Kibale National Park

Stayed the night at a campsite/lodge just outside the park boundaries, which used to be a tea estate. The views out over the tea plantations, the lush gardens in full bloom, and the many resident birds made for a very pleasant stay and reminded us that camping can be absolutely fantastic.
During the drive here, we crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere (John was super excited, Christy felt a bit indifferent). John hoped for some sign to mark our official crossing, but as we were not on a main road, we saw nothing. For those of you who care, we will cross the equator again on our way to Kenya, so John will be on high alert for an official sign, then.
We visited Kibale NP to see chimpanzees. The day before our trek, we stopped at the info center to ask some questions. Arriving at the security gate, we asked the ranger if this was where the chimpanzee treks left from. With a wry smile, he pointed to the gate and said ‘read the sign’ (see the photo). We felt very excited to do an all day hike to track and hang out with wild chimps in the rainforest. It started out great after being assigned to a small group of 5 (park information indicates a maximum group size of 6) and getting an early start (6:30am) as we headed off into the dense forest. There are 2 options for trekking to see the chimps: 1) the traditional 1 hour chimp trekking or 2) an all day chimp habituation experience. Soon, we realized that the habituation group’s job was to track and locate the chimps so the traditional trekking groups coming later knew exactly where to hike to see the chimps. This became clear when our guide announced after ~3 hours of searching for chimps that another group had found a family and we would be joining them. When we arrived there were ~30 people already there. Fortunately the chimps didn’t seem to mind and the other traditional trekking groups left after ~ 1 hour.
Once we found the group, we followed them for the rest of the day – until we were exhausted at about 3pm. It was fascinating to see the chimps exhibiting a wide range of behaviors from eating, nest building, play-fighting, and resting. The good was we were able to see the chimps up close and be with them for several hours. The not so good was there were too many people being relatively noisy and getting too close to the chimps. Feeling part of the exploitation, yet enjoying the experience left us conflicted. Of course it’s critical to chimp protection that Uganda reap financial benefit from tourism around them, but it seemed much less regulated and respectful than the gorilla trekking had. However, it was another incredible wildlife experience and our ranger did a great job making sure we were usually away from the occasional large group making it a more personal experience.Read more