Today we took a visit to a butterfly sanctuary within the Bobiri Forest reserve, about 15km from Konongo. Unfortunately we didn’t pick the best day – it had rained quite a lot overnight and apparently the butterflies don’t come out when its really wet. There were still quite a few beautiful coloured tropical butterflies around, but we’ll have to go back on another day because they usually are everywhere.
We also went on a guided tour around the forest trails, which is a beautiful, densely vegetated tropical rainforest. The man told us a lot about the trees and their uses for traditional medicine. Apparently the bark of a mahogany tree is made into a bitter tea and used to treat malaria. Another large vine will “bleed” red liquid if you cut it, and can be used to treat every disease except HIV – fairly impressive! However, you have to give it an offering first because they believe the spirits live inside the vine – apparently eggs and Schnapps will be fine!
The guide also had some interesting stories to tell about dwarves who live in the forest – you can’t see them unless you have a special gift, but if you go into the forest at night time they will make you get lost in the forest forever!
We stopped at one stage - it’s very quiet in the forest but I could hear this breathing bubbling sound coming from the ground – the man said it was termites living just below the surface. And sure enough, when he pushed aside some dirt there was a massive colony of termites! Best not to build a timber house there!
We also went on a guided tour around the forest trails, which is a beautiful, densely vegetated tropical rainforest. The man told us a lot about the trees and their uses for traditional medicine. Apparently the bark of a mahogany tree is made into a bitter tea and used to treat malaria. Another large vine will “bleed” red liquid if you cut it, and can be used to treat every disease except HIV – fairly impressive! However, you have to give it an offering first because they believe the spirits live inside the vine – apparently eggs and Schnapps will be fine!
The guide also had some interesting stories to tell about dwarves who live in the forest – you can’t see them unless you have a special gift, but if you go into the forest at night time they will make you get lost in the forest forever!
We stopped at one stage - it’s very quiet in the forest but I could hear this breathing bubbling sound coming from the ground – the man said it was termites living just below the surface. And sure enough, when he pushed aside some dirt there was a massive colony of termites! Best not to build a timber house there!
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