Pink Boots and a Machete (13 page)

No one said expeditions were easy, especially in Madagascar, where heavy rains often wash out roads. If I pretend to be taking this picture, maybe I won't have to push.

 

Who knew La Macarena would be such a hit among the Congo BaAka?

 

Standing over the severed hands of murdered Congo gorillas marked one of the worst days of my life. It's hard to believe tourists buy them to use as ashtrays.

 

You should've seen the faces of the human patients as we pushed a gurney carrying this leopard—en route to a “cat scan”—down the halls of the Namibia hospital.

 

Capturing a giraffe here on the Namibia plain is incredibly intense. I was extremely relieved when the tranquilizer wore off and the giraffe began rising to its feet.

 

To my surprise, I encountered an American, Pygmy music aficionado Louis Sarno, living in a remote BaAka village in the Congo. A kind soul with an adventurous spirit, he could be called the world's tallest Pygmy with a Jersey accent.

 

Even with hundreds of sweat bees hovering—not even my eyelids are immune—the gorilla in my sight keeps me smiling.

 

Leopards can be killing machines, but this one is like a large house cat.

 

My big, small discovery in 2001. The mouse lemur of northeastern Madagascar is the world's smallest primate. If he looks a little spacey, it's due to the tranquilizer, not my squeezing.

 

Education is key for conservation, and it's vitally important the locals be involved—especially the kids, who will inherit this land and these animals. Many children in Madagascar have never seen a lemur, even though lemurs are only found there.

 

On the side of Mount Roraima, a
tepui,
or tabletop mountain, in Guyana. I had never spent the night with a more gorgeous view. It was also the only time I lay suspended above the clouds with a small pin holding up my tent.

 

My grin atop Mount Roraima comes from having survived the climb and near starvation. We found a spectacular landscape up there—black, forbidding, primeval.