 |
| The
Buckfast Africa Team. Brother Adam stayed home this time, 1989,
when Kenya was visited. The others from left: Bert Thrybom, Erik
Bjorklund and Erik Osterlund from Sweden and Michael van der
Zee from Holland. |
| |
 |
| It
was Africa we visited and of course we took a tour to the big
animals, among others elephants and giraffes. |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| In the western
part where we went first, traditional huts were still widely
used for living. |
| |
 |
| It was Mt. Elgon
on the border to Uganda that was our first destination to seek
for the Monticola bee, Apis mellifera monticola. Its peak is
over 4,321 m (14,170 feet) above sea level. (Photo: Bert Thrybom) |
| |
 |
| We had rented
a 4-wheel drive Land Rover from 1954, which we named The Old
Lady. Without it, the expedition would have been impossible.
The first day of search took us directly to the most probable
place, the highest possible place. But there we needed armed
guards. Four of them, to protect us against mountain lions and
smugglers. |
| |
 |
| Besides 12 persons
in the Land Rover, we also had to carry a lot of fuel. And to
park on a side slope was very beneficial, not to loose any drops
of gas. Besides the 4 armed guards and the 4 of us, were our
two local contacts and two interested officials. |
| |
 |
| On Mt Elgon there's
a big rain forest creating a very special climate together with
the almost daily afternoon rains and night frosts up where we
were going. |
| |
 |
| When we had passed
the rain forest, well above 3,000 m (9,800 feet), we started
to look for bees. We heard bees and saw a few but couldn't locate
the nests. We stopped at this place because other expeditions
had stopped there before. But we decided to go on, as our local
contacts knew that further on a beekeeping tribe had lived until
recently, close to the tree level. |
| |
 |
| We were approaching
the tree level on about 3,500 m (11,500 feet), with the peak
in the background, quite close to the Ugandian border. |
| |
 |
| We found the former
village of this tribe and also log hives that had never come
in use. |
| |
|
