So I've been to Gombe and back, turns out I have more time in Kigoma than I thought. I'm here til Thursday and I think I've convinced Deus to let me go back to Mwanza on train (it certainly can't bump as much as a bus) which means it'll take two days.
It was decided last minute I would spend another night than anticipated at Gombe. I really only packed one outfit and stuff to make PB&Js but it worked out all right. The boat ride there took about 3 hours in this wooden beast that looked like Noahs Ark and that they kept scooping water out of the bottom of. When I arrived the beach there was so picture perfect I was almost repulsed with the idea of taking a picture of it. The water was clear, the stones and sand white, the trees huge and looming. I went swimming, ate PB&Js and went to sleep early to make sure and wake up in time to see chimps! Wake up early I did, I kept waking up while it was still to dark to see my watch and thinking I was going to be late, which is preposterous since the sunrises at 7 and I was going at 8... anyways woke, ate pb&j tena. And I know this may disappoint some people, i.e. the people reading this, i.e. my mom, but I decided last minute not to bring my camera into the bus with me. Mainly for that reason that it's such a cheap thing that takes such low quality pictures it'd be better to just have the experience then have a bunch of blurry pictures of it, plus if you give me time I'm not too bad with words so I can certainly tell you about the chimps. Although the whole thing was a little fast and honestly I think I'll have more memories of my guide then the chimps if only because he complained about his job and how old he was and his bosses the whole time. He did however mention that i was one of the luckiest guests yet ("and you didnt bring a camera???") because we stumbled into thirty-ish chimps close to camp within minutes of leaving. I got to see them using tools to eat bugs, playing, fighting, climbing up and down trees and definitely broke the stay 10 meters away rule as one ambled past me at arms length. Things got a little not so jolly though when the alpha male and the old alpha male started showing each other up while I was close by. Me and the guide and the reseachers jumped off the path about ten feet downhill through trees with everyone grabbing me. My guide kept going "are you scared? they can beat you with sticks and rocks...." We'll gee thanks, I wasn't scared until you kept repeating that and then they chased us and all...
And again later on while we were sitting in a little clearing with a chimp family grooming to the left and a group hanging out behind us and a few meandering on all sides when suddenly another fight broke out and I realized I'm surrounded by these things on all sides and if you run they only want to chase you more.
Janes Peak was awesome though, totally unexpected and I do wish I had brought my camera for that. Although my guide was tired and I think in a hurry to get down. The trees there were seriously amazing. I'm not sure it was worth the money since the whole thing was a bit of a blur but it did help me to realize part of what I liked so much about Africa as a child. Basically I think I'd like to be some sort of nature dwelling animal, not so normal, but hey most of the things children think aren't. And the reason really isn't that I think animals are all that swell but that I'd like to swing from trees and sleep in them and such on. Yeah I could have probably solved that puzzle for a lot cheaper by just renting the jungle book again, but hey I didn't.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/01/opinion/20080901_opart.html
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