Snapshot From Gorongosa

60 Minutes' Rebecca Peterson On The Experience Of Visiting Gorongosa National Park

(CBS)  By 60 Minutes producer Rebecca Peterson.

As I packed for my trip to Africa, I took along my new digital camera - although I'd bought it more than a year before and I'm the first to admit that it was a bit more camera that I can easily manage. Nevertheless, I was determined to take it along and take as many photos as possible with my limited skills. This was only the second time I'd been to Africa and I'd never seen a game animal like an elephant or lion outside of a zoo except for one time when my family visited Lion Country Safari at King’'s Island amusement park when I was a kid.

I was headed to Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique - a once proud place that had been, in the 1960's, perhaps the best wildlife park in all of Africa. That was before Gorongosa Park was ravaged by war, when it had an abundance of both animals and tourists. Our story was about American entrepreneur, Greg Carr, who hoped to revive the park to its past glory and in doing so, lift the people of this part of Mozambique out of poverty.

My Gorongosa adventure began on Memorial Day 2008. As co-producer, I was travelling out in advance of the rest of the 60 Minutes team and soon learned the true meaning of TIA - "This Is Africa." One of my bags was lost for days, communications at the base camp were sometimes challenging and our camera crew was having difficulty clearing customs with all their gear. These proved to be minor inconveniences and were soon sorted out with the help of Carr and his enterprising team - especially Vasco Galante, the director of communications and Joao Viseu, Gorongosa's business director.

After I'd settled in that first day, Carr invited me to go on safari to look for the wildlife that had once been the major draw for tourists. Reintroducing big game and big draw animals like elephants, lions and zebras is the center piece of his plan to revitalize the park and create thousands of jobs.

It was also my opportunity to scout locations and come up with a game plan for shooting once the correspondent, Scott Pelley, and co-producer Henry Schuster and our stellar camera team of Chris Everson, Ian Robbie and Anton van der Merwe arrived. We didn't see any large animals that first day, but as I settled into my bungalow at Camp Chitengo that night, I felt sure we would and also somehow strangely at home in such an exotic locale.

Over the next few days as we drove the dusty back roads of the park, I was struck by the haunting beauty of the bush - Greg and Vasco were my willing guides and the park's game scouts, Simba, Macadona and Jonathan would point out nesting birds, antelope on the flood plain and packs of warthogs and baboons. We even saw a Serval cat, which from a distance looks like a leopard, but much smaller.

But I was beginning to feel like I'd never see a lion or an elephant. Greg decided to take me up in the helicopter he often uses to fly back and forth to meeting in Mozambique's capital city of Maputo and to the far flung areas of the park. Gorongosa stretches over 1500 square miles and sometimes it can take three hours to travel a mile and a half because of rough terrain and limited roads. Because of the lions, it is simply too dangerous to venture off road or too far from your vehicle. Others, including an elderly village chief who was visiting the base camp, actually heard a male lion’s roar as he was bunking down for the night.

We took off in the helicopter and flew over an area where a family of elephants had recently been spotted. At first, I only saw trees and a watering hole and the inevitable warthogs. But then I saw in the distance what looked like a large blob. At first I thought it was a bee hive or a termite mound. Then my heart kind of flipped over a bit as I pointed and asked our pilot, "What's that?" He swooped around and flew closer to the biggest bull elephant, Greg recalled seeing in the park. Apparently it was an older bull, a solitary lone warrior that was old enough to have survived the decades of war that devastated or drove off most of the wildlife in this national park. Truly amazing. We were all thrilled by the experience and we eventually located a family group of elephants and managed to get some pictures.

I'd experienced a golden moment - and I was prepared to go home with an impressive tale to tell all my friends. But, I was in for an even bigger surprise. As we circled the Urema River in the helicopter, Baldeu Chande, Gorongosa’s game warden and trusted advisor to Greg Carr, spotted a strange beast in a herd of waterbucks - a type of antelope.

It was a female waterbuck with entirely white fur - apparently an albino waterbuck. This was the first time this waterbuck had been seen by anyone in Gorongosa National Park and there was much excitement about the sighting. As the helicopter circled, I reached for my camera and snapped a picture of the fairy tale creature. My camera didn't fail me. I was able to provide the first documentation of this unique animal. A few days later, our 60 Minutes cameraman Chris Everson was able to videotape the albino for posterity.

The reason everyone was raving about our find is because, while others albino waterbucks may exist is Africa, the last report of a sighting that anyone could remember was nearly fifty years ago by two game rangers at Kruger National Park in South Africa in 1959. Now that the Gorongosa staff had proof of the animal's existence, they made plans to follow up and determine if the animal is a true albino which is a rare genetic condition.

Throughout my stay in Gorongosa, as I traveled the countryside with Greg Carr and his team, we visited several poor villages - some so isolated and impoverished that it was difficult to see how anyone could scratch out an existence.

We also met and interviewed many of the newly employed workers who are bringing the park to life and saw communities that are already benefitting from the revenue that is being breathed into the economy. After my 60 Minutes colleagues arrived we began taping, we all got a chance to see Greg Carr's dreams beginning to come true and to document the hard work in progress. With Carr's help, the people of Mozambique will ultimately determine the fate of the park - for themselves and the all the wildlife great and small, rare and commonplace, that call Gorongosa home.

[elise754]

To stick with Greg Carr and what he trying to accomplish in Gorongosa....I would sign up, in a N.Y. Minute, to help his Team! I was a former Animal Rescuer, lost my Brother to Homelessness and since I found the latter out recently,until this Story, I hadn''t cried like that in ages. No dry eyes here, watching the depletion of the animals and seeing the condition of the people. I congratulate Greg Carr for every penny and all efforts! Please let me help physically!

[mussicadzi]

Mozambique has a big potential to welcome tourists and Gorongosa is really a wonderful place. I would recommend to those of you that can afford to travel to Africa to come here and see for yourself the good that this 20 year''s project is doing and how is changing the situation of local communities. People like Greg Carr deserve respect and admiration and I wish that other wealthy people were doing similar things.

[paulfinnigan]

I admire Greg Carr''s philanthropic endeavors and his prior success with Boston Technology! However Greg is not the "inventor of voicemail". In 1980, Paul Finnigan, CEO of Voicemail International, trademarked the term "Voicemail" and introduced the first Voicemail service offered in the U.S.. By the time Boston Tech was founded, VMI had provided voicemail technology for service introductions by telephone companies throughout Europe, Scandinavia and the Pacific Rim. Paul Finnigan was also the Founder of the International Voicemail Association (www.thevma.com)and served as President from 1983 to 2000.

[paulfinnigan]

I admire Greg Carr''s philanthropic endeavors and his prior success with Boston Technology! However Greg is not the "inventor of voicemail". In 1980, Paul Finnigan, CEO of Voicemail International, trademarked the term "Voicemail" and introduced the first Voicemail service offered in the U.S.. By the time Boston Tech was founded, VMI had provided voicemail technology for service introductions by telephone companies throughout Europe, Scandinavia and the Pacific Rim. Paul Finnigan was also the Founder of the International Voicemail Association (www.thevma.com)and served as President from 1983 to 2000.

[plyman2]

I have no problem with Greg Carr''s project which is admirable. But your characterization of Mozambique, war and poverty, simply fed the stereotypes of Africa. Mozambique''s civil war ended nearly 20 years ago! It has a functioning democracy and thanks to sounds policies, has one of the fastest growth rates of any developing country. Yes, there is still poverty, given where they started from. But by implying that only kind hearted white folk are helping these poor Africans, you diminsh the leadership and people of that country who have earend praise from every international instituion for what they are doing. You could have at least mentioned that. 60 Minutes can do better.