After a good nights sleep in the city center of Dar es Salaam again, I arose with the sun and made my way to the airport for a flight to Kigoma, clear on the opposite side of the country. Kigoma is a large, but relatively underdeveloped city, situated on the gorgeous shores of Lake Tanganyika, the second largest lake in Africa, and the deepest. On the other side of the lake sits the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My hotel room door opens up right on the beach, sand and fresh water waves as far as I can see. It’s beautiful and peaceful. I’m only in Kigoma for one night, though, tomorrow I get on a boat and go north to Gombe Stream National Park. Gombe is where Jane Goodall did all of her work with the chimpanzees. The chimps are still followed and studied and they also allow tourists like me to come for some up close and personal encounters with man’s closest relative.

Early in the morning I get on board a small boat for a very rough ride up Lake Tanganyika to the small lodge where I’ll be staying the next couple of nights in Gombe. They don’t waste any time because as soon as I’m off the boat, I have seconds to throw my pack in my room and it’s time to hike. Up the steep slopes in the ungodly humidity to Jane’s Peak for amazing views of the park and the lake down below. Then we continue on over another ridge to catch up to a large family of chimps, more than a dozen or so individuals, heading up the same trail as us. Spotting them for the first time sends my excitement level off the charts! We follow them for a bit until they decide to stop and lounge in the bushes and trees. Just sitting in the jungle hanging out with a family of wild chimpanzees. Awesome! After a bit, the chimps decide it’s time to move, so we follow them to the next stopping point and hang out a while longer. Then, when they head further up the slopes, we say goodbye and descend back to the lodge, sweaty and tired, for some lunch.

On the way back down to the lodge we take a short detour to the Tumba waterfall. The jungle here is really hot and humid, but also very beautiful.

Just as I’m finishing lunch, a guy that works at the lodge runs into the dining room and rushes me outside excitedly saying, “Chimps! Chimps!” Guess who decided to raid the humongous mango tree out front? Chimps are climbing all over the tree, picking mangos, munching on mangos, and then throwing them every which direction. You have to keep a close eye above you to make sure you don’t get slammed in the head by a mango bomb. Eventually they come down out of the tree and slowly make their way up the trail. Frantically snapping pictures, we follow for about a quarter mile or so until they veer off into the jungle. My guide tells me they almost never come down to the lodge. I get two close encounters in one day (usually not allowed). I feel extremely lucky!

Day two was a bit more work. It was warmer, which means even more sweating. We first hiked to another beautiful waterfall, then up some even steeper slopes to where a different family of chimps were. This time by steep slopes, I mean I had to use all fours to get up there, they were REALLY steep! Finally after more than two hours of hiking and scrambling, we found them. It was much harder to get pictures this time because the brush was so thick and the sun was pretty bright behind them, but it was still just as exciting. After ten or fifteen minutes (they never stay in one place for very long) they started climbing again. I had to let out a long, dejected sigh before following them further up the mountain. More hiking up on all fours to the next stop. I watched again for about another fifteen minutes before they ran off again, then we made our way down. Luckily, there was a trail nearby that wasn’t quite as steep for the descent.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the beautiful beach and watching the other primates that inhabit the park, olive baboons. They hang around the lodge eating mangos, finding banana peels to munch, and stealing any food items they can find. They stole a bag of snacks another guest had sitting right next to him and then one baboon kept trying to sneak up and steal his backpack. Haha I was warned already not to walk around outside with food or the baboons would get it one way or another. By contrast, the chimps like to steal clothes. Between the chimps stealing clothes and the baboons stealing food, nothing is particularly safe around here.

The next morning, it was another rough boat ride back to Kigoma to catch a plane back to Dar es Salaam. One last night in Dar, then I have one more stop to make in Tanzania, so stay tuned…

See all the pics from Gombe Stream here.