Program Reviews

As a Biology teacher, it's my job to share my passion for the living world in a way that makes my students want to infect others with the same enthusiasm. With Operation Wallacea, they had the opportunity to explore the natural world guided by an inspiring group of experts that took their skills, knowledge and passion for Biology to the next level. From learning how to dive, to surveying chameleon, jackal, fish and invertebrate populations, the trip encompassed all of the fantastically exciting and engaging practical aspects of Ecology that just can't be offered within the classroom. Six months on and the excitement hasn't faded!

We arrived late due to weather issues leaving Puerto Rico. However, Charlotte and her team made sure that we still experienced all the studies. We also got to do both the canyoning and vulcanology even though originally you had to choose between the two.

All the scientists were very professional but also open to sitting around with the students and talking about career paths and general interests.

The country is beautiful and the people are so welcoming. You really feel like you are making a difference!

My Expedition in South Africa was one of the best months of my life.
For my expedition, I spent 3 weeks in the Thanda game reserve, and then a week at Sodwana Bay UNESCO World Heritage site where I learnt to scuba dive, and discovered the wonders of the world below the surface of the ocean.

During my expedition, I worked in a close team of 11 student researchers, and had 2 field guides. For time time in the field, there were normally 8-9 students and the two guides (with the other 2/3 students using the day to do data input and species identification). The whole experience was so tailored, and the feelings of accomplishment at the contribution that we made was worth every moment. For weeks 2 and 3, the research was basically all collected by us students and we were allowed to get on with out own data collection and arrange the daily task allocations between us. During this time we were studying the habitat of the reserve to see what impact the elephants have been having on the site, depending on how long they had been using the areas for. One of my favourite tasks was the mourning bird count surveys were we did point count collection, stood silently in a circle atop some beautiful hills, listening to the sounds of the birds, watching the sun rise - it was well worth the early mornings.

During the day, the commute to the habitat sites would provide the true safari experience where you drive around seeing all sorts of spectacular wildlife. From elephants to giraffe, and from zebra to hyena, we came up close and personal with some species which I thought I would never get the chance to see.

We also spent the evenings on game drives, where we would complete short transects to look for any game we could see (and anything else that we thought was interesting!), and on other nights we would go for bush walks where we would just enjoy a walk around the savanna without the burden of data collection. This was where I had some of my best encounters - and probably some of the most dangerous!
I remember one evening, walking through some fairly tall grass, looking around me and then all of a sudden walking into the person in front (boomf!). It took me a while to realise that we'd all stopped, and the guide was telling us to turn around and walk back. We'd accidentally walked within 8ft of a pair of cheetah! Luckily these cheetahs were great hunters, and were more than full enough from the evening before to take interest in 6 gangly students - i'm not sure we would have tasted very nice anyway!

On another occasion, we were lucky enough (or unlucky enough, you decide) to come across a very large bull elephant, all but about 10ft away, wanting to come down our path! The best our guide could do was talk to it calmly and try and usher it away - that's what I call surreal!

I can't pick a favourite part of this expedition.
The people were amazing.
The country was beautiful.
The animals were spectacular.
The experience was first-class.
The diving was a whole new passion I hadn't yet discovered.
Everything was absolutely exactly what I would want from the experience, and so, so much more!

I'd honestly say that if you're looking for a way to spend a month this summer, then this is the thing to do.

I did quite a few primate surveys during my time in Peru. One afternoon, there were 4 or 5 of us including the guide out gathering data. We hadn't seen any monkeys yet, but suddenly the guide told us to stand still and be very quiet. We assumed he had spotted some monkeys, so we looked around trying to find them. In the next minute that followed 15 or so coatis jumped out of a tree a few meters in front of us. It was pretty amazing because we were so close and could see them really clearly. We didn't spot any primates during the survey but even during surveys where you didn't always find what you were looking for, something great would come out of it.

Mexico gave me a chance to grow and prove to myself that I was capable of such an activity - and in fact do very well at it, and love it as well.
The expedition was varied; there was learning by classroom and by practice, and in the forest and under the sea. The knowledge and experiences were valuable beyond belief at the time, and also looking back now, almost at the end of my University career.
The accommodation was less-than-luxurious, but it was more than adequate and the whole point was to camp and settle into the natural world; nothing more was needed and what was provided was good quality and clean.
The staff were wonderful. I still miss them and have been in touch with some since. The trip would have been amazing either way, but the Operation Wallacea staff, and the temporary 'expert' staff, made it even more so.

My time in Peru with OpWall was probably the best two weeks of my summer. Combining the unique experience of the being up close with the wildlife and the hands-on research, and meeting some truly amazing and inspirational people, there isn't a single better way that I could have spent my time.

On expeditions, we were separated into smaller groups of 6 or 7 to make out experience more intimate and more rewarding. I think it's safe to say that our group weren't the luckiest on the jungle treks, and our first transect in the rain-forest could easily be described as a disaster to some. After trekking about 1km into the flooded forest, we were met with our first swamp of the expedition. Although the guides had tried hard to create a path through the middle, the continued use of the bridge and the fragility of the materials used meant that it was a little trickier than expected, and I (as with many other members of my group) ended up knee deep in the water, collecting some great samples in our wellies! After emptying our boots and completing the last 1km of the trek, we had still come across no animals - which is risk you're always taking with biodiversity sampling. I wasn't disheartened by this, and as per out methodology, the team all took a seat to wait till the forest fell silent again before walking our second transect. Except that is when the rain happened.
All I remember is our guide shouting something in spanish, and the face of our leader dropped very quickly. This would be it: our first look at why the rainforest is really called the RAINforest!
What an adventure! We walked back at about 5 times the speed, bypassing any thoughts of trying to elegantly cross the swamp for a second time. By the time we arrived back at the boat, we were soaking wet and had only our ponchos to shelter us from one of the most spectacular of rain storms!
This was one of my favourite experiences from the trip. Not only did our team have the chance to really bond with each other, it gave us something to laugh about for the rest of the trip. I don't think i'd be able to say I really experienced the Amazon rainforest if I hadn't had the chance to experience their climate.

For those of you that are reading this and worrying, we did get the chance to see some beautiful primates on our next transect. That's one of the brilliant things about this expedition: you get to try a bit of everything, and most of them you even get to do twice!
Oh, and if you're worried about the rain, don't be. It was like a warm shower in the outdoors, and shelter wasn't too far away. If you are thinking about travelling to Peru with OpWall this summer though, I highly recommend taking a waterproof that you know you can trust, and that slips right into your day bag, because you can go from the bluest of skies, to the densest of clouds in a matter of seconds in the Amazon.

I have been to many places in Europe on school trips and this was the first time I have been abroad completely on my own. Although a daunting experience; getting on the plane alone, going somewhere that you don't know the language and to people who you've never met before, it was all worth it and would definitely do it again. It was by far one of the best experiences of my life! Once out there everyone was so friendly and everyone got to know one another very quickly making for an incredible time. It was all great fun, but if I had to choose my best survey when I was out there, it has to be the butterfly surveys - running around the countryside with butterfly nets frantically chasing after species to try and catch them!

I spent an incredible month living in a real-life Attenborough documentary with pink river dolphins, sloths, several species of monkey, caimans and thousands of birds for company. Every day involved some sort of boat journey along the river either to access a new part of the jungle to explore or to survey life on the river itself. Not a day went past without an exciting wildlife encounter. Trekking through the jungle was sweaty and at times a struggle through thick clouds of mosquitoes but ultimately more than worth it to experience families of squirrel monkeys and capuchins playing only three metres overhead. The local guides are amazing, their knowledge of the forest is just incredible, and the opportunity to learn the ways of the jungle from them adds enormously to your own appreciation of nature and the way we think about conservation.

I would definitely recommend the experience to anyone interested in conservation, the outdoors, ecology or those who just want to live in the jungle for a bit!

I was on the terrestrial site for 6 weeks to collect data for my undergraduate dissertation. I absolutely loved every moment, and achieved a great project at the end. There is brilliant project support from the moment you sign up to the moment you hand in your dissertation.

You will be able to climb the ruined Mayan temples of Calakmul and look out across a sea of green. An awesome experience. Some of the wildlife in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve are spider monkeys, howler monkeys, jaguar, Baird's tapir, peccaries, toucans, and crocodiles. Surveys include mist netting for birds & bats, mammal track transects, and reptile surveys.

There are four terrestrial camps scattered around and you may have chance to visit several; I stayed at three. Accommodation is in tents so bring a sleeping mat and bag. The food is fantastic and sitting down as a big group to eat is great. There are extra activities organised such as movie night and there is always a surprise when it's someone's birthday.

I did my dissertation with Opwall on the birds of the Calakmul forest, and so was lucky enough to visit all 4 camps during my 6 weeks there.

The accommodation is pretty basic - bring an inflatable roll mat if you can and not a yoga mat, after 5 weeks of sleeping on the ground your back will thank you! It has everything you need though, even the most remote camp 'Dos Naciones' has all the essential stuff and you get to sleep in hammocks there which was pretty awesome. You get to bucket shower at least once every 2 days in all of the camps except for Dos Naciones - but nobody really cares, you sweat so much it doesn't matter! The food is mostly rice and beans type meals, you get chicken probably 3 or 4 times a week if not more - and I managed fine as a vegetarian!

If you volunteer as a research assistant you get to try your hand at all the different research activities going on each day. From fighting your way through the forest in a habitat survey to waking up for the sunrise to go out birding to sitting on a tarpaulin at 2 in the morning looking at the stars during a bat survey. My advice to anyone going to volunteer is to get stuck in! You are in the depths of the Mexican forests! Try every single activity, get up for those early morning bird sessions even if you just want to hit snooze when that alarm goes off - you may get to catch a Toucan in the mist nets like we did!

I would say that you need to be of moderate fitness to really enjoy some of the more intense transects/camps.

Overall a most excellent experience, and it's the staff that really make the experience of Opwall. They are each so interested in their own topic of research so it is an awesome opportunity to gain some in depth knowledge from these experts! They are also super friendly!

I would definitely recommend Operation Wallacea, it is an unforgettable experience!