Look Out Below

New Year’s Day we took our sisters to Kibale National Park so that we could go chimpanzee trekking.  We got a slightly later start than planned after our New Year’s Eve bash, and our lunch plans had a “This is Africa” moment, but we still made decent time and got to show them around Fort Portal (a town above Kibale).  We decided to stay at the same place Greg and I used when we went at Easter with our friends.  Our sisters were more than a little out of their comfort zone there as they had to deal with their first outside bathroom in the middle of a forest and treks from the rooms to the main lodge.  While a new experience for them, which made for a few laughs for us, they more or less survived the experience with positive attitudes.

We started our chimp trek the next day and lucked out as we almost immediately found the chimps.  Unfortunately for Greg, what we did not realize is that we had also passed a few chimps and some were now directly above us.  To paint the picture better, while in the trees, the chimps end up dropping the figs they are eating and also take care of their “nature calls” business.  Almost instantaneously after realizing the chimps were above us, there was a loud splatter and all you heard Greg say was, “Please be a fig, please be a fig.”  No such luck for Greg as the backpack, he was wearing got a direct hit from the chimpanzee and poop literally splattered everywhere.  There was definitely some collateral damage due to the splatter (with led to more laughs) and we had nothing to clean up with except for the leaves around us.  After some minor freak outs, we were able to get back to enjoying nature and being surrounded by our closest relatives (but ensuring that they were no longer above us).

Our warm welcome to Kibale National Park.

Poor Greg, and Sarah's backpack.

For Greg and I, this experience was very different from our last trip to Kibale.  When the chimps started moving, the guides had us following them through the forest.  The guides had us stop as one of the chimps climbed down a tree and walked right by us.  We could have reached out and touched him he was so close.  This was definitely one of those wow, once in a lifetime moments.

He was so close to us, it was awesome!

As we moved a little farther, we found Mr. Black.  He got his name because as a baby he had an all-black face which is apparently rare for baby chimpanzees.  He was sitting in an extremely small tree which was very low to the ground and gave us an awesome view.  Once he was done snacking on some tasty leaves, he hopped down and moved to a tree that had fallen on the ground.  He gave a few big yawns and then laid down like he was going to take a nap.  Since I took way more pictures than I care to admit, check out our SmugMug to see all of them.

Sisters chimp trekking with Mr. Black in the tree behind us.

Mr. Black munching on some leaves.

Check out those teeth!

After a little while, Mr. Black decided he had enough pictures taken for one day and there were too many people around for him to nap.  He slowly got up, walked right past Greg (which after we had all seen just how big his teeth actually were was a little scary), and disappeared off into the forest.  By this point, our guides said our time was up and we seemed to have our fair share of wow moments for the day so it was time to head back.

Back at the headquarters, we were greeted with another surprise as there were Gray-cheeked Mangabeys everywhere.  They’re always a cool primate to photograph and I was glad my sisters got to see them.  We also got to see some Great Blue Turacos chilling on the ground and were able to get some really up close photos of them.

Gray-cheeked Mangabey.

Great Blue Turaco.

We headed off to a different lodge to do lunch.  We’ve stayed with this company at other National Parks and they always have pretty good food.  But this location had a cool little nature walk around the premises.  Another awesome decision on our part as we were quickly surrounded by Black-and-white Colobus monkeys and we even got to see a few Red Colobus monkeys, which to date I hadn’t really had many good shots of.

Red Colobus monkey.

Baby Black-and-white Colobus monkey.

The next morning we did the Bigodi Wetlands walk, which Greg and I had missed out on last time around due to rain.  We got to see a few more monkeys (I think the girls ended up seeing six or seven different types of primates over the course of the weekend), some birds, and some beautiful butterflies.

Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary.

It was an awesome weekend and I’m so glad the girls are getting the full African experience.  I think they might, however, be a little natured out so they have a week to recover before Greg’s brother gets in and we go on our big safari trip.