Beatrix Cook

About me

I am a student at UCL reading Human Sciences BSc, it’s an interdisciplinary degree and so I have a wide range of interests, from palaeontology to animal cognition and behaviour. Once I have graduated, I’m hoping to either take a gap year or continue studying for a Masters.

I am very familiar with the expeditions, growing up with them as an 8-year-old in the first expedition in 2011 to taking on the Kafue in 2018. The rowing is fantastic, but for me, my favourite part is observing how the wildlife and landscape changes down the river. On the last expedition we teamed up with WWF to record hippos and crocodiles, but this year I will be leading my own census, recording occurrences of hippos, crocs, and also different bird species. This stretch of the lower Zambezi does not have an updated census for these groups and so I’m hoping to add our findings to a biodiversity database which should be useful for improving the protection and conservation of wildlife in Mozambique. 

I am also involved in an element of the expedition focusing on honouring the legacy of Mary Livingstone, a misunderstood devoted wife to Dr David Livingstone. We are raising funds to name our green boat after her so that she may continue her journey - her life stopping short on an expedition down the Zambezi inMozambique from malaria. Stay tuned for a podcast hosted by Louise Cook about her life and legacy!

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Motivations

A chance to get back out onto the Zambezi! The last time I did this was on the Kafue when I was 15. The atmosphere on these expeditions is difficult to summarise, apart from it being an action-packed experience, it is often really good fun, around like-minded people choosing to go on these extraordinary adventures. As such, these expeditions draw diverse groups of people from different age groups, backgrounds, and parts of the world, producing a brilliant foundation for collaboration towards funding to clean water and sanitation. I could never miss the opportunity to rediscover the Zambezi again, particularly as Mozambique presents novel cultures, languages, and landscapes – but importantly this is our last leg!

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Worries

The usual safety and wildlife fears: crocodiles lingering around on the banks when we’re getting in… being positioned between a hippo and its pod… boomslangs getting into the boat… and the new added fear of the Zambezi shark as we approach the Indian Ocean.

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