on top of me – effective protection! For breakfast Hannah and Als made the best marshmallow pancakes I have ever had in my life. They were beautiful!

We packed up from base camp and we set off up river, me and Dan Betney in the inflatable canoe, and I must say a good team. It was hard work but worth it with river dolphins swimming near us. We split off the main river into the mangroves where the jungle was flooded, which was breathtaking. We all had to chop our way through with machetes whilst attempting to manoeuvre around sharp bends. The water was so still though, and with the reflections of the trees, it was so fun. Canoeing is my new favourite hobby!

We eventually stopped and had a well deserved flapjack. We went for a walk in the forest where we saw the biggest tree I have ever seen in my entire life. It was amazing. We saw a group of squirrel monkeys which were adorable. We got back to the boats and while I made my second expert grill from bamboo others caught fish to cook on it. We left again and paddled upstream some more and turned into a small cocha (lake) off the main river, where we discovered an abandoned hunters’ camp. There were dolphins, eagles and bats flying everywhere which was really cool. We decided to set up our second base camp where the hunters’ camp was, a really nice location on a strip of land between the cocha and the river.

Tea was good and we went nocturnal canoeing which was awesome. You could see a million stars, it was breathtaking. Came back to camp and had toasted marshmallows before bed. An excellent way to end the night :)

Off to a Good Start

After a brief call into BSES HQ from the Satellite phone in the Amazon, we can report that all is well and everyone is in high spirits.

The whole group have journeyed up river to their research locations and have settled in and just begun their initial activities.

They have seen plenty of macaws and river dolphins and have just started their survey work to get a proper handle on the population and health of the ecosystemn as a whole.

Keep checking in weekly for further updates.

Expedition location

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