Golden Monkeys!

If you go down to the woods today you’re in for a big surprise! If you go down to the wood today you’d better go in disguise… actually, you’re in for lots of little surprises, and it’s not the woods, it’s the bamboo filled barriers on Parc de Volcano, but you get the idea.

On 20th we went in search of golden monkeys.  Carefully we trekked through the damp undergrowth, treading over bamboo leaves and buffalo poo.  We swept over hanging branches from tangling our hair and cautiously creeping further into the dense wooden area.  And then, quite suddenly there was a rustle in the leaves overhead, we looked up expectantly.  Was it a cruel teasing breeze tricking our expectations?  Was it a crimson bellied bird, a sapphire feathered kingfisher?  Oh no, we may have gone in search of the golden monkey, but the monkey had found us!

High in the bamboo branches say a little bundle of brown fur, its beady black eyes peering down upon us as we stared up in amazement.  Then, almost mockingly the monkey crawled down the branch, coming closer and closer and, just as cameras were cautiously drawn from bags it sprang away, as quickly as it came.

But before camera shutters were closed there came another rustling overhead a ‘click, click, click’ sound surrounded us and suddenly we were encircled by beautiful golden monkeys.  They swung from tree trunk to tree trunk, they stopped and stared from the overhanging braches, they sat, happily chewing on the bamboo shoots as we ogled at their animated bodies above.

We may have been up at 6am, we may have spent the night shivering into our sheets but the sight of the golden monkeys opened our bleary eyes and welcomed an exciting shared experience between man and monkey!