What a wonderful weekend from start to finish.Flew out of Tabora on Friday afternoon for the hour's flight to Kigoma where we stayed in a rather classy (for us!) hotel for the night on the shores of Lake Tanganyika with running water and hot showers!Watched the sunset over the mountains of the Congo while we sipped cold watermelon juice.Not bad eh!

The following morning we were up early for the 1 ½ hour boat trip along the lake shores to Gombe Stream Nature Reserve.The smallest reserve in Tanzania but also the site of the longest-running study of any wild animal population in the world.In 1960 British researcher Jane Goodall began studying the wild chimpanzee population and this has continued to the present.There is a population of around 100 chimps with detailed family trees, stories and many anecdotes about some of the characters.

On arriving at the reserve we were greeted by a number of baboons on the beach and around the hostel area.One of my colleagues had a banana taken right out of her hand while others boarded the boat to see if we'd left any consumables behind.

That afternoon we set off with our guides to seek chimps.The guides are in touch with the chimp trackers via walky-talky so before too long we were standing in the tropical forest with 5 or 6 chimps in the trees above us.We had quite a long wait but eventually a number of them came down and we were able to observe them at close quarters.For the most part they completely ignored us, so socialised are they to the presence of researchers and tourists.They seem to be much bigger than I'd thought they were with the Alpha male in particular being quite a formidable beast.It was hugely exciting to be so close but the light was poor and camera shake have meant that few photographs do them justice.After an hour or so the guides were keen to move us on so we were taken to a waterfall and climbed up to 'Jane's peak 'a glorious vantage point to look out over the forest and lake.

Our $100 fee only allowed us 24 hours in the park so the next morning we were up early for another trek before we had to leave.After a quick swim in the lake I returned to the room to find a female baboon and her baby riffling through the remains of discarded lunch boxes from the previous day.She was not in the least perturbed my and then others presence so preoccupied was she in the rich pickings.

Our trek was very rewarding as we found the Alpha male and one of the females very quickly and were able to spend a long time with them before moving on to another larger group.At one point one of the males walked directly towards us and passed so close you could almost feel the hairs on his back! A little alarming.

A further night of luxury in Kigoma followed by an early start to catch the bus back to Tabora at 6.30.If I'd thought the bus was crowded when we left Kigoma it was nothing compared to what it was like later on.People were absolutely crammed into the aisle and those of us with seats became useful platforms for babies and children to sit on.It was a fairly gruelling 11 hour trip which apparently was pretty remarkable as some of our group at taken 15 hours to get there and my colleague David had spent 36 hours doing the same trip last year!So I think we were lucky.

A tired, stiff, dusty but satisfied bunch of Mzungus arrived back in Tabora around 5.30.

Thought I'd give you a week off hearing about the frustrations of working in mental health services but believe me there will be more of that to come.