Chimpanzee trekking

We visited Nyungwe rainforest in the south west of the country. One morning we got up at 4.15am and drove for about an hour to a southern part of the forest where we met a ranger and some trackers in the hope of seeing some chimpanzees. Apparently it was necessary to get up so early so the chimpanzees would still be in their nests in the trees as they move every night and once they wake up and start looking for food they are much harder to find.

We walked through thick undergrowth for about half an hour before the trackers told us to wait and they went on ahead to the nests. We then started climbing the hill again but suddenly heard their calls below us so returned to wait. After a what seemed like quite a while of waiting and hearing noises that people thought were chimps I suddenly saw a mother carrying a baby pass along a path above where we were standing. A few moments later a group of about 9 chimps passed along the path below us towards the trees with some of their favourite fruit on. The group stopped about 30 metres away from us and started to collect their breakfast. They spent about twenty minutes climbing the trees and eating which was fascinating to watch. At one point one of the younger chimpanzees had finished collecting fruit from one tree so wrapped its’ arms and legs around the trunk of the tree and slide down! They were much larger than I expected, weighing up to 65kg. After the chimpanzees had moved on to find more food a mountain monkey came along and started jumping through the tops of the trees giving us a great display. We returned to the vehicles by 9am but it was definitely worth getting up so early.