Chimp Tracking in Kibale Forest National Park
Day 7: 4th
December 2018
Maps of Lisa's activities
Chimp tracking
Village and Swamp walk
Because Andrew slipped and twisted his injured knee yesterday,
and this morning he literally could barely walk, so it was just me for the days
activities while Andrew rested up at the lodge.
First activity for the day was the Chimp Trekking in Kibale
Forest. We had to be there by 8am, so it wasn’t an early start by safari
standards. Once we got to the base station we had a briefing about the 8 rules
of how to behave around the chimps, such as don't use flash photography, don't try to copy their vocalisations (as you don't know what you're saying), always listen to your guide etc.
Then we were divided into groups of 6, and assigned to a
guide who would escort us to find the chimps. My group had a guide named Aisha
(handily her name was written on the butt of her AK47), and another guide in
training.
Most of the guides are female which is pretty cool I think. The
guides warned us to tuck our pant legs into our socks because of safari ants in
the forest, and off we went. Tracking chimps is different than gorillas,
because the gorillas are supervised by rangers, so the guides know where they
are, but they track the chimps by sound, as they are a pretty noisy bunch. The
chimps vocalise a lot and also communicate by banging their fists or a branch
against the buttress roots of trees (like a drum).
The walking was a lot easier than gorilla trekking as you
follow open trails, and it is not nearly as steep. It was still muddy, and
uneven, and also you follow the chimps along as they move, so still a fairly energetic
activity.
It didn’t take long at all for us to find our first chimp, but he was
a lively fellow, who rushed off quite quickly, banging a branch into a tree on
his way.
After that we found a couple of chimps who were high up in the trees,
eating fruit. We had to be careful to stay out from underneath them, as they
kept throwing down big fruit.
Fruit locked and loaded
At one point we were watching a chimp when a couple of us
stood on a safari ant trail for abit too long. Socks were not enough, as the
ants went straight up to my waistband, then back down inside my pants, and also up under
my t-shirt.
Safari ants bite! But luckily aren’t poisonous, so there’s no
itching or pain later. There was quite a lot of jumping about and slapping and
so forth as the trainee guide and I got rid of what appeared to be hundreds of
ants. The rest of the trek involved the odd new ant making himself known!
We were lucky enough to find a couple of chimps who were
hanging out on a fallen tree, and we stayed with them for quite a while.
Impressive teeth!
Pensive stares
One of them had an injured arm (maybe broken) that the ranger said was from being caught in a snare.
They were joined by several more after a while, and they all sat around resting and grooming on the tree trunk. It was interesting watching the pecking order in play as to who got groomed, and who did the grooming. The youngest chimp had to groom himself.
It was a really worthwhile experience, and we got a great
view of the chimps, but somehow I ended up dirtier than bashing through the
jungle looking for gorillas!
Then it was back to the lodge for another delicious lunch
and to check on the invalid, who had been enjoying cups of tea and taking rude
photos of monkeys.
The afternoon activity was a Community Walk in Bigodi
Village, and then a walk in Bigodi Swamp. These walks are community projects
which bring some money into the community and provide employment. My guide was
a young man named Patto, he brought along a stylish pair of welly boots for me which
fit perfectly, and umbrellas in case of rain.
Stylish!!
Our first visit was to the coffee
maker, who worked from home. Patto acted as a translator for all the four
village visits. She showed us the process of pounding the coffee seeds with a
wooden mortar & pestle to get the beans out, roasting the beans, then
grinding the beans and making the coffee. All done on a small fire in a lean to
behind the house. The coffee was pretty good, and because I am a tea drinker Patto
found some black jack and lemongrass and made me herbal tea also!
The next stop was the banana beer and gin maker. He uses
banana leaves, grasses and other natural materials to mash up the ripe bananas,
collect and sieve the juice, then it is brewed into beer. Not really to my
taste, but you could certainly taste the banana influence.
The gin is made using a still down in the swamp, so that the
running water is available to cool the copper coils and condense the steam.
First gin out is about 20% alcohol, then he runs it through again to get 60%,
then combines a container of 20% and one of 60 % to get the usual 40% product.
The 40% was certainly strong enough for me, as it was served neat.
Next we visited the weaving women, there are 10 women in the
collective, 4 or 5 work each day. They weave baskets, bowls, placemats etc with
papyrus reed fibres, and all the dyes used are natural. Really beautiful work.
It takes 3 weeks to make one of the larger bowls.
The last village visit was to the medicine man. Like the beer
& gin maker, he was taught his craft by his father, and took over when his
father died. Apparently, he cannot cure AIDS, cancer, high blood pressure or goitre,
but I guess every thing else may be possible. He described how to chase away an
enemy by using part of a chimp skull & a stick from a chimp nest, and also
described the uses of various herbs.
The medicine man
After the village visits Patto and I walked along the road
to the swamp walk. It was starting to get close to sunset, but we still saw some
interesting things, including an Australian bottlebrush tree! We saw red
colobus monkeys, and black & white colobus monkeys, and quite a few birds. Patto told me Colobus is derived from the Greek word Colobe which means "cripple" because these monkeys don't have thumbs! The walk trail runs in a loop through the swamp, the wettest parts have planks
laid down, but there is still quite a bit of satisfying squelching through the
mud – I was glad of the welly boots!
Red colobus monkey
Well done for taking over the blog Lisa. Great chimp pics
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