Why Chris wants to go on this expedition...

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.

Going for Gambo!

L-R Jane (CFZ Member), Lisa, Oll, Chris Moiser,

Richard, David Phillips (CFZ Staff), Suzi

Yes, its that time of the year again! For the fourth year running, Richard Freeman and Chris Clark are off to foreign climes in search of a monster. This year, the destination is Gambia, and the team (which includes GURRRLS for the first time), is going in search of not one, but two monsters!

· 30-foot killer dragons lurking in swamps?
· A sea monster carcass buried on an African beach, with a map marking the spot?

Back in 1983, amateur naturalist Owen Burnham discovered the fresh carcass of a strange beast on a remote beach in the Gambia. It was around 15 feet long and looked like a cross between a crocodile and a dolphin. Realizing that it was something unknown to science, Owen, a missionary’s son, made detailed sketches of the creature. He and his family then buried it in the hot sand above the tide line, hoping that the dry sand would preserve the body. He also made a detailed map.

We have a copy of the map and intend to dig up and examine the monster’s body.

L-R Suzi, Me, Chris Clark, Chris Moiser (back to camera) Oll, Jane (CFZ Member), Richard

More alarmingly, there are stories of a swamp-dwelling dragon known as Ninki-nanka. The 30 foot beast is said to lurk in deep riverbank holes and emerge into the swamps at night. As recently as the early 1990s, it is alleged to have killed people. Cryptozoologist Richard Freeman thinks Ninki-nanka may be a giant, semi-aquatic monitor lizard. Related to the infamous Komodo dragon, the African reptile would be three times as long: as big as a very large crocodile. The team hopes to interview witnesses and venture into the deep mangrove swamps on the trail of the beast.

Previous adventures have seen the CFZ hunt for the Naga, a 60 foot snake in Thailand; the Chupacabra, a blood-sucking beast from Mexico; Orang-pendek, a Sumatran ape man; and the Mongolian deathworm.

Team members are

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

L-R Jane (CFZ Member), Richard, Chris M, Suzi,

Lisa (back to camera), Chris C, me, David Phillips (CFZ Staff)

On sunday afternoon, the six team members converged on CFZ Mansions, and we had the final planning meeting before the expedition takes place. We shall be giving regular updates as and when we have news, so watch this space! However, dipping our toes into the murky waters of the new technology, we have also opened a My Space page for the expedition, so feel free to come over and check it out!

Following the yellow brick road

On thursday went to see the wizard! We drove into Cornwall, to visit one of my dearest friends. Tony "Doc" Shiels, sometimes known as the Wizard of the Western World is a much maligned character in forteana. He is best known for his Loch Ness Monster and sea serpent photographs, and for being involved pivotally with the Owlman case which started in Cornwall some 30 years ago. He was in Cornwall for a few days to visit an Art Exhibition in St Ives.

We sat in The Red Lion in Redruth and talked about cabbages and kings, and basically caught up with each other after a gap of some four years. Nothing much transpired of a fortean nature, except, after congratulating us on the new edition of The Owlman and Others, he told me that my speculations which led to me naming the late John Gordon as the person responsible for the `Mary F` photographs of Morgawr in 1976, were totally wrong. Tony told us the name of the real Mary F, and promised that one day he would introduce us.

This may be a fairly inconsequential blog entry, but I owe Tony my career. If it hadbn't been for my friendship with him, I would never have written the Owlman book in the first place, and - quite probably - no-one in forteana would ever have heard of me! Also, as I wrote in Monster Hunter, he was a significant `father figure` to me during the dark days of my divorce, and to be quite honest, until two days ago, I had forgotten how much I love the old bugger, and there were very real tears in my eyes as I hugged him before we drove back to Devon.

I just wanted to share that...

By the Way: CFZ News

Mark and I will be starting a revamp to the website when I return next week, but in the meantime there are a few changes to the Permanent Directorate.

1. Oll Lewis is confirmed as Ecological Director, and has taken over Elliot Saunders's old jonb as EIM

2. Suzi Marsh has taken over Elliot Saunders's other old job as Corporate Fund Raiser. (Elly by the way, as some of you know, retired due to ill health some months ago and we wish him well).

3. David Phillips is now part of the Permanent Directorate, although his title will not be confirmed for a few weeks

4. Helen Bond, who is totally invaluable as CFZ housekeeper, has been unanimously voted onto the Permanant Directorate - we just haven't told her yet

ALSO

The following speakers have now been added to the bill for the Weird Weekend:

PAUL CROWTHER
PAUL CROPPER
RICHARD INGRAM

We are planning a number of new attractions, including films, exhibitions, a demonstration of crop circle construction, and a Mad Hatter's Tea Party for the kids. More details when we get them. Although we can confirm that we shall be revisiting an old feature of the WW that we haven't done since 2002 - Devon cream teas in the afternoon! That should make Judith J happy...........

On the Road

As any regular readers will know, I am planning to marry my girlfriend Corinna at some point next year. However, at the moment she lives in Lincolnshire, so - as I am relatively footloose and fancy free at the moment, since Dad's death - I spend a reasonable amount of my time up here with her, rather than living in Bachelordom back at the CFZ with Graham, Mark and Olly (and Richard and John intermittently). It is weird living like this, because I have wanted to come back to Woolsery to live ever since I left in 1981, and now I have inherited the house, I spend large amounts of my time in suburbia at the other end of the country. This, however, is the way that it has to be for the moment, so rather than be apart from the woman I adore for weeks on end, I find myself once more living out of a holdall.

However, ironically I get more work done here than I do when I am back in Woolsery (I don't get distracted by going and talking to the animals all day), and at weekends (and sometimes in the evenings) we do go places and do things. Last weekend I prevailed upon my beloved to take me to one of the more obscure parts of the West Midlands to the British Tarantula Society show. There, I was overjoyed to meet up with an old mate - Graham Smith - who, together with his lovely partner, runs Metamorphosis , a company selling exotic insects.

But Graham is so much more than just a purveyor of creepies and crawlies. He is one of those rare things in today's society: An old fashioned Field Naturalist. Graham and I (as we always do) spent hours talking about things we had done, and places we had been. I told him about my two recent trips to Puerto Rico and about the pair of caecilians that we managed to buy for the CFZ a couple of weeks ago, and he told me how he had narrowly missed buying a pair of Hellbenders , but most of the time we spoke about the smaller inhabitanmts of the universe that continue to surprise and delight us all.

Graham told me about some of the research he has done recently on grass snakes and stag beetles. I am not going to steal his thunder. Although he is a most modest man who hates to see his name in print, I hope that I shall be able to persuade him to do a book with us sometime soon. But the whole episode served to reminded me (as if any reminding was necessary, which it probably wasn't), that the portmanteau discipline of Fortean Zoology (which I basically invented anyhow), is just as concerned with stag beetles as it is with yetis, and that it is the job of the CFZ to remind everyone that discoveries of new and peculiar animal behaviour, morphology, and even new species, can take place in your back garden, as well as they can in the foothills of the Himmalayas.

So I wrote this, and this weekend I shall be pond dipping, not watching reality TV...

The Weekend is getting Weirder

The Weird Weekend this year is going to be bigger and better than ever. The rudimentary WW06 website is now up, and can be reached from the front pageof the CFZ site. We now have, what I think I can confidently claim, is the biggest and best line up EVER to grace the stage at a fortean conference. Can you all do nme a favour and check the pages for broken links, and email me iof there are any dreadful cock ups....

Une semaine de freaky