Uganda part one – Chimps

For the first part of this trip, see https://lynntowin.ca/masai-mara

Kampala

To start the second part of our adventure, we flew Kenya Airways to Entebbe, on Lake Victoria in Uganda. Entebbe is a laid back lakeside city with mansions overlooking the beautiful vistas.

The president of the country has two official residences, in Entebbe and in Kampala, the capital.

A driver picked us up there to take us to Kampala. Vendors lined the highway, selling sheets, backpacks, apples, you name it. He told us stories of the current president going with an entourage between the cities each day, causing traffic jams. This may have been continued after the infamous dictator Idi Amin, the Butcher of Uganda, in the 1970s.

In Kampala, we met a new group of people joining us. Marcella, a doctor from Australia, joined us from Ghana where she was volunteering in a town surgery, doing operations without anesthetic. She had some stories! There was also an employee of Open AI, a former US figure skating champ, and a highway patrolwoman.

We went out for Ethiopian/Eritrean food. I made the mistake of asking for a little spice, since the local food I had in Kenya was very bland, and my mouth was burning.

Kibale National Park

We set off the next morning on a 7 hour drive in two land cruisers with a driver/guide in each. We passed through towns with Sunday markets, selling green bananas and decapitated chickens. There is no frozen food here, and banana leaves are used to keep meat fresh.

We used paved highways most of the way. Half were good, the other half filled with potholes, so you need to drive from side to side to avoid them, playing chicken with oncoming traffic.

We reached our camp near Kibale NP. Before dinner was a guided jungle walk, where we saw some bonobo monkeys.

We had a meeting about the following days, then dinner, then bed in a permanent tent camp ten minutes’ walk from the lodge. Toilets are another few minutes away from the tents. There was torrential rain as I went to sleep. I woke in the middle of the night to constant monkey calls. We had to be up around 5 am anyway…

Chimpanzee trek

We drove an hour to reach Kibale National Park, passing fantastic scenery. In the distance were crater lakes, from ancient volcanoes, with no outlets.

Close to the park there were lots of baboons on the road, looking for a handout from the visitors.

Here we can see the endangered east african chimpanzee. We joined a crowd of people to get a short instructional message from a park ranger, then split into groups to set off into the forest to see chimpanzees.

We had a guide at the front, and guards at the back, all with rifles. This is for our protection, in case we run in to buffalo or forest elephants. I never heard of forest elephants! They are the rarely seen smaller cousin of the savannah elephant that we will see on safari. The only reason to be afraid of them is if they have babies to protect.

We tramped through the forest for a couple of hours, stopping to see different birds or monkeys in the trees. I actually didn’t see anything, since I was towards the back of a group of 12. We reached a road and saw a couple of other groups, where we started seeing and hearing chimps in the trees.

The shocking truth about chimpanzees

The chimps called and yelled to each other, not as an alarm but just for fun, since they are habituated to humans. We could see them high above us swinging through the trees, and trailed along behind them, dodging the fruit rinds that they threw down after eating. This is why we wore hats.

We also tried to dodge the red ants, but wandered into a couple of swarms, and they bite hard. I was covered from head to toe, pants tucked in to socks, but made the mistake of not tucking my shirt in to my pants, and paid the price. We were also required to wear face masks because we could come close to the chimps and we don’t want to spread any disease to them.

Just as we were thinking it was time to leave, two chimpanzees came down to the forest floor. This was a shocking moment for me, since I was picturing a cute chimp about toddler size, like the one Michael Jackson kept. These chimps were not what I was picturing!

One of the chimps was knuckle walking when we first saw him. We followed a few yards behind, then he suddenly turned, and walked within two feet of me. He was about thigh high to me, while on all fours. So, around my size. My heart was in my throat. It turns out these chimps reach 150 pounds, and over 5 feet tall!

The two chimps rested in place separately for us to admire them, for a long time. The old girl that I spent most of the time with locked eyes with me, and for some reason that brought tears to my eyes. She was so human! They are our closest relatives, with about 99% of our DNA the same. These chimps live to about 50 years old, coincidentally the same lifespan as the average Ugandan.

It was only after returning home that I read about the strength and aggression of chimps, who in rare cases when provoked have torn apart unlucky humans.

Jane Goodall died the day I’m writing this. She started as an advocate for the chimps she was the first to research in the wild, and ended as a conservationist for the earth. The G Adventures trip I’m on has the Jane Goodall Foundation stamp of approval, and a portion of the fees I paid are donated to that charity.

For the next part of my adventure, https://lynntowin.ca/uganda-second-part-safaris/