GLEN VAUDREY: Whole Wide World (the missing bits)

I am not always the brightest button in the barrel, and to my embarrassment I missed two episodes of Glen Vaudrey's increasingly excellent `Whole Wide World` out entirely. Here they are:

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French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas department of France and as such plays host to the French space port, taking full advantage of its location close to the equator. It was also, in the past, the location of the Île du Diable that notorious penal colony better know in the English-speaking world as Devil’s Island. If that isn’t good enough, it has a great flag and its own mystery animal: the Maipolina.

Back to the dangerous critters with this one, the Maipolina is French Guiana’s very own water tiger.

Why not get started with a gruesome bit when a boy fell into the Maroni River in 1962? It didn’t end well for him and when the locals went to recover his dead body they had a shock because it looked very much like it had been partially eaten by a mystery animal, a finding that was backed by a doctor’s examination of the corpse; it was suggested that the Maipolina was responsible for the injury.

So what does the Maipolina look like? Well, we are in luck on that one because Colonel René-Antoine Riccate interviewed a witness to one such creature that was spotted lying on a rock by the river one evening. The description was as follows: an estimated size of 9 ft long and 3 ft wide; its feet had a fearsome set of claws that were likened to those of the three-toed anteater; its ears were drooping and it had large, round, dark brown eyes; it had a coat of short, fawn-coloured fur with a whitish chest and its tail was described as looking like that of a cow: long and terminating in a tuft. But it was the animal’s teeth that were its striking feature, described as being like those of a walrus. With a description like that it seems that there could well be an undiscovered sabre-toothed cat lurking in the waters of South America. Well, I for one hope so.

Next stop: Suriname

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Suriname

Sitting between French Guiana and Guyana, the country of Suriname is the only Dutch-speaking country in South America and other than that I couldn’t find much else about the place apart from the fact that it has a big bridge called the Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge. I think it’s time we move on to look at Suriname’s cryptid, the Didi.

We’re not talking about slave labourers in Ken Dodd’s jam butty mines; we are actually looking at a mystery primate. Described as being around 5 ft tall, thick set, powerfully built, with reddish-brown or black hair. Sightings of the Didi are actually reported across a wide area from Guyana, across Suriname and into French Guiana. Reportedly a shy animal, it has been claimed that it can walk erect and when it does it swings its arms. It is also said to travel in pairs. It appears to be heard more times than it is seen with its call sounding like ‘hoo hoo.’ Alternatively, there is a long whistle that has been attributed to it.

While it does appear to be a mystery primate, there is also the odd claim that the Didi is able to successfully mate with humans. So is it a wildman or just a monkey? I am sure we will find out one day.

Next we skip across the border and enter Guyana