We finally made it to the Mambili River yesterday. We have been skirting our way up the west side of it for several days, trying to stay out of the swamps and the dreaded mangombe leaves.

It was late Sunday when we arrived on the river. We needed to call in a pirogue from downstream to haul us across the river. So we knew we would probably have to spend more than one night here. We decided to travel upstream to find a camp that was not in the swamp. Only 100 meters [328 feet] upstream of where we came out we found a nice patch of terra firma close to the river. This patch had been discovered by poachers, too, when the Mambili was fair game before ECOFAC [a European Union-sponsored conservation effort]. There were several old lemon trees that marked the spot, a welcome sight for people with colds.

We arrived about two hours before the boys. I sat on the riverbank. It gave me a vantage point that I do not get very often—namely, that of a large flowing river. The water in this river is silty, just like the Sangha River. The banks are muddy and steep. What struck me was the large number of fish in the river. I have spent the past 15 years on the Sangha and a few years on the Ouaka River in the Central African Republic years before that. Never before had I seen the water bubble with fish like this. Every two or three minutes a behemoth would surface, rolling like a snake in the water. They represented a typical Sangha River diversity of non-scaly fish, including the dreaded electric catfish, malopterus.

These fish were either gulping air or just surfacing in their normal foraging. This must be what these rivers are like in the absence of too many fishermen. When I see the way the people on the Sangha River totally abuse the fishery there—nets of all types and dimensions, fish traps that cover all the retreating waters, trot lines with thousands of hooks—it seems a wonder that there are any fish at all. Then you see the upper Mambili River, which has had no fishing since 1993, and you realize just how productive one of these rivers can be.

The boys finally pulled in around 5:00 p.m. A storm was brewing. They set up the tarp in great haste with the rain pouring down shortly thereafter. Mambeleme had already fished a bit, but that was it. It was too late for the others to follow suit.

The boys spent today fishing. I spent the morning getting my bush e-mail ready to ship off to the U.S. Fafa did real well: he caught about ten fish (of about as many species). Nothing over 50 grams [.1 pounds] or so. Ndeli took the prize with a chrysichtys of about 1 kilogram [2.2 pounds], but that was about all the day’s fishing brought.

There is a boat coming upriver tomorrow that will get us across. I spent the evening sleeping, working off the last of my cold. That disease really does knock you out. We heard some chimps downstream and had a gorilla chest-beating in the distance during the night. All in all a rather lazy day.

I will report back as soon as we have a few of these clearings under our belts. Until next time.