The 2006 Gambia Expedition

And now THIS happens

2007-09-20T07:13:00.001-07:00

The CFZ are off again. Check out the blog of their Guyana expedition

Dr Karl Shuker writes

2006-08-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

I was very interested and pleased to learn of the team's unearthing of new info re the ninki nanka, which indicates that it is similar to or synonymous with the crowing crested cobra, reported widely across Africa.As for the Gambian sea serpent: I am sad, though not overly surprised, that the body was not recovered - it was always most likely that after having been buried on a beach over 20 years ago, its remains would have disappeared, which is a great pity as its conclusive identification would have ended a longstanding mystery.As it is, the naming of it as a huge dolphin by the eyewitness inteviewed by the team is unfortunately of little if any use in furthering the matter of its identity. Many years ago, this creature's principal eyewitness, Owen Burnham, an honorary Senegambian Mandinka fluent in their language, revealed to me a very pertinent piece of etymlogical information - I've just been re-reading his letter describing this issue, which I have on file. The local tribespeaople in this area of West Africa do not create new names for any rare or mysterious creature encountered by them. Instead, even if it only vaguely resembles a more common animal, it is immediately called by the name that they give that common animal. So if a mystery animal had, for example, a dolphin-like beak, or dolphin-like flippers, this would be enough for them to call it a dolphin, irrespective of any non-delphinoid features that it possessed, which, in the Gambian beast's case, included nostrils at the end of its beak, a long fluke-less tail, two pairs of limbs, and no dorsal fin. Indeed, this etymological situation is exactly what Owen himself encountered back in the 1980s when investigating his sighting - locals to whom he described his beast referrred to it as a dolphin - even though Owen's description and detailed drawings clearly suggested otherwise, and even though the locals themselves knew that it wasn't a dolphin! It's just that they didn't have any other name for it.It seems safe to say that the mystery of just what Owen did see lying on Bungalow Beach two decades ago is destined to remain precisely that, but the CFZ team should be congratulated for their valiant bid to solve it by actually going out to the source and seeking the carcase. If only more field searches like this one were conducted, we may all learn a lot more, because however much discussion occurs regarding the identity of a given cryptid, ultimately the only way in which a conclusive answer can ever be obtained is by examining physical evidence. So well done for trying, guys - and every success for your next planned Gambian trip to continue your ninki nanka investigations.

No sleep till .......................WOOLSERY!

2006-07-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought that it couldn't get any stranger, it does!

The other afternoon we had a telephone call from MTV in Canada. Their special guests that evening were pioneering rock/rap act The Beastie Boys, and much to my delight (I have happy memories of annoying my ex wife by playing `Licence to Ill` very loud about 20 years ago), it turns out that the band are actually fans of the CFZ and have been following our activities in West Africa.

The upshot was that Richard was a guest (via telephone) on the show that evening, and the CFZ's ongoing mission to fight for our right to party was upheld.

Strange old world innit?

So, you thought it was all over?

2006-07-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

For immediate release:
21 July 2006

Six explorers from the Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] - the world’s largest organization studying mystery animals - have returned from a two-week expedition to the West African country of The Gambia. The CFZ are happy to announce that the expedition was a resounding success.

One of the most interesting findings was that not only is there still – at the beginning of the 21st Century – a firm belief in, and fear of, a monster called the Ninki Nanka in The Gambia, but that practically everything that has been written about the animal in the west has been wrong. The hunt for Ninki Nanka started decades ago, after Dr. Thomas Dalrymple, a retired Medical Officer from H.M Colonial Civil Service, reported having heard of a dragon-like creature in the Gambia River in 1935. Since then, the creature has appeared in dozens of books on mystery animals – always portrayed as a giant lizard or dinosaur-like creature!

The `J.T.Downes memorial expedition`, which returned to the UK a few days ago, can conclusively report that all the evidence actually points to an unknown species of giant snake, possibly with horn-like growths on its head.

“The sense of terror that this creature engenders is palpable”, says Richard Freeman (36), the Zoological Director of the CFZ. “Even Park Rangers refused to take us into areas where they believed this creature to live. Everyone reported it as being a huge snake with reflective scales and a crest. Most people fear it so much that they believe that to see it is death”.

The expedition garnered more information than ever before on the animal including:

An eye-witness who claims to have seen Ninki Nanka within the past few years
Information on three possible western eyewitnesses of Ninki Nanka
Links between the Ninki Nanka and pre-Muslim animist religions of The Gambia
New data on sightings at Abuko national park in 1943 and 1947.

However, it appears that the animal is now extinct in the lower reaches of The Gambia at least, and plans are now afoot to launch another expedition to investigate recent reports, further inland, in Guinea.

But the expedition also went to solve another mystery – that of a mysterious carcass buried on Bungalow Beach in 1983. “Amateur naturalist Owen Burnham tells a story about how, as a teenager, he witnessed the carcass of a massive sea creature that resembled a pliosaur being buried on the beach. Pliosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago, and so if we had managed to dig up bones of a contemporaneous specimen, it would be a big deal indeed” said Oll Lewis (26), the expedition’s ecologist.

Sadly, although the expedition excavated the beach, they found no bones, and discovered that the carcass would have rotted away years ago, because despite Burnham’s hope that it had been buried above the tide line, as soon as the hole was under a foot deep it began to fill with seawater.

However, the team did interview a witness to the original incident, who described it as a huge “dolphin”, but without a dorsal fin. Whether the fin had been removed by trauma, or it is a rare species without one is unknown, but expedition leader Chris Moiser (51), a Plymouth based zoologist, and long-term member of the Permanent Directorate of the CFZ believes that it may be one of the beaked whales; obscure and little known species which are found in most of the world’s oceans. “Some are only known from bones, and we have no idea what they look like alive” he said.

The final objective of the expedition was also a success. Armitage’s skink (Chalcides armitagei) is a small lizard known only from three specimens found in 1922, and a handful of others about fifteen years ago. The only area where the animal was known to live was cleared for development some years ago, and it was feared that the species was either on the edge of extinction or had gone forever.

The expedition failed in its hope of producing the first film of the living animals, but did manage to locate people who have seen it recently, and can announce that the known habitat for the creature has now been extended by 20-30 miles from the original place where it was found. “This is excellent news” said CFZ Director Jon Downes (46) who co-ordinated Mission Control at the CFZ headquarters in rural North Devon. “That means that the species may be viable after all, and would seem to be an excellent candidate for a captive breeding and reintroduction programme”.

The expedition will present their findings at the annual CFZ Conference in August, when a book of the expedition will be published.

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS:+ The Centre for Fortean Zoology is a non profit-making organisation, which was founded in 1992. Over the last 14 years we have mounted expeditions to Central America, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Mexico, Mongolia, Sumatra, and various parts of the United States, as well as numerous investigations in the UK. Further information on the CFZ can be found on the website, www.cfz.org.uk.

+ Team members were· Chris Moiser: Zoologist and team leader· Dr Chris Clark: Engineer· Lisa Dowley: First aid and security expert· Richard Freeman: cryptozoologist· Oll Lewis: Ecologist· Suzi Marsh: computer expert

+ Future CFZ projects include an online TV Station (www.cfztv.com), and the first museum of cryptozoology in Europe, on which building work will begin this autumn.+ C F Z director Jonathan Downes has written numerous books on the subject of mystery animals. The latest, entitled `Monster Hunter` is his long awaited autobiography. Zoological Director Richard Freeman is the author of `Dragons: More than a myth?`, the first scientific look at the subject since the late 19th century, and expedition leader Chris Moiser is the author of several books including `Mystery Sea-serpents of the south-west` (Bossiney books).+ The honorary life President of the Centre for Fortean Zoology is renowned explorer, author and soldier Colonel John Blashford-Snell OBE, best known for his pioneering Operation Drake and Operation Raleigh expeditions during the 1970s.

+ The expedition was dedicated to the memory of the late J.T.Downes I.S.O, a West African explorer and colonial service officer, and father of the director of the CFZ. He died in February and donations to the expedition fund were made in his name.+ The CFZ is looking for corporate and private sponsors

+ Pictures from the expedition are available, and Richard Freeman is available for interview. Please telephone Jon or Oll on +44 (0)1237 431413

Th-th-th-thats all folks

2006-07-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Final Thoughts

Oll Lewis

Looking at the various witness statements it seems clear that in the Gambia the name 'Ninki-Nanka' doesn't apply to an animal of any one particular appearance; some say it has legs, others that it has wings, or even that it's some sort of serpent of monstrous proportions. There are a few things that have been consistent in nearly all of the sightings reported though, particularly the crest on its head, a large body size and scales. What is ever present though and remarkably consistent is the folklore surrounding the Ninki-Nanka; the creature is said to bring death and is much feared in the Gambia and if you don't die immediately upon sighting it you can be brought down by a mysterious illness, the only protection from which is said to be spiritual, usually from an imam. Where traditions of the old animalist religions of Gambia have been absorbed into Islam, like at the sacred crocodile pool of Folonko, the Ninki-Nanka is sung about when a newly circumcised person takes their first ritual bath in the river about 2 weeks after being cut at the crocodile pool in order to ward off the Ninki-Nanka. Practices like this suggest that perhaps the Ninki-Nanka has been blamed for sudden deaths of people in the Gambia going back as far as when animalist religions were widely practiced in the area and could even have been the origin of the folklore in the first instance. More research would need to be undertaken to prove or disprove this theory of course. On balance I think that the Ninki-Nanka is a mix between vibrant and compelling folklore and sightings of unfamiliar animals in an area.
Gambo, the mystery creature of Bungalow beach, is likely just a large dolphin that was in a fairly bad way when it was washed up on the beach. Although the bones are almost certainly gone for good, rotted away in wet sand if not removed during the construction of Destiny’s nightclub, we did manage to locate a new eye witness who like everyone else bar Owen Burnam has identified it as a dolphin. I must admit I was a little sorry that it turned out that Gambo was nothing too unusual, but you have to base your conclusions on the available evidence.
All in all this expedition has been rather fruitful in my opinion as we have uncovered a lot of new information about the Ninki-Nanka and laid to rest the story of Gambo.

Richard Freeman

Perhaps, once, long ago, there was some kind of creature lurking in the swamps and forests of the Gambia but I think it is long gone. What remains is a distorted folk memory of something huge and awful. This something has become a convenient bogeyman onto which locals can blame accidents, bad luck and death. What the original Ninki-Nanka was is the $64,000 question. Maybe some kind of huge snake or a demonised python god from a pre-Islamic snake worship cult.
Ninki-Nanka is also a means by which locals can twist cash out of westerners. Shortly after the broadcast of my radio interview everyone became a Ninki-Nanka expert. People knew where to find the dragon, for insane fees of course. Others claimed they could photograph it, for money naturally. In a country so filled with scams finding the truth behind Ninki-Nanka, if there ever was any, would be a daunting task. We have however laid the groundwork for any glutton for punishment who wants to continue the quest beset by bums and scammers. Perhaps a country less open to tourism might yield better results.
The smart money is on Gambo being some kind of cetacean, possibly a bottle nosed dolphin or a young beaked whale.
As for me, I think the CFZ's limited resources would be better spent elsewhere.

Lisa Dowley

This was my first jaunt abroad with the CFZ, and I have enjoyed being part of the team immensely, however at times I have become somewhat confused and at times disparaged with the descriptions and alleged sightings of Ninki-Nanka, even more so after the BBC broadcast, when everyone seemed to be aware of the whereabouts of what they perceived to be a Ninki-Nanka. However, they were only prepared to point us in the general direction of one (for a ridiculous fee, naturally) as the fear of seeing it, even in the 21st century, seems to evoke waves of fear within certain groups of local people. I think perhaps in a by-gone time there was once creature/s of immense size that commanded fear throughout the mangroves of Gambia, and these accounts have been passed via the traditions of the elders of villages. These oral traditions have then taken on a modern interpretation as they have been passed down to the present day. After being here and exploring and listening to the many accounts I feel that one of the strongest leads is the area of Guinea (as we had two separate accounts based in this area and the creature going by another name but having very similar descriptions) as this part of West Africa has next to no tourist trade and is very under explored and as a consequence very little is known of its fauna.
As for Gambo, only the sands on Bungalow beach have the answer to that question, and with so much development occurring in the last 23 years, the beach is almost completely different with the advancement of buildings etc. My money would be on the actual creature in all probability being a rare type of dolphin

Suzi Marsh

I feel that we have achieved a lot on this expedition; with regards to Ninki Nanka, we have not only amassed a large amount of data in terms of stories that have been passed down within families and tribes for generations, we have also collected the first recorded eyewitness testimony and come away with a substantial amount of information on modern sightings, which were few and far between before this trip. We have also taken things as far as they can be taken with the mystery of Bungalow Beach; we are in a position to surmise that the carcass was most likely that of a dolphin missing its dorsal fin, and have confirmed that whatever was buried there has sadly been lost to both natural and manmade interference.

As seems to be often the case with such things, in finding answers to old questions we have come away with many new ones. We have some exciting leads on Ninki Nanka that we can follow up on our return to the UK, and most of us have developed our own avenues of thought as to what the creature could be. Personally, I believe it could be a case of occasional sightings of exceptionally large snakes, possibly with a deformity or other natural anomaly causing a crest-like formation on their heads, combining with local folklore of a dragon like being; although, in true Fortean style, I am open to speculation and certainly don’t see this as a given conclusion. One thing that is certain, however, is that in the minds of the Gambian people the Ninki Nanka is as real as anything else, and still, in the 21st century, a cause of great fear and suspicion.
.
Chris Moiser

In a way if we had found any definitive answers on our quests the trip would have been a failure. Really we have only raised more questions, by answering some of the original questions that we came to answer.

Ninki Nanka, well the story continues, but we have, at least, added some greater accuracy to earlier reports. It has though, as Richard has identified, now become another potential source of income for some of the local “tourist-exploiters”. It did, however, also bring out the best in some of the locals; at least one local policeman, and Maryam (at Abuko) put themselves out, without any expectation of reward, to help us. An animal may exist in the mangroves, which still, despite the Gambia’s high population density, can form a frighteningly large and lonely area. If it is does the individuals that get into Gambia are probably only stragglers from a much more remote area such as the Fouta Djallon in Guinea.

Gambo, by virtue of when and where it is buried is more open to investigation, both by questioning and excavating, although the construction of the night club on the site did not help us at all. Pilot holes did not reveal anything, but questioning of one of the older men in the market does suggest a cetacean with some minor changes. More of that when we go through our notes.

Armitage’s skink, we didn’t see one, but we know a man that did, and photographed it. We also have data that extends its range beyond that previously reported, so partial success there.

My ambition for the future: to take a landing craft up the Gambia River and investigate the Ninki Nanka story from the river.

Chris Clark

It seems to be a property of the other creatures that the CFZ has looked for that the closer you get to the source of the stories the more consistent and rational the accounts become. The Mongolian Death Worm loses its electric powers, ceases to spit poison and dwindles to a featureless two-foot snake-like creature. Orang pendek walks through the jungle investigating fallen logs; it never yodels, does cartwheels or displays a tail. Ninki-Nanka, on the other hand, becomes more diverse as we investigate it. It sometimes has legs or even wings, sometimes has only a snake-like body. Its head is like a horse, or else is round; the head bears a crest which in turn has Islamic verses, which it is death to read. The length may be anything up to 150 feet. Unfortunately we were based in an urban area, where the people have no first-hand evidence of the creature: our only eye-witness account came when we drove 150 km into the countryside. Everything else is derived from an uncle or grandfather, now dead. The creature may have no objective basis at all: it is only two generations since Patrick Leigh Fermor was given detailed accounts by Greek peasants of the appearance and habits of a man-like creature with goat’s legs called the Kallikantzaros, a being quite certainly fictional and presumably based on the classical satyr. In the same way, the Ninki-Nanka may be no more than a folk-tale; if a large snake should appear the name Ninki-Nanka will be applied to it.

Certainly it is difficult to get reliable accounts. Now that our purpose has become common knowledge the professional friends who follow you on the street offering various services have become more ambitious: only an hour ago I was greeted as I stepped out of the hotel with the cry ‘Hello, you want to see dragon?’. In these circumstances all accounts become suspect. Perhaps the only real hope is a water-based expedition, entirely self-contained, which could investigate right up the River Gambia, putting into creeks to follow up any promising report.

The sun sets on another cfz expedition - but the mystery continues....

Lisa writes....

2006-07-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

The mangroves of Mandinari

Yesterday morning shortly after breakfast Richard got a phone call from a woman by the name of Mariama (who works at Abuko National Park), saying that a man had told her that he knew where Ninki-Nanka lived. He said it was in a hole in some mangrove swamps, in a place called Mandinari, just down the road from Abuko, and that he also said that if you threw a dog into the hole it would bring Ninki-Nanka out to eat the dog. Richard was interested by such news, but point blank declined the use of a dog, opting for a chicken instead.

We had already decided to go to Abuko in search of the English guy who was said to have seen Ninki-Nanka some years ago, but all we had to go on was his Mandinka name of 'Sudokodo' (we were hoping to check with the records kept at the lodge house on site), so calling into Mandinari was no problem really as it was en-route.

Just as we were all sitting down to dinner Richard was summoned to the reception as there was a phone call for him so he hurriedly left the table, some time passed, he returned with a somewhat stern look on his face. Apparently the call was from the actual man who allegedly knew where Ninki-Nanka could be found. He had asked Richard if he was the man that had been on the wireless the day before, 'the Ninki-Nanka hunter', he replied yes, the man then said he knew where there was a real Ninki-Nanka at Mandinari and that he could lead us there, but he would not go all the way as he was fearful of death if he did so. He said he would go within 50 yards of it and point the rest of the way. He then said that if you see this dragon 'YOU WILL DIE'; this was said rather ardently. Richard replied that he was not scared of dragons, and that we have many dragon stories in England. The man then said that this was different, as this was an African dragon, and then proceeded to ask repeatedly “what do i get?, telling Rich to tell the people in reception to “shut up” as they were making a noise. By this time Rich's suspicions were raised, suspicions which turned out to be well founded when the guy started to make demands of upwards of £2000, £3000, £4000, £5000, as if in some cryptozoological auction!. Rich politely told the man that he would have to discuss this with the rest of the group.

It was agreed by all to decline offer/demand, however we did elect to go to the mangroves at Mandinari en-route to Abuko and have a look round ourselves.

We woke Sunday morning to heavy humidity, the worst it’s been during our time here, which was surprising, as it had rained heavily during the night. We had breakfast, got ourselves ready, and by 10am we were waiting for our trusty chauffer/guide/protector, Assan. We climbed aboard the mini-bus and asked him to take us to Mandinari. The journey was somewhat bumpy as the nightime down pours had had an effect on the road, namely that any infill had been washed away leaving large pot-holes strewn across our route, but Assan with his ever careful driving avoided most of them.

When we reached the mangrove area of Mandinari the tide was out, so we were able to negotiate into the swamps a little way, crunching along the shell strewn paths and getting a feel of the environment. There was a small wooden and somewhat rickety jetty that some of us ventured onto, at the end of which were the local village children swimming. The only wildlife we observed in this vast swampland were little bee-eaters, mudskippers, fiddler crabs, and the locals who began to follow us and ask us for our possessions (at one stage this incuded Suzi).

1-2-3-4-5 We saw baby crocs alive

Having only wandered and explored a small proportion of this mangrove, which has a total mass is approximately 10km, it is quite easy to see how people can become disorientated and lost, and why such places hold great mystique and allure for humans ascribing it as the home to such creatures as the Ninki-Nanka. We bid farewell to the small group that had become interested in us, and made our way to Abuko.

Steady on that Jetty

On arrival we asked if anyone could remember Sudokodo, they didn’t, so we made our way into the park, and towards the Darwin Centre tower in a bid to observe the Nile crocs they have there. We watched for some time, but all the crocs would give us was a few bubbles. We were then joined by a not-so-expert-guide, who led us to the other pool where we actually saw in total 11 baby crocs, so it’s good to know that they are breeding successfully. We then made our way round Abuko; unfortunately the guide we had was not very good and made more noise than all of us put together, so on this occasion we did not see a great deal, apart from a ground squirrel, vervet and red colobus monkeys. I also noticed that Chris Moiser was in fact giving the tour guide more information than he was giving us. We reached the cafe and stopped for some well needed refreshment, and as we departed the guide then tried to tell Chis that the Aldabran giant tortoise was native to the area! Chris corrected him on this matter and we moved on. As we neared the exit this so called guide began working his way down the line which was our group asking for, well anything really, money, watches; he was most unprofessional, unlike the first guide, Musa Jatta, who really did know his stuff. Ahh.. well the luck of the draw i suppose!

Sampling refreshment at Max's Bar

On leaving the park we made our way across the road to Assan who was waiting for us in a little bar owned by a Rasta by the name of Max, who was a refreshingly honest chap. Max told us of a place he thought the Ninki-Nanka may reside, ”Bintang Bolon is a place where you may find what you are looking for”, he told us, however he wouldn’t go because he had a near death experience where he had nearly drowned there as a small boy. Even now he will not wash in the river. He also told us that the founder of Abuko, a Mr Edward Brewer, had at some stage erected a mirror akin to the one that was erected in the 1940s after Papa Jinda was supposedly killed by the ninki-nanka. It is not clear whether this was done to appease the locally employed people at the park or for other reasons.

As we approach the end of this expedition I feel we have more new information and leads than answers to the questions we arrived with surrounding Ninki-Nanka, and I strongly feel that the possible root to these answers lies in less well explored areas of West Africa; a possible candidate for this I feel would be Guinea, as its relatively tourist free and poorly explored. All in all it’s been one heck of an eye-opening, interesting expedition.

A quick note from Chris Moiser

2006-07-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hi, mega probs in getting reports off to you today. Ollie is currently on the other machine here doing it now.Went to the Gambian Daily observer today and gave our story to the security man, the editor, and a reporter. The reporter we found out to be the agricultural correspondent. It all was treated with much more interest when the senior reporter came in and asked if we had heard about the report on the BBC about Ninki nanka. We then pointed to Richard and said it was him.We were then taken to a nearby internet cafe with a memory stick so that we could donwload the CFZ site report for them. We ended up paying for the internet cafe! and then back to the observer office for a photograph. We had the photograph done on the balcony there, under a mango tree. I pointed out to the reporter that Lisa loves mangos, so the reporter picked her one! As the Agriculture correspondent I believe that it was a good mango!We may be in tomorrows paper which we will try and get before we get taken to the airport. If not it may be under Gambia on www.allafrica.com There is also a Gambia Daily Observer website, but I do not know its address.

Chris. M.

Fun Fun Fun with The Beach Boys

2006-07-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

As the CFZ get to work, a large lizard (ahem) MONITORS the situation

Gambo, Sacred Trees, Ninki-Nanka, Giant Snakes And A Legend Put To Rest.

By OLL LEWIS

This morning we set off bright and early to search for the truth behind two modern day Gambian legends. The first of these, and potentially the easiest to verify, was that of the Bakau Ninki-Nanka hole.

According to local folklore, when a hotel near the coast called the Palma Rima was being built in around 1990, the builders would not commence building work because the area was rumoured to be the home of a Ninki-Nanka, that would come out of a large hole on a regular basis. No one was brave enough to hunt the Ninki-Nanka so the hole was filled in while it was away and an established tree planted over the hole, meaning the Ninki-Nanka would not be able to use this particular lair and be forced to move on. According to the legend the plan worked; the Ninki-Nanka was never seen in the area again, and work continued on the nearby hotel. Hooray.
Making conversation with our taxi driver Assan, who works nearby at the Bungalow beach hotel (our man in Havana, if you will), I had asked him his opinion on the Palma Rima Ninki-Nanka story. Assan was of the opinion that the creature was certainly not Ninki-Nanka, but in fact a very large python that locals had perhaps mistaken for the Ninki-Nanka. However, Ninki-Nanka or not, the words 'very large python' were certainly enough to keep our interest. After all, the eye witness we found near Dumbltore claimed that the Ninki-Nanka he saw was a snake of immense proportions. Walking across the paddy fields behind the Palma Rima Chris Moiser noticed one tree that was rather different to the others and halfway between the road and the path, which was where we had been told to look for the tree. We gingerly approached the tree, walking over the small ridges in the fields so we could be sure we weren't trampling a farmer's rice crop, and saw it was a baobab tree. Baobab trees are often considered to be sacred trees, and this tree certainly was, as prayers had been stuffed into knot holes and even hammered into its trunk using steel bolts. The tree itself was clearly over 16 years old, so if this was the tree it had been well established before it was transplanted in the hole. To have replanted a baobab over the Ninki-Nanka's hole would also have served to calm the fears of the builders, as it would perhaps offer them a sort of spiritual protection from an angry and newly homeless monster who, according to rumour, could kill you without even needing to touch you.

Approaching the Sacred Baobab Tree

Close up of the prayers inserted in the sacred tree

From the baobab tree we walked onwards to investigate the second modern legend of the day: Gambo, the mystery creature of Bungalow Beach.

Gambo was an animal allegedly washed up on Bungalow Beach in 1983. According to Owen Burnham, who was 14 at the time, the strange creature bore a resemblence to a pliosaur and was buried on the beach, 3 feet under the sand and above the tideline. We had some soft drinks in the bar at the Bungalow Beach Hotel while we reviewed Burnam's map of where Gambo had been buried and planned our next move. Our investigation had already been compromised by the fact that the paved beer garden of a nightclub had been built next to the hotel, infringing on the exact spot, indicated by the map, where Gambo had been buried. The investigation was further hampered by the fact that the nightclub was owned by the presidents brother; one thing you don't want when digging a 3 foot deep hole in the hope of finding the mortal remains of a cryptid is the secret police turning up with the army in tow. Try explaining that to a policeman:

"Stop that right now what are you up to?" the policeman might enquire.

"We're trying to dig up what might possibly be an unknown species of animal." might come the reply, which might have resulted in us being kept in Gambia longer than we'd originally planned.

Richard digs a hole...

Oll digs another...

while Chris M keeps the locals at bay (and pretends he is nothing to do with the rest of the party

Thankfully, all we had to contend with was the local beach crowd, who often follow tourists around, pretend to know them and then ask for money. We had had to contend with these people before, and they could be a bit of a pain to say the least. However, this time, as we excavated the sand as near as possible to the cross on Owen's map, we were provided with the perfect opportunity to get our own back on them. Maybe they will talk for years to come about the day the troop of six scientists from the geology department of 'Woolfardisworthy University' came to investigate beach erosion in the Gambia by digging a series of 70 cm (3ft) deep holes in the sand, of the short lecture on sand dynamics and erosion Chris Moiser gave them, and of Dr Chris Clark's 'tricorder'. By the time we had finished the sadly fruitless search for Gambo's bones the beach boys were offering to help us dig and all wanted to be scientists too.

The story of Gambo dosen't end there though. It does seem that it might have been a dolphin after all from what another eyewitness, local shopowner Baka, told us when we asked him about the incident in 1983. Baka was present when Gambo was washed up and he said that Gambo had been a large dolphin, missing its dorsel fin, which had been washed up on the beach where it vomited and died. I also aquired a carving of a dolphin in Abuko that looked very simmilar to Owen Burnam's description of Gambo, so it's tempting to assume that the animal was, as so many people have insisted, just a dolphin. Sadly, our excavations on Bungalow Beach also showed that the sand is moist from 40 cm (1ft 4ins) down in the area where Gambo was buried, so it is likely that the creature's bones rotted away some time ago even before the nightclub was built.

On a lighter note, however, I found out from interviewing staff at the Bungalow Beach Hotel that these days when large animals wash up on the beach they are required to call a local vet, who will arrange for them to be taken away and disposed of accordingly. So, presumably, if anything like Gambo washes up on a Gambian beach again it will be looked at by a scientist rather than being left to rot under the sand.

Richard's thoughts after ten days...

2006-07-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

The habitat of Armitage's skink

Day 10, 13th July

I was interviewed by a man from BBC World Service Africa. He asked all the usual questions: why are you here? What is Ninki-Nanka? Have you seen it? He also said that some listeners might think it was just an excuse for a holiday. I explained that our group counted among it a zoologist, an archaeologist, a biologist, an ecologist, and even an astrophysicist.

Later that day we travelled down to Gunjur Beach. Luke had told us that a couple of Rastafarian men who owned a beach bar had provided him with two specimens of Armitage's skink. After traversing a foul smelling fish market we came upon the bar. It was a tumbled down wooden shanty, festooned with wind chimes created from sea shells. They jangled eerily. The owner was a friendly guy. We ordered a round of soft drinks and then asked him about the skink. He confirmed that he had caught two in his toilet and passed them on to Luke at the Gambian Reptile Park. He described them as around 10 inches long, as thick as his finger and sandy brown with a black stripe.

We asked him about Ninki-Nanka and he said that it was an animal so powerful that those who saw it died. He had known people who had seen it but they were 'no longer conscious'.
We walked along the beach towards the grassy dunes that Luke had told us were the skink's habitat. A local beach bum and his dog started to follow us quite unbidden. He trailed round after us where ever we went. Suzi asked him to leave and he ignored her. I asked him why he was following us and he said he wanted to 'help us' (i.e. get some money off us) We told him we were scientists looking for lizards and that his dog was scaring them away. Finally he left.

We searched the dunes as the temperature became cooler but found nothing. We began to walk back along them, looking for a suitable area to sit quietly as the sun set and watch for the skinks. Unfortunately the pestering beach bum reappeared (this time sans dog) and proceeded to attach himself to our group. He claimed to have seen a snake beside the road 4 years previously, but he said it was green.

Hunting for the skink

At this point it may be useful to look back on the descriptions of Ninki-Nanka that we have received:

Baka Samba, Mr Fixit, whose uncle saw the dragon: Huge and terrible, has fire in the mouth.
Musa Jatta, guide at Abuko: It is like a huge python. It is big enough to swallow a whole cow. It has legs, and wings like a bat's. It breathes fire.
Hassan Jinda, grandson of victim Papa Jinda: It is unimaginably big. If you see the front of it you cannot see the end. It has a crown of fire on its head. Male and female have different crowns. Its scales glitter.
Dodgy fishmarket guy 1: It is like a snake, but it can grow as big as a palm tree. Its scales are like mirrors and you can see yourself in them. When it grows big it goes into the sea.
Dodgy Fishmarket guy 2: It has a snake like body and a face like a kangaroo. It has a forked tongue.
Momomudu park ranger at Kiang West, and so far our only first hand witness: It has a face like a horse. A feather like crest falls down over its face. Its scales are reflective like mirrors, mainly black and green. 50 meters long by 1 meter wide. Snake like body.

None of the descriptions match up. Crests, reflective scales and a snaky body do seem to be constants, as does the idea of seeing a Ninki-Nanka leading to death. I am considerably less convinced of the existence of this creature than other beasts I have hunted such as the Naga, Orang-Pendek, and the Mongolian Deathworm.

Chris Clark writes...

2006-07-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the CFZ has now extended its activities to the very frontier of Senegal. Today we travelled to the far south of Gambia, to the Allahein river, and went out in two dug-out canoes much like those we used to cross Gunung Tujuh in Sumatra. We circled the mangrove swamps, at one point coming within touching distance of Senegal (the river forms the frontier here), and made a landing at a likely spot, but saw little except small crabs. The existence of a Swedish-built tourist pavilion a little further along suggested that we had not yet crossed the boundaries of civilisation.

Richard and Suzi looking across at Senegal

On the way back, we passed through the Kartong area and stopped at the village of Follonko to see one of Gambia's sacred crocodile pools. We began by removing our shoes as though we were approaching a mosque, but this was the last Islamic element of the experience.Our guide told us that the pool is associated with female circumcision ceremonies and with people hoping for children; Chris M added later that the site is also popular with wrestlers. Although the pool, much shrunken with the dry season and covered with water-hyacinth, contains well over a dozen crocs, only one juvenile specimen was visible. It is said to contain one albino crocodile: if you see this, we were told, you will shortly become a great man. No member of the party claims to have seen it.

A juvenile inhabitant of the sacred crocodile pool

We stopped at the Gambia Reptile Park, and were given a tour of the snakes (and other animals). We were able to hold a Ball Python, an African Egg-Eater and a Shovel-Headed snake. The more dangerous creatures, such as the Spitting Cobras and Puff Adders, remained in their enclosures. The Park also takes in other creatures in need of attention, including a young baboon and a fine pelican. When the owner, a Frenchman called Luke Paziand, found that Richard was experienced with reptiles he came out for a long talk with us. Over a pastis Luke explained the work of the Park and recent knowledge about venomous snakes (humans are vulnerable to the cytotoxin element of the spitting cobra but not the neurotoxin: if bitten, you may lose the limb but will not necessarily die). The interview was interrupted by Luke's four children, particularly a delightful two-year old boy who used all members of the party indiscriminately as a climbing frame.

Puff Adder

Luke Paziand

Chris Clark with Ball (Royal) Python

The trip ended back at Bungalow Beach with an encounter with a man called Lami. Speaking in English (his third language, since he is from French-speaking Guinea) he explained how his grandfather had seen Ninki-Nanka, describing it as being like a snake with a round head. For further details he invited us to come to Guinea and speak to his grandfather. He claimed that the old man could even summon Ninki-Nanka for us, like a sort of West African Doc Shiels [Glendower: 'I can summon spirits from the vasty deep'. Hotspur: 'Why so can I, and so can any man. But will they come when you do call?']. However, Guinea is beyond Senegal, and is out of reach on this trip.

The whims of the Gambian banking system mean that there is only one ATM system in the whole country, and it takes a card which only one member of the party possesses even if you can find one that works. The limit on the daily withdrawals meant that we were restricted to £40 among the whole party. I hoped to raise money on my American Express card, and made a phone call to England to get the address of the local office. I got the address and a phone number, and when I asked whether I could get money from the office I was reassured in the sort of tones that you would use to guarantee that the sun would rise tomorrow. Well, the sun has indeed risen, but a phone call to the local office received a flat denial that they had ever supplied money, would ever supply money, or had any money to give. At this point the financial problems of the two most experienced members of the party, who have worked in eight or ten backward countries, were relieved by a timely contribution from the youngest and most inexperienced: so at the risk of embarrassing her, thanks to Suzi for dipping into your emergency fund.

This is getting weird...............

2006-07-14T11:11:00.003-07:00

The media around the world are getting wildly excited about the expedition, just as the supply of news is beginning to dry up! Yesterday we got a double page spread in The Independent, and today we have been on the BBC Online website...

The problem that we have is a technical one. We received this email from Chris Moiser earlier today:

"Hi, Power off all day and the internet people do not use the computers on their own generators (too dangerous voltage surge)".

As the world becomes more technical, and we find that we are living in one great multimedia circus, sometimes it is easy to forget that the vast majority of the human race are not able to make instantaeneous contact with one another. Even at the CFZ it is easy to forget that even two and three years ago during the Sumatra expedition, the boys were out of touch for the entire time they were there. I had a telephpne call from Richard on arrival at Singapore airport on both the outwards and return journeys and that was it! This time life has been much easier...

But it's so bloody frustrating! And it is so easy to misinterpret what the expedition is actually doing. Take Bungalow Beach for example. The bulletins suggest that the area where `Gambo` was buried has been built over completely. But has it? We only have one way communication with the boys (and girls), and whilst this certainly seems likeley, we don't know whether they have managed (or are going to manage)to do some exploratory digging or not...

And the interview with Baka, that I posted earlier. As one correspondent so writely says, this proves that dead and dying animals (including a large cetacean without a back fin) do, indeed, get washed up on that beach. But was it the same incident? Is there any way of telling?

Until the team, return next week, the answer is sadly, NO.

Until then, I suggest that you do what me and Mark are doing back at CFZ Mission Control. Pour yourself a Margarita, sit back and enjoy the ride....

INTERVIEW WITH BAKA SAMBA

2006-07-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Interview with Baka Samba

One one of the first blog postings made after their arrival, the team told us about their encounter with a local shopkeeper, Baka Samba. What we at CFZ base have been waiting for, however, is this following testimony....

Richard: Was your shop here in 1983?
Baka: Yes

R: Do you remember a large animal being washed up on the shore in 1983?
B: Yes, it was a big dolphin

R: How large?
B [pointing from where he was to a breeze block lying on the floor, approximately 10 feet away]: From here to there

R: What happened to it?
B: It was alive when it washed up. Some white men came with a boat and tried to save it, but it was very ill and it vomited and then it died. It was left on the beach.

Oll: Could you draw a picture of it?
Baka: I can't draw

Oll [pointing to a silver pendant of a dolphin]: Was it like that?
B: Yes

O: I'll draw it, and you tell me what it's like
[Oll drew out a picture, following Baka's directions and asking the locations of the fins as he went]

O: Does it have a fin on the back?
B: No, it had no fin on the back
When Richard visited the fish market he drew a picture of what Gambo was supposed to look like and took it with him. He showed it to a fisherman, told them what size it was supposed to be and asked them if they'd ever seen anything like it. They identified it as a sawfish. We will be returning to Bungalow Beach very soon to interview Baka again.

Chris Moiser writes...

2006-07-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

There are fruitbats in the canopy ..... honest!

Monday, and it's Banjul

As an occasional visitor to Banjul I was nominated to write today's report. Banjul is the capital of the Gambia; in the old colonial days it was called Bathurst. After independence the name changed; not just the city, but street names as well. Signs for Wellington Street and Buckle Street are still around though.

The purpose of the visit was multi-purpose; cultural, musical and exploratory. Finding a working cash point would be a bonus. After being dropped at the Atlantic Hotel (toilets, air-conditioining and cold drinks) we walked into town. As an odd looking bunch being led by a middle-aged man in shorts with a purposeful stride we attracted attention, but the local professional friends didn't really show too much interest - we were too much a group on a mission to be ordinary tourists. A military police sergeant, on duty outside part of what used to be government house, looked at the line stretched out behind me, looked at me, smiled and said "You have much work to do". I smiled back and saluted, not quite appropriate, but he returned the salute. Turning and looking at our retinue, it was me, Lisa, Richard, Suzi, Dr. Chris, Ollie, and then apparently an Imam, who seemed to have joined on the end.

We shook the imam off when we went round what used to be McCarthy Square. Into the shopping area proper and I couldn't find the methodist bookshop (used to be the biggest bookshop in the Gambia; cultural, as well religious texts). I did see a police station though, so we went in there to ask - yes they think it still exists and not far away, on the corner of one of the blocks. A plain clothes officer came outside to try and show us the way. As he didn't actually know where it was this was difficult for him. We never did find it. These things often have a serendipitous side to them though, and Dr. Chris saw a cash point. Sadly it was very selective in what European plastic it recognised. Despite encouragement from the locals I was the only one to actually extract anything from it. The maximum withdrawal though is 2000 Dalasis (about £40.00), this comes out as a wad of notes about 1/4 of an inch thick. A trip into the bank revealed many queues with little chance of doing anything but raising temperatures, although as the bank was air-conditioned it was at least a momentary respite from the heat of the day (about 85 degrees, humid and dusty).

All thoughts of getting money abandoned we went on to the market, with the objective of obtaining a copy of the 1980s hit "Ninke Nanke" by Toure Kunde. The professional friends love the market, so much help that they can give to the tourist. The first stall, on the outside, didn't have it, but the security man (3rd generation photocopied identification card - totally illegible) knew where we could. Reluctantly, I followed him into the market. The old Albert market burnt down in the 1980s, the new one is still a maze into which Europeans can disappear. Usually they emerge unscathed, but often poorer. As my new guide led me deeper in I signalled to the rest of the group to stay behind, they did, quite happily. Eventually we ended up at a stall which was clearly closed. Enquiry revealed "This man gone tinkle". After waiting a few minutes I decided to move on and the guide agreed that there were many other music stalls. We found one quickly which was both acceptable to the guide and appeared to have the tune that I wanted. I was instructed to sit whilst the cassette was copied. I sat under a poster stating "The Gambia takes Copyright theft seriously" as my cassette was copied. I then paid an exorbitant price (almost £4.00 sterling equivalent) and left with a casette. The security man/guide who had previously assured me that he didn't want money changed his mind, maybe I give him "small, small money?". A 25 Dalasi note (50p) was clearly far too "small, small" and he was even more upset, when instead of following his directions I went straight back to the group by a direct route of my own choosing. A quick "follow me" route march took us back to the national museum on the edge of town and shook my guide off too. Cold drinks at 20p and admission to the musuem for a £1.00 didn't seem anything but reasonable.

These humans display some odd behaviour!

The museum is entirely devoted to the history of the Gambia, with only a few posters in the natural history section. Cryptozoologically there was nothing except two pictures of CH Armitage when he was governor (1920 - 1927). It would have been nice if he was photographed with his skink, however he was with the prince of Wales, which, for colonial history purposes might possibly be more appropriate. A couple of members of the team bought books on Gambian folklore, hoping for mentions of Ninke Nanke or other strange animals. (There weren't any, although Richard did find mention of a Ghanaian giant snake).

Raising a glass to J.T.Downes (Sr)

After the museum it was five minutes walk back to the Atlantic hotel where we made our way through the main lobby and out to the gardens and pool. Sitting by the pool I tried to order a Chapman's for everyone. A Chapman's is the (soft, fruity) drink that has been drunk at the Atlantic since well before the days of tourism. It is the European Gambian drink. They didn't have a cocktail shaker and so couldn't do one, we made do with the local bottled fruit cocktail. In view of the history of the hotel and its colonial antecedents it seemed the most appropriate place to toast the memory of Mr. Downes Senior; we were all here on the John T. Downes memorial trip and he had spent some time in West Africa (although not The Gambia). I had spoken to him on a couple of occasions about the Gambia and he was keen on colonial history. Having just been to the museum and then being in the original European hotel it just seemed the right place to do it.

Having finished our drinks I then took the group around the corner, but still within the hotel grounds. Here, between the "new hotel" (Built in 1980) and one of the old hotel blocks there is a small square of fairly dense trees, which is usually referred to as the "Atlantic Bird Garden". This enabled us to see the usual speckled pigeons, some Barbary Shrikes, possibly the most colourful of the Gambian medium sized birds, and, to Richard's delight, a bunch of roosting fruit bats. Unfortunately a squadron of hungry mosquitoes then descended upon us, literally after blood, and we had to leave the woods at speed.

Assan - the best taxi service in the whole of Gambia

Our drivers, Assan and Omar, were waiting outside and within 25 minutes had us back at Bakau and the hotel. An afternoon out in Banjul was £12.00 per taxi, including waiting. I regularly use Assan Njie, over the years he has become a friend. His car is well maintained by Gambian standards and he promises "a Happy trip". Despite little cryptozoological content to this trip it was a "happy trip", and we had at least confirmed that we had not missed something that might have been present in the museum, and on show to everyone who could be bothered to look.

Suzi speaks...

2006-07-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

Baboons drop in for a drink

8th July Diary

In my opinion, the most exciting day so far. Following the reports of Abuko employee Bakary Jarju regarding sightings of a Ninki Nanka near his village, Richard, Chris C., Oll and myself took a long journey inland to the area concerned – Kiang West National Park.

The lorry after its ill-fated run in with Ninki Nanka

About half an hour out of Banjul we ran out of paved road, and drove on through a spine-jarring combination of dirt track and tarmac which was more pothole than surface. The further we travelled inland and towards the rural heart of the Gambia, the easier it became to imagine mysterious monsters lurking around each bend in the road. Indeed, that’s just what one unlucky driver and his passenger are said to have encountered one day whilst travelling this route. About 10 miles up the road from Kiang West we came to the site of a crashed lorry, as described to us previously by Abuko guide Musa Jatta. The accident, dated somewhere between 2001 and 2003, was allegedly caused by a Ninki Nanka crossing the road; the animal is said to have left a furrow in the road later turned into a bridge. The wreckage of the lorry itself lies in a ditch some 200 feet up the road. Our major concern with this story was the apparent age of both the vehicle and the crossing site, which appeared to be more of a drainage system than a bridge. Although both looked older than the claimed date of the accident, further research is definitely needed to determine how much the climate in this area could speed up the deterioration of both sites.

Richard looking intrepid

We continued on and shortly arrived at the breathtaking Kiang West National Park. If this really is the habitat of Ninki Nanka, it’s no wonder he’s so elusive; with plenty of lush vegetation and baboons, hyenas, antelope and otters on the menu, there can hardly be much call to leave. Our guide Bakary took us to an area of marshland where his companion refused to go any further; Bakary translated that he was afraid, because past this point was where the Ninki Nanka was sighted. We gleaned an interesting piece of information at this point which may explain the lack of first person reports; Bakary claimed that if you see a Ninki Nanka and tell too many people, you will die. Bakary himself took us a little further, then said he would wait for us to return. He too, it seemed, was afraid to go into the mangroves beyond. Since the spitting cobra incident I had been nursing a niggling feeling that I might be in slightly over my head; at this point it kicked into overdrive. Despite this, I bravely, or more likely stupidly, ploughed on. We followed the trail through the mangroves along the shore of the River Gambia, to the site of a village abandoned, according to Bakary, in fear of the Ninki Nanka. What might have been an altogether more eerie atmosphere was slightly marred by the presence of a collection of new huts, left half finished through lack of funds, and a rather nice picnic spot. In spite of this, the spot had a still, quiet atmosphere of a sort I had not felt elsewhere in the Gambia. The water was vast and dark, and the landscape in turns thick vegetation and stark mudflats; it was the sort of place you could easily imagine something hiding, and waiting…

A hole from which Ninki Nanka is said to emerge

The spot where our guides would go no further

Back in the truck Bakary took us into his village and collected a man who travelled with us out to a heavily wooded area. This was the real highlight of the day – a first hand eyewitness of Ninki Nanka! Bakary translated as the witness, Momodo, pointed out several holes in the ground, from which he claimed he had seen Ninki Nanka emerging. The holes ranged in size from approximately the girth of a large python to the width of a manhole cover; Momodo said that time had seen sand encroach on what had once been much larger holes. He took us to a point overlooking the water where he claims to have seen Ninki Nanka. He described it as an astonishing 50 metres long and 1 metre wide – having paced out a metre so we could be sure there was no confusion – with the face of a horse and the legless body of a snake. He said its mouth was closed, so he could not see any teeth or tongue, and that it had mirrored scales with a many-hued, predominantly green, skin, and a feathered crest which hung over its face. Later, on being shown pictures of a Chinese dragon, a Komodo dragon, a brontosaurus and a Nile monitor, and asked which one best described what he had seen, Momodo picked out the Chinese dragon, saying its face was that of the Ninki Nanka. He told us that he had become very ill after seeing the Ninki Nanka, suffering from skin abrasions, and that he had seen a marabout, an Islamic holy man, who had cured him with a herbal potion. Momodo also informed us, to our relief, that white people are seemingly immune to the curse that brings serious illness or death to those who see the Ninki Nanka.

This is the spot where Ninki Nanka is said to have crossed the road

We trekked up from this point past dense mangroves; sadly, no Ninki Nanka were spotted, but to me this spot seemed the most likely out of all we have seen to be hiding an undiscovered species. It has a wild feeling to it, vast, seemingly untouched and far from the nearest village. Momodo, through Bakary, pointed out a spot on the opposite shore where an Englishman working for the Gambian wildlife authorites, going by the Gambian name of Sodokudo, had camped out for five days looking for Ninki Nanka. It seems his effort was worth the endeavour, as our witness claimed he did indeed sight the animal. We are currently trying to trace this man; if anyone has any information please contact the CFZ where it will be gratefully received.

Where Ninki Nanka is said to lurk

URGENT - CAN YOU HELP???

2006-07-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Please put out the following information through any avenues you can.

We’re searching for an Englishman who was attached to, or working with, the Gambian Wildlife Authorities in the Kiang West National Park area in the 1996-2002 period. He may have had the local name of Sodokudo, or something similar. Clearly, if he was a researcher, he may in the meantime have returned to the UK, and/or moved onwards. It is believed that this man may have had contact with a Ninki Nanka and as an eyewitness would be of great assistance to us. Any information as to his identity or how to contact him would be gratefully received.

LISA WRITES FROM GAMBIA: the fish report with a beat

2006-07-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

The busy fish market

7th July Diary

In light of the long and productive day we had at Abuko National Park yesterday, it was thought best that Friday should be spent as more of a casual affair (some of us having trekked round the park twice!), so that the group could rest up ready for the long trek that lay ahead on Saturday. I found this an excellent idea as I was beginning to suffer from what is medically known as ‘Banjul belly’; thankfully only a mild case which I can only liken to watching a terrific storm out to sea, and praying that it does not blow inland.

While at breakfast it was discussed that we may venture down to the local fish market, as it is not much more that a 10 minute walk away (it can be seen from the veranda of the hotel, being situated on the beach just down from us) to see if the local fisherman’s catch of the day had anything unusual or of interest to offer. but first in light of the large amount of information that had been amassed at Abuko we all set about making notes and comparing information.

While Oll was busy with his blog entry, and after we had finished documenting our information, Richard, Dr Chris, and myself went down to the sea for a swim and to have a look around the shore line for anything of interest. This ‘Atlantic’ refreshment was greatly needed, as today there is no cloud which is making for a very bright day with intense heat; I also found it soothing to a certain degree with my stomach complaint!

Dr Chris and Richard wandered off to a large outcrop of rocks in search of potential things of interest, while I had a look along the small shore line. While doing this I came across a ‘cuttlefish’. At first glance I thought it may have still been alive, as its cromatophores were still active, however they can carry on working for some time after death. I named him ‘’Cthulhu’. Although dead, it was nice to see such a creature in its entirety, rather than stuck in the side of a budgie cage.

The catch of Cthulhu

After returning from our Atlantic refreshment, Suzi, Oll and Chris M were off to the internet café to send off the latest report. Richard and I went to look out on the veranda to see if there were any signs of life at the fish market; as we looked out we could see that the market place was bustling with life, so we decided that we would leave a note for the other guys for when they returned, letting them know of our whereabouts if they wished to follow us down. Dr. Chris, Richard and myself gathered what we needed, and made our way down to the fish market, which was a straight 10 minute walk via the main road just outside the hotel.

Now when I say straight walk this implies that you do not get accosted by the locals which hang around outside the hotels wanting to be your guide, which is what happened to us, so a 10 minute walk became somewhat longer. We did not obtain this guys name as we were trying not to encourage him, if you do not require a guide then the rule is to politely ignore them and they will eventually drop back, disappear and seek out their next tourist, however Richard made the mistake of conversing with him. We eventually arrived at the fish market with an extra member in our group.

The market was full of people going about their business, cutting/drying/salting/smoking various kinds of fish. We made our way toward the pier where the larger types of fish were being kept in a manner that would have caused the UK’s Health & Hygiene officials to have a breakdown, but it must be remembered that this is Gambia and things are done differently; people make the most of and utilise what resources they have at their disposal.

A box of barracuda

Drying catfish bladders for export

Sole has no eyes

A butterfish

The rusty battered freezers were lined up all along both sides of the pier (not plugged in, naturally). Wherever there was a gap void of a freezer, families crouched on the floor eating together, in some spaces individuals slept after a long days fishing, and mothers nursed and cleaned their children. Richard asked a local fisherman if he could look inside the freezers to see what they day’s catch had brought home.

On the whole there was nothing of major interest contained within the freezers, mainly just a mixture of ice, sole fish, butter fish, and barracudas, but because Richard had sparked up another conversation we now had a second person joining our group who promptly took it upon himself to give us a tour of the market. In effect we now had stereo guides, (not an ideal situation I thought), who Richard unwittingly facilitated by asking more questions.

At this point I began to start feeling a little uncomfortable with the developing situation, as this second ‘unofficial’ guide lead us to the less busy smoke house area of the market. While en-route to this part of the market I was approached by a man who leant over my left shoulder and said, in a low voice, “My name Saul I work African village hotel”, at which point he showed me his pass card. “Be careful these men dangerous”. On hearing this I felt my suspicions vindicated and discreetly told Richard what had be relayed to me. To my ‘horror’ Richard said ok and promptly carried on conversing with the two men.

I now began to take on a different approach to the whole situation, my main objective as I saw it was to get all three of us back to the hotel ASAP, without too much hassle. I casually mentioned getting back and we started to make our way out of the fish market and up onto the main road. At this stage I was at the back of Richard and Dr.Chis, observing what was going on around us and looking for any signs that may indicate a potential situation. However, while making our way back to the main road the fisherman had started to tell Richard of the need for cement to carry out repairs. Richard believed the man’s story, as he found it refreshing that the guy was not asking for money and thought his story credible, and had agreed to buy cement.

We finally reached the main road and, as I thought, averted any potential danger; alas, I was wrong. We crossed over the road to head down a rather dingy and not to say dodgy looking alley. The only thing this alley was lacking was a soundtrack similar to those you get in B rated horror movies, you know the sort, the music which implies something nasty is just about to happen!

I asked Richard,” where the hell are we going now”? he replied, “to get some cement”. I replied “I’m not going down there! I’m going back to the hotel”, thinking that the guys would see sense or get the fisherman and the other local to bring the cement to them. But to my jaw dropping horror they followed them down the ally and disappeared to the left. I began to make my way back to the hotel thinking how on earth do I explain this, I then became aware of someone shouting me, thinking it was another local trying to make a quick dalasi I ignored it. The next thing I know I am being tapped on the should by a Gambian policeman who looked very concerned. The man that had first warned me had got one of his friends to ring the police.

The policeman asked in a very concerned manner where have your friends gone?. I explained to him that they had gone down the aforementioned ally and that I had refused to do so. He replied “good lady”, he went on to say the man, meaning the fisherman is very dangerous and bad, and that bad thing may happen to your friends, “we must find your friends immediately, come with me”, he exclaimed in a very adamant, concerned manner.

Even with an official I was still rather hesitant to go venturing down the alleys and back streets of Bakau. We searched the corrugated shack filled alleys, asking the locals which direction they had been taken in for some time until we found them, at which point I hung back while the officer went over and fetched Richard & Dr.Chis, who were still seemingly totally unaware of the potential danger they had put themselves in.

The officer explain loosely (as by now a small crowd had gathered) regarding the fisherman’s modus oprandi and lighheartedly said “there are good and bad people wherever you go, in future listen to the lady she has sense”. Needless to say, the moment the police man appeared on the scene the ‘fisherman’ disappeared.

Babu the police informer

Thinking the worst over we began to make our way back escorted by Babu, the man who had telephoned the police, but again to our dismay he also began to try and obtain money by mentioning that he had got married yesterday and why weren’t we at the wedding?

Wanting to get back I took matters into my own hands. Being ill earlier that day, I explained that I was unwell with ‘Banjul belly’ and exaggerated my condition, which, in light of the situation, I felt was justified, and needed to get back to the hotel to take my medication. Faining this illness served us well, so much so that Richard thought that I actually was severely ill. We gave Babu a few dalasi for his troubles, as after all he had called the police, which stopped a potentially serious incident from occurring, and made our way back to the hotel where we retold the afternoon’s events to the rest of the group.

I think that the moral of this story for today kids, is that sometimes adults should not talk to strangers, if they do, they should think long and carefully before doing so.

All in all just another day on a CFZ expedition!!!!

Lisa

Smoking catfish

Olly writes from Gambia....

2006-07-08T03:22:00.000-07:00

A big termite mound poses with the CFZ

6th of July - Abuko national park

Today we decided to visit Abuko national park as it was the setting for one of the most well known sightings of the Ninki-Nanka, and so we could learn more about the ecology of the Gambia in general. We left our base at 9am in a ten seater taxi driven by Chris Moiser's long term associate Assan, and after a 45 minute journey through pot-holed tarmac roads and compacted mud streets we arrived at the national park. The entrance fees were very reasonable, coming to about 50p each. As soon as you pass the perimeter fence in Abuko, you enter the jungle and start to see animals; almost imediately we spotted a giant milipede walking accross the path, and when we reached the first hide we were able to watch crocodiles in the wild. Richard in paticular was overjoyed by this as it was, despite his having been reptile keeper at Tycross Zoo, the first time he had been able to see one of his favourite animals in the wild.

A crocodile peers nervously at the CFZ Team

It was by the first hide that we met a guide called Musa Jatta. After being followed by a so called 'guide' against our will yesterday, as we went on our recce to Bungalow Beach, we were wary. We needn't have been, however, as Musa Jatta proved himself to be a first rate spotter of animals (even better than me) and perhaps saved Richard from getting on the wrong end of a spitting cobra too. While all of this was happening Chris Moiser had walked on ahead and was talking to a lady with a carving shop at the half way point of the path circit around the reserve, from whom he found out more about the famous sighting in the reserves area, and that the grandson of Papa Jinda, the man who had seen the Ninki-Nanka, was a young man called Hassan working at the reseve.

Dr Clark I presume

We all met up by a small drinks stand called the Ninki-Nanka cafe and Richard asked our guide if he had heard anything of the cafe's namesake. Musa had. There was apparently a report in August, a few years ago (we pinned it down to 2001-2003]. The beast had apparently left a long furrow in the mud road, and the driver and his passenger were said to have died when their lorry ran into the furrow during heavy rain. Musa’s description of the animal was: “like a huge python, big enough to swallow a cow’. It had legs and bat like wings and could spit fire. He did not know if it could fly, but it could move in water and over land.

When we made our way back to the entrance we passed the remains of the pumping station that Papa Jinda had been working at when he saw the Ninki-Nanka. The whole area, with long established trees growing though the derilict buildings, rusted machinery and long abandoned dams looked like a cross between the temple of Ankor-Wat and a level in Tomb Raider. When we made it back to the entrance, spotting a brightly patterned juvenile monitor lizard en route, we found Hassan and were able to interview him about his grandfather's sightings of the Ninki-Nanka.

Papa Jinda had witnessed a scene of devestation at the pumping station in Abuko when a Ninki-Nanka had destoyed several pipes at the pumping station. The mention of a Ninki-Nanka had caused a panic among the workers, and they had asked for a mirror as it was comonly thought that the only way to get rid of the animal was to show it its reflection. The second time Papa Jinda came into contact with the Ninki-Nanka was to prove fatal, as after seeing the beast he fell ill, complaining about pains in his legs and waist, and his hair fell out. He died two weeks later. The Ninki-Nanka being seen as an omen of imminent death, either sudden or within the next 4 years, is one of the few aspects of the folklore surrounding it that has been consistant in every case we've had reported to us so far. If we do find the creature on this expedition, we can only hope that will prove to be incorrect. Hassan said that his grandfather had described the animal as having what looked like a tiara of flames on top of it's head; it is a possibility that this was a red and orange crest.

Hassan (Right), a wizened old man with the `scales`

Oll examines the `scale`

When we asked about recent sightings of the Ninki-Nanka, Hassan told us of a man who had found what he claimed were scales of a Ninki-Nanka nearby. This was too good an opportunity to pass up, so whilst Richard and Lisa went back into the jungle accompanied by Musa on a bike to try to find the man, Dr Chris Clark, Chris Moiser, Suzi and I hopped into Assan's mini bus acompanied by a policeman on a mission to find the man with the Ninki-Nanka scales. After tearing around the local streets in a manner that would put local TV show 'Banjul cops' to shame we eventully pulled up outside a local slaughter house, where our quarry had just finished prayers for that part of the day. A look of fear passed across the wizened old man's face as the burly policeman shouted at him to "get in!" but he soon brightened up when he realised he wasn't in trouble.

Eventully we were shown the scales of the Ninki-Nanka... sadly from my examination of them I think they may just be a bit of rotted film cell, and Richard and the others are certain that they are not biological, least of all scales or skin. However we have aquired a sample to test when we get back to the UK, as it would certainly be bad science not to investigate every claim as thoroughly as possible.

Lastly, before we left we met up with another employee of Abuko national park, Bakary Jarju, who claims that the Ninki-Nanka has been seen recently in a lake near a village 80km away. Richard Freeman and I will be investigating this sighting on Saturday.

An abandoned dam at the pumping station

Pumping station buildings

The kids of Woolsery support our brave boys (and girls) overseas...

2006-07-06T04:35:00.000-07:00

Ross (back) and Greg display their pictures

Forgive the headline, but although Graham tells me that it is questionable taste, it seems apt, and at least Neil Young is not going to be forced into writing an album of protest songs about this foreign escapade! (And a bloody good album it is, by the way).

The old days where the CFZ were popularly perceived as a bunch of slightly strange middle-aged blokes with beards are long gone. We are fast becomming a truly community based organisation, and nothing illustrates this more aptly than this series of photographs.

Ever since the news of the forthcoming expedition broke, and even-more so after the story appeared in the local paper the people in the village have been incredibly supportive, and we were just not prepared for the massive level of support and interest that we have received. Two of the local children, Ross Phillips (11) and his brother Greg (7) have become so excited by the expedition that not only are they following its progress each day on the website, but they have decided to get more personally involved.

"We have been telling our friends at school about it, and they think its pretty good" says Ross. "I think its quite fascinating, that they are looking for new monsters and new facts". The pair presented us with these wonderfulpictures. The picture of `Gambo` on Bungalow Beach (above), is particularly good. Indeed, I have seen illustrations in professionaly produced books and magazines which have illustrated the Gambia mystery less adeptly.

The pair are also regular visitors to the CFZ website. "Most of the monsters I've never heard of before", says Ross. "And most of them are quite big, which is very exciting, as you never know what size they are going to be"...

Methinks, that whern the current Permanent Directorate of thCFZ are in our dotage, we know who is going to succeed us!

The Game is Afoot....

2006-07-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

About forty five minutes ago we received the first proper bulletin, and some exclusive photographs from the expedition. Written by Richard, it explains in some detail how the `CFZ Six` have hit the ground running....

"July 5th

The team do their own inimitable thing in West Africa.

This must be the first cryptozoological expedition

we have ever done with a beer garden!

The flight in yesterday was uneventful, but afforded me an aerial view of the fairly exstensive mangrove swamps that in some places lie cheek in jowl with suburban Banjul. Aside from a small walk on the beach and dinner at the Hotel we did almost nothing. I feel spoilt staying in a hotel. In the past I have had to camp out on the jungle floor or desert sands.

Flying over the Gambian mangrove swamps

as the team approach Banjul

A rainbow lizard (A. agama)

peering nervously at the CFZ team

Today was the first day of the expedition proper. We walked to Bungalow Beach, the alleged resting place of `Gambo`, the creature discovered in 1983 by Owen Burnham. Things have changed in the 23 years since the carcase was found. Bungalow Beach is no longer remote. Several hotels have sprung up, as well as a nightclub called `Destinies`. The aforementioned club belongs to the brother of the president of the Gambia who is currently under investigation for fraud.

The beer garden of `Destinies` may well lie right on top of, or perilously close to the area where `Gambo` was buried. We will be examining the layout of the club with our map more closly, but the implications of the police investigation of the club and its owner may not bode well for excavation.

Chris Moiser on top of Gambo`s grave?

We met some men selling wood carvings and enquired if they could provide carvings of the Ninki-Nanka. They showed me photographs of the carvings but they were generic Chinese dragons copied from other designs. On a more upbeat note we have gained some information on Ninki-Nanka.

A tense moment regarding questions about `Gambo`

A little way up Bungalow Beach we came upon a market place where jewellers made silver Ninki-Nankas. Chris Moiser has known about these traditional designs for years, and knew the man who made them. One of the sellers, Baka Samba told us that his late uncle, a hunter, had seen Ninki-Nanka many years ago. He could not describe it well, as his uncle only described it as very big and terrible. It had four legs, a long tail and an awful looking head. He said it had fire in its mouth. This may actually mean that the inside of the creature's mouth was red, or that it had a red/orange forked tongue that flickered in and out like flame. He said that the creature was very dangerous, and that those who saw it usually died within four or five years of the sighting.

Baka, whose uncle claims to have seen the ninki-nanka

This could mean they contracted some kind of disease, such as malaria from the swamps where the beast was seen. This - I should say - is pure speculation.

Baka's nephew Babu said that Ninki-Nanka was like a huge crocodile, but its head and teeth were different. Its eyes were large. He had not seen the creature for himself.
Later, whilst enjoying a drink of fruit juice at a beachside hotel, we were approched by a man who said he knew of a lake in Senegal where Ninki-Nanka was supposed to live. The lake was five kilometers long and was about 250 kilometers away. He said he had seen strange lights on the lake at night, and large disturbances in the water during the day. He drew a furrow in the earth and said he had seen drag-marks like these, but around four feet across around the lake. He believed in Ninki-Nanka. The marks he made in the sand recalled the slide marks that crocodiles leave.

Chris Clark asked if the lake had a bad smell and contained rotting vegetation. The answer was yes to both. Chris thought that perhaps a build-up of methane could explain both the lights and disturbance. The man - whose name was Papa - could not tell us how much it would cost, but left us his number. We are still undecided if this long and probably very expensive trip would be worth it. Tomorrow we head for Abuko national park, the place associated with one of the earliest records of Ninki Nanka."

There you have it. The boys and girls of the CFZ have certainly started as they mean to go on. Watch this space for more news soon...

Hooray, hooray, its a Holly-holly-Day

2006-07-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

I forgot all about this. A couple of weeks ago a charming young lady from The Independent telephoned me and asked what my favouriteoliday location would be this year. With my tongue firmly in cheek (mine, not hers, I would stress, as I am a wonderfully one man woman these days), I suggested The Gambia.

I then forgot all about it, and this morning This Story finally appeared.

Thanks hun

First Contact

2006-07-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier this evening on my blog I wrote:

"It is always a weird feeling being the bloke left behind during an expedition. This is my fourth year running doing this (OK, during most of the 2004 expedition I was off on a foreign trip of my own, but that is another story). I find myself sitting at the computer in my study, The Pogues blaring out of the hi fi, and me chainsmoking like an expectant father in a bad TV sitcom from about forty years ago. Yesterday both Chris Clark and Chris Moiser telephoned. Chris was already at Gatwick, and they both expressed their hopes for the success of this expedition. The rest of the gang left Exeter on the night train in the wee small hours, and they left the UK at nine this morning.Eight hours later and they should be in the dark continent by now, and I am pressing the `send and receive` button on Outlook Express ever few minutes hoping to receive the first email dispatch.Watch this space (I'm just about to have another cigarette)"

I have been sitting here all evening chainsmoking and getting progressively more nervous. However, we have now heard from the team - a brief text-message to say that they have arrived safely.

Lisa writes: "Not done a great deal today, but checking bungalow beach out tomorrow. The humidity is crazy".

They have already seen a lot of the local wildlife, including red headed agamas, five lined skinks and fiddler crabs. However, they are all exhausted from their journey and have taken a very early night. We expect more news on the morrow.

I can now stop smoking and go to bed.

And finally.... Dr Chris Clark

2006-07-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

This will be my fourth cryptozoological expedition in collaboration with the CFZ, so why have I signed up for another tour of duty? As Jon Downes once said to me: "We all want to be Professor Challenger". I can imagine very few things more enjoyable or worthwhile than searching the deserts and mountains of the world for exotic creatures, and if I can do this with a group of enthusiastic like-minded people so much the better. I began my adult life as an astrophysicist, at a time when the new landscapes of the Solar System were being revealed by the first planetary probes, and to me science is at its best and most fascinating when it combines the rational and the imaginative. Cryptozoology is not a branch of the paranormal, but the active frontier of zoology: a penumbral zone between the known and the speculative, where fantastic creatures are pursued by scientific methods with the ultimate aim of bringing them out of the shadow.

Certainly, cryptozoology is not a spectator sport. There are enough web sites which recycle the same material, discuss the credibility of old photographs and indulge in flame wars against rival sites. One the most common features of these sites are the postings that discuss expeditions to gather first-hand data as an impossible aspiration, like a climb of Everest, only to be undertaken by seasoned experts with massive sponsorship. This trip, and our earlier expeditions to Sumatra and Mongolia, shows that it can be done by ordinary people in their own time and using their own money
As for what I hope we shall achieve: I don't count on actually seeing a 30’ lizard. I believe we shall be justified if we can get enough consistent eye-witness accounts to establish that we are dealing with a real creature rather than a legend.

Why Oll wants to go to the Gambia

2006-06-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve been fascinated by tales of giant semi-aquatic lizards in Sub-Saharan and central Africa since I was a boy and to be able to look for one, and maybe even find evidence it exists is an opportunity not to be missed. As an ecologist I also hope to investigate the local flora and fauna in an attempt to find out whether the area can possibly support a large unknown animal.

In order to monitor the fish population I will be performing mark-recapture tests using a net. The fish caught in the first catch will be marked and a week later the nets will be used again in the same place. The proportion of fish recaptured from the first catch in the second catch should, once fed into a formula, give a reasonable estimate of population size. This should give some idea whether the area could support a large predator that feeds on fish. It doesn’t necessary follow that that predator is the Ninki-Nanka but it is important to monitor such things to improve our chances of finding the creature if it exists. It is also important to find out as much as possible about an area where a crypid is said to lurk as, should the creature be discovered, it would give a head start to attempts to understand the species and knowledge gained can be applied to claims of similar creatures.

I am also interested to find out the identity of ‘Gambo’ the beast of bungalow beach. Ever since the story of its discovery and burial was first reported, theories have sprung up to explain what it may be ranging from the sensible and prosaic through to the strange and wondrous. Should we find and unearth the carcass of Gambo, said by the time it was washed up on the beach to resemble a pliosaur, then finally there will be a concrete answer as to it’s identity. My own opinion is that it was possibly a beaked whale, but that opinion could change when we get a look at the carcass. We know less about the oceans than we do about the moon so it is possible an unknown animal might have washed up on a Gambian beach in the 1980s and it will be interesting to find out if Gambo was a rarely seen species or maybe something completely new to science. Strange new species do turn up from time to time in our oceans, the most famous example in recent times being the coelacanth which first turned up in a South African fish market in 1938 but had previously been thought to be extinct for several million years.

Why Suzi wants to go to the Gambia

2006-06-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

For me, the Gambia expedition is the chance to go on a unique, grass roots adventure. It is an opportunity for me to see a part of the world I have not yet seen, and to absorb myself in a completely different culture and mythology without treading the oh-so-familiar backpacker’s route.

I am excited about having the chance to experience some hands-on cryptozoological research, and looking forward to helping keep the expedition a truly interactive experience, one where people all around the world can log on and experience our findings as and when we discover them.

Why Lisa wants to go on the expedition

2006-06-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

Unlike Chris this will be my first time to the Gambia, and as such I am travelling with an open mind and with even more wide open eyes. On the whole I found to my surprise, West Africa is a very poorly studied country with regard to its flora and fauna and as such falls well behind its eastern and southern counterparts. The Gambia, which is the smallest country in West Africa, is very rich in biodiversity, however very little is known about it. The sense of genuinely venturing into the unknown with this type of expedition is becoming an increasingly rare experience and as such fills me with a huge adrenalin rush of excitement, and I am looking forward to it immensely

There are many points of interest for me on this expedition, but one of the main ones is, how the Ninki-nanka is perceived by the locals in their culture and belief systems, and hopefully we will be able to clarify/establish weather this alleged 30ft creature is genuine of flesh and blood, or are its origins more spiritually based? Is there any connection with other creatures that have been sighted in other parts of Africa?As you can see the questions and debate surrrounding this topic are endless.

Either way you just can’t beat the feeling of the possibility of documenting recently previously unheard accounts of mysterious creatures roaming around the mangrove swamps of the Gambia!!

I am not the sort of person to sit in comfort and postulate over these notions and theories, “I’m a get up and get out there, see for yourself kinda girl”, and with the wealth of knowledge and expertise within the team I am sure its going to be ‘one memorable expedition of adventure!’

Why Chris wants to go on the expedition

2006-06-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Although I have been to the Gambia 13 times previously I haven't really had time to properly study anything there myself. The College trips were in a way frustrating because of the time and effort spent in organisation, which detracted from serious study.On this trip I am not responsible for students and staff, so hopefully it is easier to look at what I want!

Whilst the trip is primarily to investigate reports of two different exotic reptilian monsters alleged to have been seen in the country I am personally hoping to see something a lot smaller, but almost as rare. In the 1920s a new species of lizard, called Armitages' Skink was first described. It comes from a small area of the country, close towhere we are staying. It is not found anywhere else in the world. As far as I know living specimens of it have never been photographed, and that will be a nice challenge.Additionally the trip will enable me to see what impact the presence of european fishing boats has made on the local fishing industry.

Armitage's skink

2006-06-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

We are not just searching for the two giant reptiles. We are also hoping to get photographs of a much smaller reptile - one of the world's most elusive lizards. Chris Moiser tells us more:

Armitage’s Skink
Chalcides armitagei

Named after its discoverer Captain C. H. Armitage by E. G. Boulenger then head of reptiles at London Zoo who first described it in 1922. To look at it is a fairly unremarkable small lzard about 5” long with a tail of about 3.5”. Unlike most of the other lizards in the area where it comes from it has 3 toes on each limb.Captain Cecil Hamilton Armitage (1869-1933) was the Governor of the Gambia from 1920 – 1927 and was described as a generous donor to the Zoological Gardens of London.

The 3 (living) specimens of this lizard having arrived in a collection of reptiles that Armiatge had sent from the Gambia. These specimens ultimately ended up in the British Museum (preserved), where 2 are labelled “Gambia” and one “Cape St Mary”In 1989 the lizards were effectively rediscovered by The Gambian Dwarf Crocodile Project people. They believed it to be restricted to a narrow sandy coastal fringe which was rapidly being lost due to the increase in tourist hotel construction. The site where the found the animals in 1989 had been cleared for construction in 1990. An FAO survey suggests that they may also exist in the Tanji area.

Chris Moiser June 2006

The creature is so obscure thatthe only picture we can find of it is here: http://www.darwingambia.gm/reptilepics.htm

By the way, you might have wondered....

2006-06-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

You will have seen that the Gambia Expedition is officially named "The J.T.Downes Memorial expedition", and you may have wondered why.

J.T.Downes was my father, and he died earlier this year. He was a big supporter of the CFZ, and during his final illness he liked nothing more than to have Richard and Me sitting on his bed, telling stories of our adventures, and plotting ourplans for the future. He spent many years living in West Africa, and was particularly interested in the forthcoming expedition. He had been planning to donate some money towards it, but died before he was able to do so, and so my brother and I decided that some of the money donated at his funeral service should go towards the expedition, which we decided to sponsor in his name...

For those of you interested, here is an excerpt from his obituary:

"John Downes was born in Plymouth in1925. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1943 and served as a Communication's Officer during the Battle of the Atlantic. He returned to shore in 1947, and after marrying his childhood sweetheart Mary, worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in North Devon. In 1952 he joined the Colonial Service in Nigeria and together with Mary, worked in some of the most isolated parts of North Nigeria on the southern borders of the Sahara Desert. Often they were the first Europeans to have visited these remote regions for over half a century.

In 1960 John was transferred to Hong Kong where he rose to the rank of Assistant Colonial Secretary, and as a commisioned officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, founded the Hong Kong Sea Cadet Corps. His outstanding work within the Civil Service was duly recognised when he was made a companion to the Queen and awarded the Imperial Service Order. Unfortunately John was forced to take early retirement on medical grounds in 1971, and he and Mary spent the rest of their lives together in Woolfardisworthy, North Devon, where they quickly earned the respect and love of the local community. John became a financial manager for many local businesses, and was a tireless pillar of the community and church. He renewed his love of the sea by becoming the Commanding Officer of TS Revenge, the Bideford Sea Cadet Corps and became an inspiration for generations of young people.

During his retirement, John became an acknowledged author and was an expert in such diverse areas as African History, and Devonshire dialect. He was the author of several books including `A Dictionary of Devonshire Dialect` (1988), `Granfer's Bible Stories` (2005) and `Fragrant Harbours, Distant Rivers` (2006). He was widowed in 2002, and after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease, died peacefully in North Devon District Hospital on Tuesday February 14th aged 81. He is survived by his two sons, Jonathan Downes, (46) - Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology - and The Rev'd Richard Downes BEM CF (42), a Chaplain to the Forces in the Army. "

Merchandise

2006-06-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

As I am sure that you will know, the weeks leading up to an expedition are particularly hectic ones. There will be a lot of little bulletins like this one over the next few weeks, butin the meantime I thought you might like to know that the new,expanded, CFZ online shop is now open for business here, and it contains a whole section of merchandise relating to the Gambia trip...

Please support us by buying some of it. All profits go straight back
into the CFZ....

Richard's thoughts on the expedition

2006-06-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

At sometime in their lives an explorer will hear the call of the Dark Continent. Most of my work has been done in the Far East. The orient is beautiful and mysterious, but nowhere epitomizes primal savagery and shadowy weirdness the way Africa does.

It’s been 21 years since I set foot in Africa, so this trip means a lot to me. Anyone who has read Bernard Heuvelmans’ “On The Track Of Unknown Animals” cannot have helped but think of this as a continent seething with monsters. Heuvelmans wrote of giant flying reptiles, monster snakes lurking in swamps, great grey cats slinking through the night, and modern-day dragons.

Deep from the jungles and marshlands of central and western Africa come stories of huge and dangerous reptiles. They have many names. In the Congo it’s Mokele Mbembe, in Zimbabwe it is known as Chipekwe, in northern Angola it is called Isiququmadevu. In the Gambia the African dragon is called Ninki-Nanka.

It’s strange to think of the popular holiday destination as the home of a monster. But away from the tourist areas there are still great stretches of mangrove, jungle, and swampland in this tiny country. In neighboring Senegal there is even more trackless miles for the creature to lurk.

The stories of Ninki-Nanka stretch back to time in memorial. My first exposure to them came in an account written by Dr Thomas Hardie Dalrymple who was based in the Gambia in the 1930s. Once, the beast caused a panic when it rose from the river one night but the swarms of mosquitoes prevented Dalrymple from seeing the beast himself. On another occasion he saw a crowd of locals excitedly talking about how the white man had photographed Ninki-Nanka. On investigation the photo was of a model dinosaur in an American magazine.

Just after WW1, a night watchman at a lake that was being used to provide water for the capital Bathurst was allegedly killed by a Ninki-Nanka.

These stories were intriguing but I presumed that the belief in Ninki-Nanka had died out. I asked my friend Chris Moiser, a regular visitor to The Gambia, to enquire about it.
Both Chris and I were amazed to discover that not only was the beast still very much believed in, but it had allegedly killed people as recently as the 1990s! Chris found that even well-educated people like teachers were very, very, frightened of Ninki-Nanka. Even at governmental level, the dragon is taken seriously. In the 1980s a pollution even occurred along the River Gambia. A black slime flowed downstream and killed lots of fish. One theory the government proposed was that a dragon had died up-river, and the slime was poison from its carcass.

I think the Ninki-Nanka is a straggler from further south in Africa. It may well be a species of colossal monitor lizard. Whatever the truth, this will be the first dedicated expedition to search for this animal.

As for Bungalow Beach and its mystery carcass, the story has been kicking around for 23 years and no-one has been back to dig up the beach. If we dig a hole and find nothing, we have still put the story to bed once and for all. If we dig a hole and find the body of an animal we can then go about identifying it and solving the puzzle. Either way we get a result.

Going for Gambo

2006-06-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

We are just about to embark on our most ambitious expedition yet! In just under a month, a six man expedition from the Centre for Fortean Zoology will be travelling to the West African Country of the Gambia, in search of two unknown dragon-like creatures.

This blog is part of a wide range of expedition coverage, which will mean that you can follow the adventures of Richard and the gang from the comfort of your very own homes!