Chimp Tracking

Aware of the time and effort that the first group had put in to find chimps the second group once again tucked their trousers into their socks, packed a lot of water into their rucksacks and headed off into the forest!

Ten minutes in we spotted some chimp droppings (still fresh)













and whilst we were merrily examining these we heard the somewhat blood curdling call of a male chimp, which made us all freeze with excitement/fear !
So we left the path and headed off through the forest.

After 10 minutes of fighting with vines and branches, including Sophie getting herself rather tangled up, we reached a big tree, looked up and there he was.....


(others have far better images, but honestly we could see him munching away)


(Pete's pic)

Pete and his gaggle joined us, we generously allowed them to view out chimp (they'd set off before us and had had the pleasure of climbing a steep hill only to have to scramble down again when our guide radioed their guide)



We stood and watched the chimp feed and then our guide wandered over to tell us that the chimp would come down from the tree soon and to move to another, so we had to be ready to follow. As if on queue the chimp climbed down and set off into the forest and we followed..........

What then ensued was 45 mins of adrenaline fuelled running, scrambling, climbing, ensnaring, tripping etc. Every now and then the chimp would stop and kick a tree buttress. The girls were incredible, keeping up with the fast moving chimp, I however managed to do half a somersault when I tripped on a tree root and land firmly on my head (many thanks to Sarah for staying with me whilst I elegantly scrambled to my feet!)




Eventually the chimp found his desired tree and breathless we settled down on a log to watch him feed. Later he was joined by a bigger male chimp who rather blatantly displayed his superiority!