From Murchison Falls, we had a nice drive to Ft. Portal, where we were to find Kibale National Park. An Aba Daba Honeymoon of sorts ♫♬, where monkeys and chimpanzees live together. (But read on, there's a twist coming later!)
It was a mostly paved road along the eastern shore of Lake Albert, with the Congo still on the other side of the lake, just like it was when we were in Murchison Falls!
The scenery was similar for the most part as the drive up to Murchison Falls from Entebbe, except there seemed to be more brick work. There were also these communities of small houses, usually circular houses arranged in circular fashion. I don't remember what they were called, but as boys grow into men in this particular tribe, they must leave the home they grew up in and build their own home in the vicinity. Once they have a home built, they can take a wife. I tried to keep logs and journals, but the name of these communities didn't make it into either my journal or my phone notes. I don't know how I missed that! I was so enthralled with the concept that I though for sure I put it in my notes, but I didn't. We also discussed that only women carry things on their heads in Uganda, and women carry everything on their heads (except babies, who are tied onto their backs somehow)! It's apparently a macho thing, which makes sense. Macho guys haven't seemed to develop their brain cells to the point that they can recognize when something is this awesomely efficient! I hope it didn't hurt Gody's feelings when those words tumbled out of my mouth. If it did, he didn't show it. If it did, please apologize to him for me, Kalema!
As we got closer to Ft. Portal and higher in elevation, we began seeing tea plantations. I didn't even know Uganda grew tea! It is one of the largest exports in the country, though, second only to coffee. I drank Ugandan tea every morning. It was quite good. I'm going to have to find some on Amazon to ship in!
When we arrived at the park, there was another welcoming committee of baboons waiting for us, including this little baby who stuck pretty close to his mama!
This guy tried to hijak our car, though! He walked around on the hood, looking into us through the windshield, trying to be a little intimidating and hoping for some handouts! Gody entertained him for a while, but then started inching forward, trying to convince him to jump off. He actually had to get up a pretty decent speed before our guy jumped off!
I love that they have opposable thumbs on the back feet, too!
Once we got settled into our hotel, we headed off to a "swamp walk" in the Bigodi Swamp. At the UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) office, we traded in our hiking shoes for gum boots and headed for the wetlands. The UWA guide pointed out a termite mound and gave us information about how the termites mix their spit with the dirt to keep the inside temperature cool, and how quickly they rebuild if you kick part of it over. (It's lightening fast!) He also shared information about some plants, and then we went searching for monkeys (my favorite part)! We saw a bunch of these little cheeky red tailed monkeys. I think there are two in this picture. I think I see two tails, but the little guy hanging upside down has stolen my heart!
There were a couple of my favorites, the black and white colobus monkey! They mostly hid behind the leaves.
And there was a mother/baby pair of the endangered red colobus monkey! This shot was taken by our guide, who took my Lumix camera and went off of the trail, deeper into the swamp to get some better angles. I'm so glad he did because most of views I was able to get were obstructed by leaves.
These guys were all very smart to live in the swamp instead of the forest where the chimps live. Shortly before coming to Uganda, I learned that chimpanzees are actually carnivorous, and one of their favorite meals is monkeys! So, I don't think the big baboon one night in June would marry a monkey and a chimp regardless of what Aba Daba Daba Daba Daba Daba Daba means! The Aba Daba Honeymoon is nothing but a lie spread by Debbie Reynolds! How could she do me like that!? (The Aba Daba Honeymoon was one of the first popular songs I ever learned to play on the piano as a child!)
The next morning, we set out for the park office and our first trek. Before the briefing, they had a group of musicians and dancers entertaining us.
I've been training all summer for these treks. When I left Patagonia, I had noticed significant difficulty breathing when trying to walk uphill, even tiny hills. I mentioned it to my doctor, and she started running tests to figure out why. She learned that I have some left ventricular hypertrophy, the very earliest stages of congestive heart failure. She started me on an exercise protocol, gave me new meds, and set me up with a cardiologist. After a major scare with a test that had false positives for a complete blockage of some major arteries, cardiology gave me more new meds and wished me well in Africa. Cardiac cath showed that the large vessels were mostly good with only some minor plaquing, but that I had significant microvascular disease, meaning the small vessels (capillary-type) were blocked. No real intervention available for those because they are too small to stent. After all of the medical interventions and physical training, I am at least 300% improved from where I was. Still, I asked Kalema to put me in with the "easy" group. Susan and I shared a porter. He carried both of our backpacks, but stuck by my side, making sure I didn't trip over anything and steadying me anytime the path was precarious or I seemed to be off my balance (which was more frequently than I care to admit).
It didn't take us long to find our first chimp. He was running through the forest to get to the meeting point where the other chimps were calling. I got an excellent picture of him! LOL!
I got some decent, but not great footage of them swinging in the trees.
Then, we came upon this little family, and this was where we spent most of our time! This is a mommy, daddy, baby, and juvenile. Our guide said the baby was about 3 months. She was still nursing. We spent most of our time with this family, so that's where I got most of my pictures!
Daddy grooming Mommy.
Daddy, Baby, and Juvenile
Proof that I did, in fact, make the trek!
Daddy, Baby, Juvenile
Mommy grooming Daddy
Mommy, Baby, Daddy
At one point, big brother decided he needed to answer the call and go to the meeting point.
You only get an hour with your chimp shrewdness. (I love that a gathering of apes is called a shrewdness!) So, we had to move on. As we were leaving the area, we came across this other mommy/baby pair in a tree.
And this guy kept changing positions, just not able to find one that was quite comfortable for him!
Getting back was harder than getting there. There was more uphill to get back. A bunch of our group was basically doing the trip in the other direction and had been gorilla trekking a couple of days before. They had an older lady with some mobility problems. That group and my porter said they believe I will be able to do the gorilla trekking, so I'm feeling positive. I also met a girl from Tacoma in that group. Which reminds me, I have her number, and since I'm back, I should shoot her a text!
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