Our closest relatives
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2010
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Trip End
Nov 30, 2011
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Kibale Forest National Park, UG.25, Uganda
Friday, August 5, 2011
Leaving the city, we initially made quite slow progress as it took us nearly an hour to reach the outskirts of Kampala. Uganda has a population of over 30 million people, and has one of the densest populations in all of Africa. As we travelled further and further west away from Kampala I was surprised at how many people we saw, living and plying their trades in the towns and along the roadsides across the whole width of the country. Even when we stopped for a roadside lunch, we didn’t have more than two minutes of peace before we had a large group of people crowded around to watch us eat.
After a longish day in the truck we finally arrived at our beautiful mountain campground. As we unpacked and set up our camp, one thing in particular caught our attention – after travelling all over Africa, and constantly sharing camp grounds and camping sites with other overland trucks, for once we had the whole campground to ourselves. Either the other overland companies bypass Kibale Forest completely, or they choose to stay elsewhere in the area – either way we were happy to have the place to ourselves.
As we were preparing for dinner Gino and Matt had to leave us to take Adeana to the local hospital. She hadn’t been feeling very well all day, and having not improved after getting off the truck, the decision was made to take her 45 minutes back to the nearest town to get some medical attention. We all fully expected to see the truck return before we had to head off to bed, but by 10.30pm they still hadn’t returned. With an early start in the morning, we were all in bed when the truck did finally return to the camp. Kerry and I must have been fast asleep because we didn’t even hear them get back.
Thursday morning, although Adeana was reportedly feeling much better, both she and Jamie decided to stay at the camp to get some rest, while we headed into the forest to track the chimpanzees. Leaving camp in the truck, we were again able to open up the roof seats for the short drive up to the park’s visitor centre. The early morning mountain air was cool and brisk as we raced through the forest. Sitting atop the truck with the sun’s orange light shining through the forest canopy and the dense bush flying past enveloping the senses, was an amazing feeling that left me with an uncontrollable smile on my face.
Kibale Forest National Park covers an area of about 795 sq km, and is renowned for its population of habituated chimpanzees, and 12 other species of primates. The equatorial rainforest here contains the highest concentration of primates in Africa, including about 500 of our closest living relative, the endangered chimpanzee.
Since 1992, some of Kibale's chimps have been habituated to human visitors as a sustainable eco-tourism initiative, allowing people to visit and view them in the wild. As part of this initiative, some of the fees paid by tourists to track the chimpanzees go to the local community. Putting money back into the local community allows them to benefit from the tourism generated by the chimpanzees, and means that it’s no longer in their interests to hunt chimpanzees.
After registering at the park’s visitor centre, and splitting ourselves into two groups of six, we drove further into the forest accompanied by our two guides, to get within closer walking distance of the chimps. We didn’t really know what to expect, what the terrain would be like, or how long it might take us to locate the chimpanzees. Fortunately though, the tracking wasn’t particularly arduous – the terrain was dry and relatively flat, meaning that it was simply a case of navigating ourselves around the ground level trees and scrub.
We could hear the chimps well before we could see them - their echoing calls leading us to their location without too much difficulty. A mere 45 minutes after entering the forest, we were able to stop and look up at the chimps moving around in the forest canopy above us. Watching and listening, we could sense that we were being surrounded by chimps high above us the whole time, with small groups coming together in the treetops from all around.
Standing amongst the forest’s thick undergrowth, surrounded by dense tree cover, we weren’t always able to see all of the chimps, but we could certainly hear them. As we waited patiently, craning our necks skyward to search the treetops, every now and then the forest would suddenly erupt into a cacophony of sound. It only took one chimp to start calling to set them all off, but as soon as it did as many as 50 chimps would all be calling and screaming at the same time, enveloping the forest with noise. It was such an amazing scene – we couldn’t see them, but it was like the forest was being overtaken by uncontrollable laughter!
As the chimps moved in the treetops above us, it wasn’t easy for us to get photographs, particularly good close-ups. The light in the forest wasn’t the best for taking photos, and the heavy foliage meant that it was difficult for the camera to focus properly on the chimps. We spent over an hour staring upwards waiting for the chimps to come down out of the trees. Finally though they began to descend from their treetop heights to forage on the forest floor. As more and more of the chimps dropped down to the ground we began to move in to get a closer look at these amazing animals.
Given the lengthy period that we had been staring at the chimps in the trees, we only had 15 minutes to watch them on the ground. Although we would all have liked longer to watch them up close, we did get to see a quite remarkable scene as we stopped to watch three chimps sat together under some trees. As I sat there videoing the three chimps I noticed them becoming increasingly agitated. All of a sudden, one of them jumped up and shot up a nearby tree. A couple of seconds later, a large male came racing up to where the three chimps had been sat. Suddenly all hell broke loose. Chimps were screaming and scattering in all directions. I kept my camera videoing as I searched the forest looking for one of the chimps that had been sat beneath the trees, which we could now hear crying and whimpering off to our side – evidently the rampaging male had taken exception to something, and had bitten the chimp.
The whole incident placed our visit into perspective for me. Although we had armed rangers with us for protection, these were still wild animals and they could have turned on us at any moment if they had chosen. We were guests on their turf, and we needed to remember and respect that.
Back at the camp, Kerry was feeling a bit off. She hadn’t been feeling 100% since we’d woken up, and combined with her frustration and disappointment with some of the photo opportunities in the morning, it had left her feeling quite down. While some of our group took the opportunity to go on a two hour nature walk around the nearby lake, Kerry and I decided to spend the afternoon resting at the campsite. It was a good chance for us both to relax a little and enjoy the nice setting, and for me to catch up on some much needed blogging.
On the whole I thought our chimpanzee experience was really enjoyable, but I’m hoping that the gorilla tracking, which we do in a few days, will be an even better experience. Obviously the mountain gorillas will be on the ground and not in the trees, so hopefully they should provide better opportunities for viewing and photos.
Our next stop is Queen Elizabeth II National Park, which has one of the highest biodiversity ratings of any national park in the world.
Andrew
