Gombe Stream National Park

This Friday, Lloyd, Lexi and I went to Gombe Stream National Park in the Northwest corner of Tanzania. It was a dream (that I never dreamt) come true. Our main goal was to see some of the chimpanzees that Jane Goodall researched. Our RTP neighbors, who also live at the Western Tanzanian Diocese, helped us strategize our fantastic journey.

Thursday night we really got our hearts set on going to the park. We had a lot of logistical issues to work out really quickly, since there is no food in the park, only a few boats go out there each day (unless you don’t mind paying to rent a private boat from some random villager – but that’s sketchy). Also, visitors must stay in the park to get an early start on hiking; however, there is no easy way to get in touch with the hostels located in the park. Also, there is a steep entrance fee, and Gombe park staff only let four groups a day out to see the chimps. They don’t want the chimps to get overly used to humans – a worry that was reinforced by problems in 2002 with chimps reacting to humans as they would to invading chimps. SO, we called and called everywhere we could think of to get information, from 8am to 10:30am. Using the internet, 3 guidebooks, 1 phonebook, one receptionist, and our three brains, all we could find was an overpriced luxury tour that would cost us $400/day… nothing we could afford!

With faith on our side, we jumped into a rented(ish) vehicle and went into Kigoma town (a bumpy 2-hour drive), where we hoped to find a way to the park. We made some calls on the way there – particularly to the park office that we thought would be issuing permits to see the chimps – but no luck; the one man who might be able to give us info was out for the day. When we finally got there, at around 2pm, we went to the Jane Goodall Institute. There we were warmly greeted, and told that although their boat was rented for the day, the group of three who rented it might be willing to let us share the ride over. They did, and an hour later we were tipping back and forth over the rolling waves on the way to the park and chewing on ginger root to keep from getting sea-sick.

The boat ride took 2 hours [pics].




The huge Lake Tanganyika shares its shores with Tanzania, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia. In the past the lake has been key to trade – persons and goods. Today it continues as a route for trade and migration. War refugees cross the lake in numbers seeking safety. In the park, we stayed in a nice little hostel where we could get cold beer and soda to drink with our peanut-butter, banana and Nutella sandwiches. At night, the beautiful, deep Lake Tanganyika was covered with the lights of local fishing boats. It reminded me of the Fourth of July rings of fire around the (comparatively miniscule) finger lakes in upstate New York.

In the morning we got back on the boat and motored over to the park entrance (the two boat guides had slept in the boat docked on the shore at our hostel). Our park guide, a welcome and necessary part of the visit, let us know that the tracker had checked on the chimps and they were at the farthest section of the park, a four hour hike away. We took a moment to get psyched up and took off on the journey. Within a few minutes several baboons crossed our path with a baby baboon – the guide let us know that they were coming down to see what food they could steal from us. Baboons are hefty and strange-looking, with a dingy ash-gray color (ignoring the red butts). Soon after we saw some red colobus monkeys. Pleasantly, our guide pointed out the origin of all the different animal droppings we saw along the way... After about an hour to an hour and a half of steady hiking up the mountain we were all sweating and panting – maybe the heat, the dust in our lungs, or just being out of shape? I don’t know, but it was tougher than I expected.



Miraculously the guide spotted chimpanzees in the trees below us. Here the cliff was sheer, but the guide led us right out onto the rocky edge, about 15 feet from the closest members of the chimp family. The seven of us moved in and watched as they played, moved about, and stretched out in the trees.

Our guide knew them by name, and gave us a little history of when the latest baby had been born (it remained in the grandmother’s pouch the whole time, it’s tiny head bobbing around as it slept). He told us that baby chimps won’t really be mobile until over a year old. We watched twins that were only about 2 years old playfully flipping over between their arms while hanging on a branch and gingerly moving up and down the tree. At some point we thought the chimps were leaving, and then the amazing got better – a couple of the chimps came up, face to face with us. At first the guide said something about a ‘greeter’ – and then more of the chimps came over. Our group clumped up where they were to get a good view and then the guide said, “They are trying to get by us, we have to move.” At first I had trouble fathoming the situation – we came up here to try and catch a glimpse of the chimps and suddenly the chimp family is trying to get us to move out of their way?!? HEY! As a couple of us moved up and out of our sitting spot the chips queued up and went right by Lexi, passing about 2 feet away, maybe 4 feet from me. Flabbergasted I just tried to snap a couple pictures and not fall backward off the ledge.
[pic of chimp passing Lexi]

Being called to move next, I climbed up out of their way myself, and we all retired to a side path. The chimps stopped there, about 10 feet from us and carried on with their lives. The little one was playing, running to the adults and then back to the tree, doing summersaults and practicing a brisk sitting movement that female chips like. A big mass of them groomed the eldest chimp to our right [pic], while the grandmother with the baby sat with a couple to our left [pic: look for the baby in this picture]. A large male who was particularly shy and had a barren female as his mate would cross the path above the others trying to stay hidden from us.




We had a whole hour and a half with the chimps before they moved on.

By park rules we were actually only allowed an hour, but the guide let us get a little extra time in. On the way back we passed some chimp nests. They look like huge bird nests and they make new ones every day.

Even the ride back was stunning, the waves were low and the water a teal blue. We passed some fishing villages at the base of the mountains with huge lots of little silver fish drying in the sun [pics: notice the gray squares on the ground - fish]. All of us were thrilled at such a perfect trip. From the start it looked expensive and there was a chance we wouldn’t see any chimps, but it couldn’t have gone better if we planned every moment.