July 17, 2016

Uganda | Day Six | Kyambura Gorge Chimpanzee Trekking

FILED IN: Personal

Lots of scattered thoughts so I’m gonna bullet point this one.

-We were driving and came across TONS OF BUTTERFLIES. I have never seen anything like it. We pulled the car over and the boys and I climbed down to the water. It was like something out of a movie- so surreal. Thousands flying all around us. Every twist and turn in Africa is pure magic.

-You know you have been here a long time when you no longer have a shock factor when you have to stop the car because baboons are blocking the road… haha!

-All Night Long by Lionel Ritchie is the best Africa road trip song.

-Again, it is INSANE to just be driving and glance out the window and think “wait… is that an ELEPHANT out in the distance!!?”

-By this point we had accumulated so many random treasures from our trip. Under the seat you’d find a zebra scull and hoof, found teeth, etc.

-Even though we spent hours and hours and hours in the van, they are some of my favorite memories. So much great discussion, goofing off and memories made. The seats face each other and it was like our own little portable hang out house. I sat with my back to the front because I just could not watch what was going on. It is so normal here in Africa for tiny children to play along the road with vans driving furiously past. If that happened in America people would definitely be jailed! The boda boda motorcycles carry tons of stuff…. there was a live chicken strapped to a car ahead of us. People pass on blind turns, hills, speeding on bumpy roads and driving at you in your lane. CRAZINESS!

-Franklin was an excellent driver and did a great job keeping us safe and knowing the best villages to stop at for the better of gross squatty potties (holes in the ground). This day we stopped in a tiny village to get rolex’s for lunch. It’s kind of like a veggie wrap with eggs. While we waited for them to make them I hopped out an engaged the children playing around with a game of tag and hide and seek. It was pretty rad. So fun how you can get creative communicating with people who doesn’t speak your language. They were a trip!

-The children everywhere we go love to chase the van and wave.

-WE WENT CHIMPANZEE TREKKING! Some friends we made from Australia highly recommended it so we had to see what it was about. We climbed down into this gorge and hiked through the jungle for hours. We had to cross hippo and croc housing rivers on fallen trees and the most rickety of all rickety of bridges. Brenda, our guide, brought us to it and said we would be crossing the bridge carefully. We were like “LOL BRENDA, THAT’S REALLY FUNNY! BET THE TOURISTS LOVE THAT JOKE.” But she just said “We will be crossing the bridge, stay to the right.” It was craaaaaazy. Slanted, missing boards… I had to just watch my feet and sing some Pocahontas to get across. “How high does the sycamore grow, if you cut it down then you’ll never know. And you’ll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon…” Brenda said “I am sorry. The chimps have not called, I do not think that we will be locating them today. It happens sometimes…” when they sounded so loudly in the path behind us. We had already been hiking for hours. It was pretty rough terrain up slippery hills and sometimes with just a foot of path beside a cliff falling into the river. BUT THAT SOUND. Again, like something in a movie. It gets way down into your bones when you hear a family of wild chimpanzees screaming in the distance. We opted to go back. So, back over that bridge! Haha. We found them and it was just so surreal. Sometimes they jump down and scream. They are just communicating with one another in a non-threatening way. I will also say that a feeling I have experienced often here is when a wild animal starts to approach you. Inside you’re wondering if you should sit still and let the most awesome man vs animal interaction happen or if you should run because they can rip your face off… haha! All in all it was such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The chimps passed by a few feet from me.

-When we were leaving we happened to see the most elusive of all African animals: A LEOPARD! We all jumped to the window and locked eyes with it for the few moments it sat still before running off into the bush.

-Also let it be known that I brought zero “zoom lenses.” Just my portrait primes: 35mm, 50mm & 85mm. So if it appears that the animals are right up on us… it is because they were RIGHT UP ON US.

-I did a bad thing! After all of that touching plants, mud, who knows what while climbing I accidentally put my hands in my mouth post-hike. UGH! So far ebola or some African sickness has not arisen… HAHA! I will say that one of my biggest fears was feeling ill. Has not happened once! YIPPEE!

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  1. Linda Lewis says:

    Amazing pictures! I look forward to reading about your journey and seeing all the pictures each day! What an adventure! Thanks for sharing!!

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