Chimpansee trekking in Kibale

  Kibale Forest, Uganda
Thursday, August 28, 2008

Our last stop before heading back to Kampala was Kibale Forest. On our way from Queen Elisabeth NP our truck Desert Storm unfortunately broke down. Christian did his best to assist our truck driver Charles with duct-tape, but the clutch had gone completely. Tourleader Nick fixed us a couple of matatos (local minibus taxis) and loaded all of our tents, gear and lugage in one and all got in the other. We then continued on after a lunch stop in Fort Portal.


We set up camp for the last time - though not quite the last time as some safari ants decided to force us to move a tent. We first discovered the ants when Louisa, Sally and Cecilie were going to the toilet and got some strange stinging sensation on their legs. As it did not stop they retreated back to camp and using a torch they found out that they had loads of ants crawling up their legs.

In Kibale Forest National Park we were trekking mans closest relative - chimpansees. They are very different to gorillas as they are smaller, but still bigger than you expect and they make a lot more noise as well. As soon as one chimp makes a warning shout it is echoed by all the other chimps around - very impressive.

We initially found a group of chimps, who were high up in the canopies. This made them a little bit difficult to see and also made it difficult to take pictures of them. But after having spent almost an hour with them our guide found another group, which was walking along the ground and easier to get close to. Several chimps just sat and ate and there were especially two chimps, who spent most of the time grooming each other.

Later that day we did a walk around a local swamp called the Bagodi Wetlands. Here we several monkeys: black and white colobus, red colobus, and red tail monkey. We also saw some beautiful birds on the walk.

The next day we unfortunately had to go back to Kampala as our Uganda adventure was coming to an end :(