Kibale – Chimp Trek 19 July 2012

Kibale Forest National Park is the most accessible of Ugandan’s major rainforests and is home to the highest concentration of different primates in the world.  Twelve different species have been recorded.  The main attraction however, is the park’s 500 chimpanzees which have been habituated.

We took a walking safari to see the chimps, a real highlight.

Image

After hours of walking – a chimp up a tree  P1090392  DY of jtdytravels

Image

Colourful bracket fungus  P1090339  DY of jtdytravels

A village walk was on offer during the afternoon.  This included a visit to a tea plantation, something I’ve done a couple of times before.  I declined the offer and decided instead to do some washing and to have a shower.  There was hot water (sometimes) in the open air showers.  These showers offered a lovely view.

Image

The open-air shower  P1090396  DY of jtdytravels

Having elected to stay behind I planned to do some writing before my rostered duty came around.  The group has been divided into groups of four whose duty each day is to do their bit for the whole group.  My duty this particular day was to help the cook with the preparation of the vegetables for the night’s meal.  I expected a call to duty at around 17h30, but to my dismay, the cook said he wanted me at 16h30.  This was only 30 minutes after I finished my washing and shower.  I dutifully turned up at the appointed hour and did my duty.  Because I was the only PAX in camp the whole of the job fell to my peeling and cutting hands.  This wasn’t a problem but it naturally took me longer to do the job than having it shared between the other members of my group who were still out visiting the village or doing the afternoon chimp walk.  By the time I’d finished cutting up enough eggplant, carrots, onion, green capsicum, potato and grating garlic to give the non-descript soup some flavour, the first of the group arrived back at camp from their various activities.  It was obviously time to start replenishing some of the liquid lost earlier in the day.  And, there went the best of my intentions!

Image

The view from the bar  P1090260  DY of jtdytravels

I don’t think I’ve put a flower picture in yet, so here is one just because I can!  The butterfly is just for interest.

Image

Solanum and butterfly  P1090225  DY of jtdytravels

Leave a Reply