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December 10 2006 - What An Adventure!
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I've just lived through an incredible 24 hours! It started yesterday morning, when I woke up to torrential rain pounding onto my tent. I threw on some clothes, rather regretting that I had neglected to purchase any oilskins and ran over to see my babies. Everything in the enclosure was soaking wet including the monkeys. They all threw themselves onto me diving down my sweater to get to the heat of my body. Six sopping monkeys hit my warm skin, and suddenly I WAS AWAKE! We huddled together until finally they fell asleep. But not for long... The rain turned into a major storm, forked lightning crackled, lighting up the sombre sky, huge grumbles of thunder rolled around the mountains making it impossible to hear anything above the all enveloping shriek of the elements. Six monkeys suddenly appeared from the depths of my sweater, huge eyed and terrified, teeth chattering as they made for the rafters hanging onto each other for support. I tried getting them down, but the noise prevented them from hearing anything but thunder. I went back to my chair and waited as one by one they thudded onto my lap for a cuddle and reassurance. The storm continued for an hour before the last echo of receding thunder faded into the distance. The rain however continued relentlessly and I was extremely relieved when Sandy hauled me out of the enclosure for a cup of coffee and a fag in tent village kitchen. I went back into the enclosure and warmed the babies as best I could. This weather is very difficult for them: they hate being wet and cold and hypothermia is a real problem when it gets this cold, and remains cold for several days. It is not unknown for rain to fall continuously for three days and that is very bad news for the monkeys. The monkeys in the open enclosures suffer most: they take shelter under bushes and in trees, but as the leaves are not yet fully out, shelter was impossible to find and there were alot of sad bedraggled monkeys in the open enclosures. We hate the rain for that reason, it can do so much damage to the babies, and it's heartbreaking to see them cold and sad, and not be able to do anything to help. The storm hit again in the evening, more thunder, more lightening, only this time it was dark and all we could do was hold our breath and trust the monkeys would survive until morning. We all suffered from wet tents. I was fortunate, my bed didn't get wet, but my carpets are sodden as are most of my clothes. I slept under two sleeping bags using them as duvets and added an extra blanket for luck and finally for the first time that day felt warm. When I finished my shift, I was soaking wet, covered in mud and sand and looking forward to the hottest shower the bush could supply. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered the wind had blown out the pilot light of the gas heater we use and a cold shower was my only option. But I did manage to get relatively clean and returned to my tent, fingers white with cold I kid you not and tried to get my head around the fact that the previous night I had slept naked under a sheet in a puddle of sweat, so intense was the heat! The rain continued all night, and showed no sign of abating when I went into my babies at 8am. They were so happy to see me, and for the second morning in a row flung themselves at me, slid inside my sweater and warmed themselves. Finally, at around 3 this afternoon, the rain stopped and we all began the arduous task of mopping up the water in our tents, putting clothes on lines to dry and generally getting ourselves up and running again. That was yesterday and today was warm although not sunny. All the wet straw in the enclosures was replaced with dry, the monkeys were smiling again and I for one, enjoyed a glorious day. At one point I had ten monkeys on my lap, arms and head and they all fell asleep and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Felix, down my top as usual her head tucked under my chin, Armstrong put his arms around my neck and fell asleep on my shoulder, Amber found the most comfy place on my lap, put her fingers in her mouth and nodded off, Dusty spread himself along my right arm and Almond hugged my waist. The more time I spend with these extraordinary creatures, the more in love with them I become. They've got under my skin, into my heart, become the very essence of my being. So today, life returned to normal in tent village. The gas is working again in the bush shower so we had the joy of hot water, the previously empty dams are now filled from the rain and our water situation is looking extremely healthy. Volunteers are tucking into veggie burgers, chips and beans in the kitchen, bandit monkeys are playing in the tree outside and our dogs, Woolfie, Casey, Snoozie, Ruben and Candy are waiting impatiently for me to finish my blog so we can all return to tent village where they know I have a large box of Bonno's (dog treats) which they are longing to get their paws on. Believe me, it beats rush hour on the Northern Line... Love from all of us to all of you. x
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