Our day with Freud, Tarzan, Titan, Ferdinand, Tita, Apollo, Hope and the rest of the family.

This is Andy writing. I only write every once and a while... but this one is long, so it makes up for my previous briefness.

Do you ever have experiences that you know you will remember? We are definitely having our fair share on this trip. Yesterday was no exception. We went to Gombe National Park , which is the place where Jane Goodall met the chimpanzees.

We started the day entirely too early at 6:45 am. There wasn’t even breakfast available at the hotel. We headed to the JGI offices, and franticly prepared fifteen digital cameras and Flip cameras for the kids to use. It was crazy. I think we have purchased every AA battery in the Kigoma region. We separated the kids into groups of five. In order to keep the natural order in Gombe, the park rangers try to not let large groups of humans clomp around the park all at once, so they requested smaller groups. There were three boats sitting out front on the lake. Erik and I assumed we would have ten kids in each… but I forgot where I was. All thirty-five kids, plus nine adults, piled into a boat that looked it was from Jane’s original trip. It was perfect.

I love boat rides, and a two hour boat ride across Lake Tanganyika was just what I dreamed it would be. We passed by a few villages on the side of the lake. They looked like peaceful small communities that had no cars. It looked like a very relaxed environment without the noise of angry people stuck in traffic. It reminded me of where I want to live someday. The boat ride was mostly uneventful, but amazingly fun. The only sad part was seeing the coastal erosion and lack of vegetation first hand. You can literally see the sides of the hills falling into the lake. After a few kids threw up over the side of the boat (sea-sickness), we started to see the vegetation get thicker and thicker on shore. We saw a few scattered baboons looking for food on the beach. We knew we were almost there.

We finally saw a small dock on the beach, and we turned the boat towards the shore. The second driver threw the massive anchor overboard, and we coasted in the direction of the dock. I was assuming that we were going to pull along sided the dock to unload, but we were heading straight for it. My next thought was that the anchor was going to stop us in time, and we would unload from the front. Nope. We smashed head on into the dock, causing a few boards to splinter on the top front of the boat. I half way assumed that our boat would be underwater when we got back. After pulling ourselves towards the dock, we unloaded into Gombe National Park .

When I was walking up the dock, I started to feel as sense of amazement. The human race has learned so much from this forest. Anthropology, botany, primatology and many more fields of study have been revolutionized by this family of chimps. I almost felt patriotic.

After we arrived, Erik and I went into the small reception building to arrange the day with the park employees. We met with a man that had been there with Jane since the beginning. Jumanne Kikwale was an administrator in the Gombe Stream Research Center , and had assisted Jane many times when she first arrived to the forest. He was very friendly and welcoming. With forty-some people showing up all at once, I’m sure he might have been a bit overwhelmed. We decided that half of the groups would trek towards the waterfall where Jane had many spiritual experiences. The other half would trek towards the peak where the family of chimps lives. Erik, Gabriel and I went for the chimps, and Jamie went with the rest of the crew to the waterfall.

I will let Jaime tell you about his experience, and I will tell you about mine. We had to take a boat further north to get to the peak. We pulled the boat to the beach, and the driver pulled an impressive one-eighty with the anchor to let us off. We started our hike expecting to not see the chimps. Most visitors that look for them are not successful. Who can blame the chimps for not staying in one place all the time? We proceeded to climb up some pretty steep trails for about a half-an-hour.

There were so many plants and trees. The sound of all the insects and birds was deafening. There were ten kids, Erik, Gabriel, two guides and me. I was heading up the rear, Erik was in the middle, and Gabriel was up front with his camera. We climbed up a particularly steep hill and came to what seemed like the top of a peak. We looked left and saw a beautiful valley, with palm trees and every other type of plant. All of a sudden, we heard one of the chimps call. Man, that is an awe-inspiring experience. It’s almost intimidating.

We all got really excited and trekked even faster. Then I stared hearing rocks being thrown behind me. When I turned around to see what it was, an explosion of commotion began all around us. Trees were rustling, things were being thrown, kids were gasping, and then the family of chimps came into view. WOW. It gave me goose bumps. Maybe it was the kids, maybe it was just a good day, but for whatever reason, the whole family decided to hang out with us for the next hour. We met Freud (the alpha-male), Frodo, (the old alpha-male), Tarzan (the spunky guy trying to become alpha male), Ferdinand, Apollo, and a few more. We were on a very small path, so moving space was very limited. The whole family climbed up and down trees, curiously scoping the new crowd.

One of my favorite things about Gombe is the respect they have for the animals. We were all standing in the path and the kids were all busy taking pictures. The guide told us in a very hushed tone to get off the path. We jumped as far as we could off the path (which was about six inches). We looked behind us, and Frodo was walking on the path in our direction. We all stood very still, as he walked very calmly right by us. If I was so inclined, I could have reached out and touched him. He walked by with so much confidence; you could just tell that he used to be the alpha-male. His sickness took him off the throne a while ago.

A bit later, Tarzan jumped off of one tree on to another, and proceeded to bang on the roots of the tree. This set off a chain reaction, and entire family joined in. It was so loud that one of the girls that was with us screamed. We were told that it was a form of entertainment. The up-and-coming alpha-male (Tarzan) decided that it was a good time to show off to the family, and that was the reason for the frantic show. It seems very similar to many alpha-male wannabes that I know in America . It was interesting to see that the real alpha-male was just calm and collected.

After a while, we decided that it was time to head back to the shore, and leave our new friends alone. We scattered down the mountain. The kids were all giddy after having met the family. They had all been to Gombe before, but no one had met any of the famous chimps. We were almost to the shore when Gabriel yelled out to us. Tita was sitting near by eating termites. Tita is a single female. She spends a lot of her time away from the other groups.

We climbed back into our favorite boat, and sailed back to meet the rest of the crew. When we got back, no one was around, so we decided to walk up to the waterfall. After we completed that journey, the kids were exhausted and sweaty. No deodorant made for a very potent crowd.

We met up with the rest of the crew and had a late lunch of rice, chicken, fried bananas, and Sprite. Erik and I went out on the beach. The water in Lake Tanganyika looked incredibly refreshing. We asked Dr. Anton about swimming, and he said as long as we cover up when we get out (to be culturally polite), it is fine to swim. That was a perfect ending to a great day. The water was cool and refreshing, and best of all; it was clean. Gabriel, who hadn’t heard about the cultural politeness, saw us swimming, and came running down the beach, stripping his clothes off. We had to yell to him and let him know.

After drying off and packing our supplies, including our garbage, we all once more climbed into the boat and headed for Kigoma. Despite a needed stop at a beachside restroom, the ride home was filled with sleeping, taking pictures of sleeping kids, and relaxing.

Whew. That was an incredible day.