Describe the life of Charles Monet. What were his "hobbies"?

In the first chapter of The Hot Zone, the reader is introduced to Charles Monet, an expatriate Frenchman who lives at the base of Mount Elgon in western Kenya in 1979. An amateur naturalist, Monet decides to use his winter holiday for a camping trip to the national park on Mount Elgon. Monet invites one of his lovers from the village to go with him. On the second day of the trip, Monet and his friend explore Kitum Cave, a local tourist attraction and petrified rain forest that contains an array of crystals, as well as bats, insects, and mummified elephant corpses.