Our first major animal event of Africa! Honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got up that morning to head into the Kibaale National Forest. We had a short 30 minute drive from the lodge to the park entrance where we had to sign in and wait for the briefing. Godfrey is a very early person, so we were one of the first ones to arrive (which I didn’t mind at all). After all the tourists arrived (about 30 people or so), they gave us a quick briefing describing what to expect and what we needed with us on the trek. One of those things was a face mask for when we got close to the chimps. However, I had just pulled our bag of masks out of our daypack not thinking they would be needed. Thankfully, our seat neighbors gave us two to use so we didn’t have to buy any.

Then it was time to split up into our groups with a guide and head off into the forest! In our group, there was a couple from British Columbia and a family from Germany (who didn’t seem very well prepared for the trek). Our guide’s name was Milka (like the German chocolate). She was quick walking through the forest and being the one behind her, I got smacked a couple of times by branches she would pass by. I tried to hold them out of Grant’s way so they didn’t smack him. When we first heard a chimpanzee call, my jaw dropped. You don’t realize the power they have until hearing/seeing them. They like to call incredibly loudly and beat on their chest, ground, or trees as well with their open hands. It was impressive to see how well the guides knew the area and how to find where the call was coming from. We found one male chimp up in a tree and after other groups had left, our guide decided we were going to follow this one to see if his friends would join up with him. There were a couple of times his calls took my breath away as it was unexpected. We followed him to a tree where he went up to graze on some fruit before heading down to travel some more. Our final spot watching him was on a log. Grant got some amazing photos on his camera while we were watching him (more on the photos page).

Our guide kept inching me towards the log to get a better view of him. I have a healthy respect for animals and can enjoy viewing them from a distance. And good thing because the next thing we knew he was running down the log at us before hopping off into the woods! My hands were shaking a little after this video. Grant was still on the other side of this log at this time and saw the chimp rush past him quite closely as well.

We continued walking for a little bit more before I heard our guide talking on the radio about a group nearby. When we got to the site, there were two chimps on the ground. One of them ended up being the alpha male of the community and walked right past us before calling others to join him up in the trees. That’s when we started hearing more chimps running through the trees! It was crazy to watch them communicate with each other but also walk so close by us. In one video, you can hear my breathing get heavier as he gets closer. But they are so used to humans now that they just walk right past you.

It was kind of sad when our trek came to a close, but we both agreed this was definitely an adventure to remember. And it made us even more excited for the gorilla trek later on in the week! After getting back to the base site, we got a certificate for completing a successful tracking. And our guide let us take a pic with her! Leaving the forest we ran into a bunch of baboons on the roads and even saw a couple of babies. They are like the bison of Yellowstone and are just constantly on the sides of the roads and will try to get into your car if they see any signs of food.

Back at the lodge, we were greeted with a traditional Uganda meal with sweet potato (not orange like ours), mashed plantains, smoked fish in a peanut sauce, pea stew, rice, and collard greens. It was really good! I may have had several helpings… Our last activity at this lodge was a swamp walk and community tour. We saw a couple of red-tailed monkeys and doves along the trail and our guide taught us about plants locals use for various medicines and even leaves from a plant as toilet paper. It was actually pretty soft! Then we drove back to the office where we started our community walk. They took us to a traditional doctor who taught us about various remedies he makes from the local plants to help treat burns, malaria, muscle aches, and even running off bad neighbors (he buries a chimp skull in their doorway so when they enter the house they get the idea they need to leave town). Next was visiting a group of women who make baskets from the local plants. He showed us how they use the different materials and how they crush fruit and flowers to make the different colors. Then we were entertained with local dancing and singing from the group! We felt bad because they offered us to purchase anything in the pile of baskets/bowls that they made but none were really small enough to fit in our bags.

The last two visits were trying some local banana beer and banana gin along with some local coffee. Grant definitely enjoyed the gin and I surprisingly enjoyed the banana beer. It had a sweeter flavor. It sounded like quite a process to make the banana beer and gin. Over 100 bunches of bananas will make just two 20L jugs of gin. The guy who makes it is the only one in the community who does and is able to sell to locals and bars in the community. Our coffee stop included showing us how they crush the sun dried coffee fruits to get the beans out before they roast them. We were served two small cups of coffee along with peanuts (which we realized were another staple of Ugandan food).

We finished off the night with another great 3 course meal and it was off to bed for another early wake up before we head to Kihihi for gorilla trekking.