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Mahale Mountains and Lake Tanganyika Monday August 30 One of the chimps we came across was lying on his back looking at us. |
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Mahale Mountains and Lake Tanganyika Monday August 30 One of the chimps we came across was lying on his back looking at us. |
| The previous evening, we had made arrangements for tea to be brought to our tent at 7:30 and hot water for shaving and a shower 15 minutes later. Now that's luxury camping. |
| The camp sends out a tracker to look for the chimps early in the
morning. By the time we arrived at the dining tent for breakfast, the
tracker had found the chimps and radioed back to the camp.
Along with the usual breakfast items, we had some absolutely delicious pineapple and papaya. |
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Scott and I headed up the coast about a half mile with our guide Ben
in one of the small outboard boats. Diana and Stacia decided that they
wanted to relax on the beach instead. We then hiked up hill for about a
mile and a half - it was somewhat vigorous hiking, but nothing too
taxing.
We came upon our first chimp sitting in the middle of the trail. We sat down and watched her as she groomed herself. Soon several more chimps came up the trail. For the most part, they just ignored us as we watched and took photos. Occasionally, one would look at us. Whenever a more senior chimp would come by, the others would yell and jump up and down as a sign of respect. |
| One of their more interesting behaviors is something Ben referred to
as a Mahale handshake. Two chimps would stand side by side, holding up
one arm while each groomed the others arm pit. Ben told us this is a
behavior common only to the Mahale chimps.
After watching them for about a half hour, the chimps decided to move on. We were ready to head back to the camp for lunch and a swim as well. |
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After lunch, we rested for a while then took the dhow further down the
lake about a half hour to do some snorkeling. Lake Tanganyika has many
species of fish that are found only here including many tropical
cichlids such as you'd see in fresh water aquariums.
Stacia and Scott enjoyed jumping off the prow of the dhow while I lay on deck reading and enjoying the cool lake breeze. |
| We returned to camp just as the sun was coming down and had some
beautiful light on the trees and shrubs on the lake shore. When we
arrived back at camp, the staff had prepared a nice bon fire on the
beach and popped up some popcorn for us to have as a snack before
dinner.
After another great four course dinner, we retired to our tents. |
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