Kibale Forest

  Kibale, Uganda
Saturday, June 14, 2008

Kibale Forest

Saturday June 14th, 2008. Kibale Forest Primate and Swamp Walks
A little sleep in this morning with a 7am start but the chimps were screaming their lungs out overnight just to make sure we all knew they were out there. The tents at Kibale Primate Lodge were a little more permanent than those at Ishasha being built on a raised wooden platform and having a thatched roof over the top of the tent - not to mention the big fire place plus 44gal drum behind the tent that acted as a water heater.
Apparently there have been some power struggles within the chimp community nearby and that was why they were so vocal from about 5am. It was a little surreal to hear them for the first time (and to realise that's what it was). They sound exactly like they do on TV with that exaggerated scream. I wasn't sure if Cheetah from Tarzan was putting it on all those years ago but it turns out those were real chimp noises. I know I am talking like an idiot here but it really is quite a strange feeling hearing this sound at 5am and only a few hundred metres away. You do have to pinch yourself and work out if it is real of someone playing movie sound effects.
So we were off to the ranger station about 200m down the road from the lodge and there we met up with a group of about 14 from the UK who were heading out to track chimps too. We got split into 3 groups and headed off in the 4WDs to the starting point. It was going to be about 4hrs walking so we had prepared water and clothes accordingly (we were old pros by now).
We were in a group of 6 - us plus two other couples (retirees from the UK one of whom is the sister of the Ugandan head of the Jane Goodall Institute but I didn't get the names). They seemed nice enough but one of the group turned out to be possibly the worst bush walker I have ever seen and she was always making sure she was closest to the tracker. She was grabbing hold of every tree she walked past which was stupid for three reasons; trees in these jungles have thorns and sharp edges, or they have insects on them and letting them go flicks them into the person behind. She was a nightmare to walk behind let me assure you so a short bush walking tip - don't touch the trees you are walking past. Leave them alone or you will cut yourself, get stung or piss someone off behind you.
I was in a group of 3 women and two retired men so it was only polite of me to walk at the back of the group but that proved to be the worst place possible. The tracker followed the chimps from behind and we trailed off behind him one at a time meaning the back of the line was a good 30-40m behind the lead when we were following a chimp. That meant I could never see anything at the back of the group and whenever I caught up to the action, the action had moved on. Our first encounter was following some noises and only the front couple of people got to see the two females that ran off into the bush and hid from us (and apparently then started laughing at us because we could keep up).
Next we found a few up a tree - but they were about 40m up so it wasn't a great view. Then we followed some more noises and soon we came upon a female walking on the ground. I got to see a bit of her but I was still mostly at the back and it was starting to get a little annoying. We followed the female for a while then found some more on the ground and followed them until we met a young male sitting the ground posing for us. This was the first chance I had to get a good look at the chimps and it was brilliant. Just like I had expected - like being at the zoo but without the walls. He just sat there and looked at us without really caring too much about us at all.
Soon another group walking in the forest came upon the same chimp and bump and barged past us to get too close to him and film him. Our guide decided there were too many of us with this one chimp so it was time to move on. This is when I I decided to make my presence known at the front of the group for a while. I followed behind Silver and made sure I stayed near him for as long as was polite just so I could see what was going on. This is when I realised I could see chimps all over the place. They were looking at us and walking ahead of us and generally ignoring us until we got too close then they would make a diversion that we couldn't take and we would be a safe distance from them again. At one point an older female and her prodigy climbed a big fig tree, got to the top (40m up) and found a bunch of food. They then called at the top of their lungs to let everyone know they had found food. The screaming sounded like a warning or fighting noise, but it was just them calling to let their family know where to come and get some food. Soon it was time to turn for home. My GPS showed we had been walking in circles but had done about 3kms of trekking in closed jungle spaces and now we had about 2kms of trail walking back to the ranger station. All up a 4hr round trip and back in time for lunch.
Lunch back at the Primate Lodge was surprisingly good. The Lodge didn't look as good as the Ishasha Tented Camp but the kitchen was top notch! The food was always good while we were there - even the packed lunch (the packed lunch was a phenomenon soon to get the better of Rina but more on that in the coming days). We had been told about a tree house at the Primate Lodge and I wanted to spend the night up it to see what noises are really going on in the jungle. The tree house is about 1km from the main Lodge and 10m up a tree. It's very basic but right amongst it. At the time we said we wanted to stay the night up there but I could tell Rina was not too excited about the prospects and it was going to be a major pain in the butt with an early departure the next day so we opted out.
In the afternoon we were off for a rather un-enticingly named "swamp walk" through a wetland below the local village. There is plenty of wildlife in the wetland and it would be too hard for the village to cultivate in there so instead of ruining it and letting it turn putrid, the locals have decided to manage it as a guided walk. Alex was our guide who turned out to be really entertaining once you realised he had a good sense of sarcasm - something Ugandans seem to have adopted from the British maybe? Wherever it comes from, the sense of humour here is very similar to Australia or the UK. On top of that he assured me that all Africa want Barrack Obama to win the election in the US.
We walked around and then through the swamp with Alex pointing out red tailed monkeys, black and white collobus monkeys, red collobus monkeys, mangebays (in between baboons and monkeys, very cool), a spitting cobra up a tree and birds, birds and more birds (I still don't understand bird watching, but it seems to be one of the biggest pastimes of nature lovers in Uganda). Once we had circled the swamp we then had to dissect it with a walk along a raised wooden path that wound its way through the swamp for about 300m. Rina is not very good with bridges, etc that have gaps between the planks so this part of the walk took some time.....but we got there....eventually :)
Out of the swamp we made our way up the hill and into the local village to see some of the local bandas and farmland. Through the bandas we then came out to the main road and into the middle of the weekly market where everyone comes to buy and sell what ever they have from the week's work. None of it is geared for tourists except for the local peanut butter project (started by a member of the American Peace Corps spookily referred to as "Mark" - its almost like he was being referred to as some sort of saviour for the village). Anyway, its seems he did good and taught them how to make peanut butter, handicrafts for sale to tourists and how to create some local tourism (including the swamp walk). These appear to be the main drivers of foreign money coming into the village.
After the Swamp Walk we headed back to the Lodge just in time for the local orphanage to perform a song and dance show for us. These kids are all either double orphans (no parents), single orphans (lost one parent) or high risk (parents don't care for them) primarily due to HIV/AIDS. All in all there are 64 kids at the orphanage and about 20 of them performed for us. One girl had a fantastic voice but they were not as enthusiastic as the kids at the Gorilla Nest Lodge. We still enjoyed the show though. After the show, dinner and bed....it was a long day and I think we were asleep by about 9pm