Camargue Experience
We're ready for any unexpected surprise, sometimes car like to throw some at you. Axel's Daphni had an issue just before leaving to the Camargue, South of France, the next migration hotspot on our route. We have decided to leave Axel in Girona, and Ario went to the Camargue to start with a recce of the location and meet local field experts.
Someone had joined us though, Clémence had decided to leave her job at Castell Mar, and join the Sounding Wild Exploration team as Environmental Educator. She's originally from the Cevenne area, north of Camargue, but knows very well the area. Her naturalist knowledge, diplomatic skills and French/English translation skills have been essential for the completition of this segment of the journey.
The Camargue is a huge wetland area, it takes 1 and a half hours drive to go from one side to the other. Within it, there are many nature reserves, associations, villages, wetlands. We have met many responsables of these, but we have felt we wanted to dive deeper and collaborate with one in particular, the Ornithologic Park Pont De Gau.
A wildlife heaven, this nature reserve is insane as you don't need binoculars to see birds close, as they are literally a few meters away from you! Herons colonies, Glossy Ibis, and the Camargue's emblem, the Flamingos, in their hundreds!
We have thought of doing a few installations in different locations over a few days, but instead working with Pont De Gau gave us the opportunity to focus on the main species, their enthusiasm for natural history storytelling is so strong we couldn't resist!
Fred, Pont de Gau's director, is a visionary conservationist who believes if wildlife is close to you, you can get more personal and create a deeper connection to it. Well, we can't agree more! People were constantly amazed by the beautiful animals they could see. Wildlife is free to come and go, there are no cages apart from the wildlife refuge where they welcome any animal in needs of help.
The Experience, a different approach
With our VR experience, we wanted to give a glimpse of the wildlife the people could find at the park. The story locates you in the Camargue, explaining the different habitats you can find to better locate the wildlife in real life. Clemence's preliminary research was extremely helpful to create a complete story, with behavioral details we absolutely loved!
In Urdaibai and Aiguamolls we have included a great numbers of species within 8 minutes. It is though a double-sided sword, more information, less time to digest it. This time we wanted to play it differently, less species, more time for each to sink into the pictures and sounds.
We have felt this decision have helped our peers to get more information, to enjoy the visual and sonic details, without rushing through too much information.
What do you think about it? Check it out below!