A FANTASTIC TIME

We have been back for two weeks now from our amazing trip to Thailand. I know a lot of you are eagerly awaiting details so I will be putting these up in the next few days. In the meantime take a look at this lovely pic and video

Jungle Jane

Off On Another Adventure!

Oh wow such excitement, am off again very soon on another wildlife adventure. This time I won't be alone but will be accompanied by my very own Tarzan (Martin). I was going to go out on my own but I couldn't face it after the hard time I had last time in Cameroon. I didn't go into it much here but some of the people were not nice at all, most unpleasant. The animals were all great though

So this time we're going to - wait for it - Thailand! We are going to work with elephants. We start off in Chiang Mai which is in the north of the country and spend a couple of nights there, also taking in a city tour which will entail using several modes of transport with our personal guide. We are supposed to be walking and cycling amongst other things

Then we will make our way to the headquarters of the Elephant Nature Park Foundation where we will sign in and be taken the one hour's journey to the park itself to begin our week looking after our giant pachyderm friends. We shall be living in a bamboo hut amid the elephants, all of whom have been rescued from hardship and cruelty. Our duties include preparing their food, feeding and washing the jumbos in the local river. They have around 30 elephants at the moment and around 65 dogs too, so I reckon we will never be lonely!

Am packing the video camera as well as 2 dslr cameras and lenses plus my new underwater camera, not to mention M's camera too. So, you will all be able to share some (hopefully) amazing moments with us

We are also staying with a local tribe in the jungle before flying down south to the golden beaches where I have organised a 3 day snorkel trip. We will taken by speed boat to a desert island where we will stay and swim with turtles and baby sharks (if they turn up lol)

I am already planning next year and hopefully will be going to Zambia to work with chimps. Or perhaps South Africa to work with orphaned babboons. Not sure yet, but it will be with primates again. Life is short so do it while you can!

JUNGLE JANE AND THE PRIMATES

BEST FRIENDS

LOVE

Playmates

Jane and Mr Mandrill

Pineapple Drill

I completely fell in love with these amazing and incredibly rare monkeys

A DREAM COME TRUE

This is something that I always dreamed of, but never thought I would fulfill - to spend some time with chimpanzees. This was a wonderful, magical time for me.

GORILLA TOUCH

THE THINKER

JANE AND NEW FRIENDS

This is me spending a magical afternoon with the gorillas. They were very curious and not aggressive

BEAUTIFUL SOUL

This is a wonderful female gorilla who I spent some time with one afternoon. She was very gentle and very curious. She eventually got hold of a stick and very gently poked my foot with it. Not in a malicious way, but in a soft, curious way.

GOING BANANAS

This is me, Monica and Hose in banana hell. Each day there seemed to be a shortage of ripe bananas and the job was to sort through hundreds to find just a few ripe ones. A hot and sticky job. Here I am on the phone to my agent asking what had gone wrong...

Hose's father was apparently the local "man from del monte" as Del Monte actually donate all the bananas.

THOUGHTS ON CHIMPS

While the memories are still fresh in my mind, some chimpanzee observations: Well first of all, they are so incredibly strong! Even the little ones, their strength is absolutely amazing. Considering these captive ones don't spend all their days swinging through the forest their muscles are amazing. If we wanted physiques like them I should imagine we would have to spend hours every day lifting weights and training really hard. How on earth do they have such strong and well-toned muscles?

And their hair - I always thought it would be soft, like ours, especially the babies. But no. It's strong and wirey - more like a dog's coarse coat. And some of them, when you look through their hair, their skin is very much like mine, quite a light colour, the same as me.

When you look into their eyes it is amazing. Such a look of recognition back. Such a look of "sameness", familiarity, of coming home. Stunning. They know. And I know that they know.

DIVINE TOUCH

This was a very very special moment for me. When a female chimpanzee reached out to me and I took her hand. A very unique and wonderful and touching moment, one I will never forget. It also saddens me. She was in a cage in quarentine, separated from the rest of the chimps to protect her and her little baby and I guess to give them space before they rejoined the group. She had a sadness about her. She needed to be romping through the forest (a few miles every day) with her own kind, far away from human intervention, cruelty and selfishness...

This is my hand holding a beautiful mummy chimp's hand as she reached out to me as she sat in quarentine. She had a lovely little baby. At first she was very wary of me and hid her baby, but as time went on she trusted me enough to actually touch her little baby

This is the rough track leading up to the house. The green gate on the right is the entrance. We had to unlock this heavy gate, then there was a heavy metal outer door to the house, then an inner door. Phew.

This was our house. You can see the front here, where we dried our clothes.