Day 5: Chimpanzee tracking
This morning, we met Ishmael at 6:30 for the drive to the Kibale National Park. We were just leaving around sunrise, and low clouds settling over the crater lakes made the view quite mystical.
Baboon troops dotted the roads, seemingly indifferent to the cars, motorcycles and trucks.
We even spotted our first chimp scampering across the road, though neither Dave nor I were able to get off a photo.
The Kanyanchu Visitor Center is the starting point for all chimp viewing in the park. Kibale has the largest concentration of chimpanzees in the world with about 450, give or take, a few split between 7 communities. Visitors are allowed to interact with 2 of the communities, and the remainder have human interaction only with researchers. There were about 50 people here divided into groups of 6, each with an armed ranger. Just as we got out of our Land Cruiser, our second chimp ran across our path.
Looks like we will not be the 10% of visitors that see no chimps. We began our walk with our guide, Justice, and porter for my camera case, into the forest in search of chimpanzees. Within the first 20 minutes, we found “Mr. Black”, an older male (26 ish) high up in a tree eating.
Chimps, like humans, are omnivores preferring fruits, nuts, seeds, and leaves, eating about 15 to 20 lbs. of food a day. They will also eat meat, young antelopes, goats or other primates such as baboons, or colobus monkeys.
After about 30 minutes of eating, Mr. Black finally came down to investigate, and he remained perched on a low branch for quite a while allowing us to photograph him from every angle. He finally got bored with the photo shoot and took off to find the rest of his group with our band in hot pursuit.
We had to stay 25 feet away at all times, not so he didn’t know he was being tailed, but to protect us from any simian viruses he may have and transmit to us. It was fun traipsing through the forest chasing after a chimpanzee.
We finally came across several other members of his group, some up a tree lounging,
some on the ground grooming.
Watching the chimps made me think of the movie Planet of the Apes, half expecting them to start speaking to us in a British accent. Our allotted 40 minutes with the chimps turned into about twice that, and our ranger finally escorted us back to our Land Cruiser.
Our next stop was a boxed lunch followed by a “swamp walk”, a hike through a large swampy area full of birds and monkeys. Unfortunately as we ate our lunch, the sky blackened and thunder could be heard in the distance, as we were about to get our briefing for the hike, the rain started, coming down in buckets.
We waited it out for about an hour, and eventually decided to go when the storm seemed to have passed and our guide, Ben, assured us that the rain was over. Ben should stick to guiding and leave the weather predictions to the meteorologists. Ten minutes into the hike, the rain (and thunder and lightning) started up again. We probably should have quit, but pressed on like good soldiers. We saw several blue and red colobus monkeys (lacking an apposable thumb, thereby preventing them from joining the exclusive primate club),
and several different varieties of birdlife.
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| Black-capped Weavers |
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| Black-capped Weavers |
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| Whydah |
Overall, a long run for a short slide, but good to get out and get some exercise. The rain finally let up, and it got quite warm and steamy. Molly’s knee was bothering her so we had Ismael pick us up before the planned end of the hike. We were all beat and wet, so no one argued when Molly made the suggestion. We all needed a hot shower and a change of clothes.
Dinner tonight was another excellent meal with a special dessert to celebrate Molly and Dave’s anniversary today. We had planned to try to get KFC for them (their family tradition for their anniversary) and even scouted it out a few days ago in a mall outside of Entebbe, but Dish Dash wouldn’t deliver to the Middle of Nowhere, Uganda. They appreciate the thought though.
After dinner we had an interesting surprise in our rooms. Our laundry that we gave them when we arrived was back in our rooms, soaking wet. They have no drying facilities, and we think they were left on a line outside during the storm earlier. The temperature dropped significantly, and between that and the humidity, I’m not sure how much drier our clothes will be in the morning.
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