A FEATHER IN THEIR CAP
A few kilometres south of Kibale Forest National Park is the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a community-run project which protects the Magombe Swamp. This is a bird-watchers paradise but the guides who accompany you make the experience so good that even those previously unaware of the existence of birds will enjoy the experience.
Early mornings are the best time to arrive at the visitors' centre, just past the swamp itself when travelling from Kibale Forest National Park, as the birds are most active in the morning and the variety is greater.
The walk skirts the edge of the swamp and takes between 2 and 4 hours, depending on how interested and patient you want to be. Spotting some of the shyer birds can require exhausting amounts of patience as you wait for them to come into view after hearing the call.
In the wet season, gum boots are recommended and can be hired at the visitors centre for a nominal fee. It'll cost you USh10 000 per person for the walk with much of the proceeds going to local projects, including a school set up using the money which has been raised so far.
The first section of the walk meanders between the edge of the swamp and the plots of local farmers, with the guide pointing out the forest-edge birds. Their knowledge is extensive and even the irritatingly difficult to identify LBJs (Little Brown Jobbies) being identified. In addition to identifying the birds, the guide also shows you the relevant section in his birding book, so that if the view you had was of a flurry of wings and movement, you can picture what you should have seen.
The trail leads through a variety of habitats, including a section on a raised board walk through stands of papyrus reeds where the elusive black and white oliveback frustrates both yourself and the guide, popping into view for a second before disappearing back into hiding to warble at you.
Towards the end of the trail there is a bird hide perched at treetop level and the chance to sit down and rest your feet while looking out over the swamp and staring eye-to-eye with Great Blue Turacos is welcome.
The swamp isn't in pristine condition and it isn't isolated from human interference. People use it on a daily basis, collecting water from a series of wells dug around the perimeter and you're likely to meet several cows heading the in the opposite direction down the path, but they are polite cows and move - or are moved by the herdsman - out of your path.
You will also be screeched or grunted at by a variety of monkey species and, if you're lucky and the farmers are unlucky, can watch them scampering back into the safety of the swamp after raiding the crops in the bordering plantations.
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MONKEY BUSINESS
Kampala, 19 February 2002
Sitting on the forest floor watching a chimpanzee's butt hanging over the edge of a branch 30 m up a wild fig tree as its sphincter slowly relaxed and listening to the leaf-deadened thud as the result landed a second or two later wasn't exactly what I had in mind when we decided to go chimp viewing.
Neither was having the object of our attention trying to give us a golden shower, but I suppose it's all part of seeing wild animals.
Nine of us we were sitting on the forest floor of the Kibale National Forest about 30 km south of Fort Portal trying to get a good view of the trio of chimpanzees in the enormous tree above us. Almost all of us had either a pair of binoculars or a camera glued to our faces while the pair of guides with us explained the primates behaviour.
It was near the end of the dry season and we'd had to tramp for more than an hour through the forest in search of individuals from the group of chimpanzees which have been partially habituated to humans.
Going in the dry season has the advantage that you don't have to wade through soggy vegetation or swollen streams while the trees above you drip, drip, drip cold droplets of water down the back of your neck.
The disadvantage is that the chimpanzees don't stick together in their groups, instead foraging throughout the forest in search of sufficient food at a time when it is in short supply.
The trio we were watching were sub-adults - adult chimps have completely black faces while sub-adults have pink ears and faces - and were searching the upper canopy for the first figs of the season, but the pickings seemed pretty slim.
Natural Habitat
After years of seeing chimpanzees dressed up as clowns for trite posters, playing the clown in stupid movies and sitting listlessly in zoos, watching one perform its ablutions after waking up from a nap - in its natural environment - is a great experience.
The apes move fairly quietly for such large animals and, while they are foraging in the canopy, their pace is very relaxed. When they decided to move from the tree, however, they did so at a surprising pace, reaching the ground and moving off before most of the watchers realised they had even left the upper branches.
If you are expecting to have a group of cute 'n cuddly apes scampering across the forest floor to sit in your lap and touch your face - forget it. One of the groups in Kibale have been "partially habituated" to humans, meaning they don't disappear at the first sight of us and don't really give a damn about our presence.
It doesn't mean that you can get too close to them. I found the habituation to be at just the right level - being able to approach within a couple of metres would feel too much like being in a zoo. Here we were definitely dealing with wild animals.
Seeing chimpanzees in their natural surroundings was all that I expected it to be: getting a superb photograph would have been the cherry on the top but not getting one doesn't detract from the experience in any way.
Chimpanzees keep in contact with each other using both vocal utterances and the buttress roots of the bigger fig trees, drumming on the relatively thin walls of the roots to produce a sound which travels surprisingly far. When the group is more cohesive and food is more abundant, individuals which have wondered off find the main group again by drumming on the roots and heading in the direction of the vocal responses.
Photographic opportunities were exceedingly slim with none of the watchers getting a good photograph - returning home with a picture of a chimpanzee's rear end isn't exactly the stuff of Pulitzer prizes.
You also need to take fast film - 800 will do but 1600 would probably be better in the gloom of the forest. There are other things to photograph - spectacular butterflies, fungus gardens growing from the trunks of the large trees and enormous, scruffy spider webs built by communal spiders.
Pride of Place
Kibale Forest National Park is the first we've been to in East Africa where we've felt it was real value for money. The staff were genuinely interested in their jobs and had real pride in the park. The two guides escorting us were knowledgeable and worked hard to track the chimps but also took the time to inform us of some of the other wonders of the forest - something all too easy to forget in the excitement of searching for the apes. These include the other species of monkey, including red colobus and black and white Abyssinian colobus, and the variety of birds which flit through the undergrowth or clamber about in the upper canopy.
Facilities at the camp were clean, the information centre was well laid out and informative, with up to date information and displays.
We left the forest feeling tired - four hours tramping up and down the rolling hills does that to lazy sods like ourselves - but very rewarded.
It costs $7 per person for access to Kibale and the chimpanzee tracking is a further $10 each. The park has camp sites and bandas, as well as a tree house which is reportedly the best spot to stay. Meals and refreshments are also available.
Multi-day walks can be arranged in the park with trekkers being accompanied by a guide while the park has very recently introduced a full day with the chimpanzees, helping to habituate them to humans.
For $125, you get to wake up before dawn and head off to the site of the chimpanzees overnight nesting, being present when they wake up and spending the day watching and following them. This doesn't mean you will see them for the whole day. When they move, it is often difficult to follow them and guides and researchers need to find the group again.
The day ends when the chimpanzees make a new set of nests and settle down for another night. Speak to the staff at Kibale about this option.
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