In Morocco I walked into spring!
Grey, cold, dreary, dregs of an Ithaca winter be gone!
Early morning light and a cool breeze off the Mediterranean - with just the hint of bite - turned my thoughts (mostly) away from what I have left behind and toward Central Africa again.
Probably the main goal of this trip is to facilitate the transfer of routine acoustic monitoring to Wildlife Conservation Society staff in Gabon. Training has been slow and hampered by equipment that is a little to fussy and to accepting of human error. But this is changing and I will be working this trip with a new technician specifically hired to manage acoustic monitoring and analysis. Best of all, this will let ELP focus on pushing into new ways to apply acoustics to elephant conservation and conservation of biodiversity more generally.
As usual, Royal Air Maroc provided a day room during my transit time in Morocco. This time, however, instead of the Atlas Airport Hotel just a few kilometers from the runways, they took me and a bunch of French college women into downtown Casablanca. Not a particularly beautiful city from what I saw, but some striking homes and buildings tucked in here and there with the softened lines of Arab architecture and gorgeous filigreed ironwork on gates and across windows. I love the feeling of a hidden oasis invoked by the ubiquitous enclosing walls - mostly unadorned and forbidding to the outside, but the upper stories of enclosed buildings looking out on the world and inner gardens, with verandas and unseen alcoves catching the breeze.
- peter in Africa
Hey Pete! Awesome to hear from you in the field! How interesting - the scene you're describing over there. For the first time ELP is getting information to people from the expedition in Africa - almost live. Hope elephant lovers everywhere can enjoy this!
ReplyDeleteDounan