Chimps!

We saw the wild chimps today! It was an exhilarating adventure, and I hope you enjoy the tale.


The Primate Lodge was our starting point.


Before we arrived for the tour, the boda-boda was late by 30 minutes late and had taken us that time or more out of the way. Arriving late for departure, we were gently welcomed and recognized for our work with Dr. Jane Goodall. The boss welcomed us to a special 11:00 tour, before the second and final scheduled tour at 2:00 pm.

To pass two hours, I ate a tasty chapatti and drank an invigorating cup of non-instant coffee. It was cold this morning. We are highly elevated here in Kibale [cheebahlay]. Our motorcycle adventure had been taxing, as my eyes watered in the dusty air mixed with sunscreen melting into my eyes. That stings!

After a warm and tasty snack, I explored Primate Lodge.


Rules for tracking chimps:


Authentic decorations and instruments were in every corner of this posh resort.


The drums and stringed instruments sounded great, if I do say so myself!


We were guided by Geoffrey. He showed us, first, a gigantic fungus and a phallic bit of tree.








Little did we know that by noon, chimps are napping in the upper canopy of the jungle, so our 11:00 departure proved somewhat unfruitful. When we arrived at our viewing destination, the chimps who had been active for breakfast were now off to nap. We tracked the chimps for more than an hour - moving, listening, waiting, listening...

Along the way, we saw chimp dung,


old chimp nests,


elephant poop


and elephant tracks,


a red butterfly, and hundreds of other winged things, moths and insects.


And then there were the chimps! I think there was maybe one male, a couple of females and at least one baby. They were all in the upper layers of the jungle canopy, so viewing was a struggle. My neck felt like I was flying the spinnaker again on the boat, after looking up for so long.

She spots us here


and takes another look.


Another female is moving around,


and baby practices swinging, like some baby humans I know ;)


One lone male is on the pathway in as we head out.


With my tiny camera magnified to 16X, photos were tricky to focus, especially when any movement of the chimps was so exciting. I have videos to share when the internet connection is more powerful.

Here is the end to another beautiful day in Uganda! We stayed at CVK Lakeside Resort, run by David and Pelusi Ruyooka. www.cvklakeside.com


With love from Jen