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Free morning today, and whilst the others went off on an optional walk it opted to stay in this beautiful botanical camp site for some peace and quiet and do my washing. Big wash bowls provided with a constant supply of clean, clear cold water. It was pure joy to have peace and quiet without the incessant barrage of ear-pollution from Trudy. She knows it all and barely takes a breath to make sure you hear all she has to say. But I digress.
I take various photos and am intrigued by the large pink flowered datura tree. I have only seen white flowers on datura trees before and the pink trumpet flowers are bigger and quite impressive. I get in close to take a close up shot, happily snapping away when I feel a strange sensation on my left wrist. I can see a small branch, of what I thought was a sapling Jacaranda, with around 40 small petal like leaves, clamping itself, leaflet by leaflet, around my wrist. Shades of an old b grade movie, I could see myself being encased by all these branches into a cocoon and becoming food for this carnivorous beast until I am totally absorbed! First reaction was to get the already attached branches off before any more clamped on. As I pulled them off I could see a small rash appearing - worse than pulling sticking plaster off a hairy leg. Nasty little beast. I found out that each little leaflet has minuscule spikes all around its underside edge. These are not visible to the human eye and certainly a trap for young players! No ill effects suffered and either it wasn't poisonous or I was immune but the rash disappeared after an hour or so.
Around 11am I could hear the dulcet tones (not) of Trudy the Terriblet talking at the top of her voice interspersed with indiscriminate cursing and 4 letter words. The group was returning from their walk. Ah well, it was nice while the serenity lasted.
After lunch we take a short but bumpy ride to the gates of the Kibale National Park Chimpanzee Centre. Here we are introduced to Jasper and Jessica, two Official Ugandan wildlife trackers/rangers. Our group of 7 was split into 4 and 3 with Chris and I drawing the short straw and having Trudy in our group. We were joined by two very nice American sisters in their late 50's, Yvonne and Wendy. Jessica was our tracker who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, which was about the same height as her, slung nonchalantly over her shoulder. This was to scare off any surprise encounter with an elephant. She did say we could talk very quietly whilst tracking. We started off in the really thick humidity initially on a skinny track and then cross country,up hill, down hill, through bogs, down mud slopes etc all the while watching our every footstep so as not to get tangled up in all the vines. The rainforest was rally quite thick and especially when we went off-track,the saplings would invariable slap us in the face as we walked by. We would stop quite regularly whilst Jessica conversed back and forth, over the 2 way radio, with Jasper who was tracking with the half of our group. I had to smile as she shouted so loudly to Jasper, which totally smacked in the face of what she said about talking quietly. On 3 occasions Jasper told here they had heard the calling chimps; we were to walk toward them and meet up so we could all see the chimps. Only on the 3rd occasion did we get to see the chimps and that was after nearly 4 1/2 hours of tracking. We were ready to give up, tired of the radio shouting and never ending walking with no result. Then we could hear the chimps and off she went leaving most of us standing there to more or less find our own way through this dense forest. The chimps were only 3 and in the highest of branches. All we were really looking up at was a black hairy sort of lump. It was nearly dark and we had another 30 minutes left to walk out. So 5 minutes after we located the chimps, we left. Pretty disappointing really. We did feel that Jessica wasn't very competent. Thank God we never came across an elephant, her competency in shooting skills may have matched her tracking ability. Our other group had an amazing time with 3 separate encounters withe primates. The first time was an hour after start tin out and the chimps were at ground level and playing in low branches. They waited over 3/4 hour for us to show up, but I reckon Jessica was already well lost even then. Never mind, you pays your money and take your chances. At least I was back out and trekking again and the body needed to move more. Wendy was a dag! She was even more unco than me and tripped on vines about three times. Each time she just fell forward, in slow motion, and landed flat on her face. Invariably this happened when she was walking in front of me. I did my level best not to laugh but the view from behind was hilarious as she didn't even seem to put her hands out to cushion the fall, she would get up with dirt on her chin and carry on. The last fall I just erupted, couldn't help myself and we both nearly fell together laughing when I explained how it looked from behind. She was a hoot and a really nice lady. It was a pleasure having them with us. Back to camp, a hot shower and off to bed. I reckon we all slept really well.
- comments
Cheryl Hi Mama, Well never mind at least you saw something, which is possibly better than nothing. And on the plus side you did have the comedy in your group, and I am really querious as to how did Trudy manage to keep quiet???Maybe next time you will see more. The camp sounds wonderful and I wondered about the man eating vine!! Are you lucky it was a juvenile and didnt have the muscle to reel you in? LOL. Thanks Cheryl