The Great Primate Handshake – Volunteer in Africa, working to conserve monkeys and apes through film and educational content production

It is definitely not always easy to drag yourself out of bed for porridge, but this morning was different.  When there is a prospect of seeing chimpanzees in the wild those going chimp trekking were all up bright and early.

Splitting into two groups, Jade, Rehmat Steve and myself were the first to head into Kibale national park in hope of being able to track wild habituated chimpanzees, with James, Ben, Lyndsey and Eleanor venturing out after our return.  Given the 90% tracking success rate, there was a definite sense of anxiety that we might be within the unfortunate 10% that don’t manage to see the chimpanzees within their natural habitat.

Gerald our guide was absolutely fantastic, initially with rifle in hand he was slightly off putting, but learning the gun only serves a purpose of scaring away jungle elephants who may cross our path, our minds were definitely put at ease.

Being the only guide without a walkie talkie to communicate with other groups it was looking likely that we might be within the unlucky 10%, how wrong we were.  Gerald was definitely chief chimp tracker. Within 20 minutes he had us travelling at a rapid pace through the undergrowth dodging biting jungle ants and ridiculously big spiders chasing the calls of the Chimpanzee.

Soon our chance of a chimpanzee sighting raised to 100% there above our heads were a group of chimps searching for food.  After some long distance shots, we were on the move, and this time our guide upped the pace for he was chasing a grounded chimp. Keeping up was tricky, but boy was it worth it.  Suddenly we were walking besides a massive group of chimps, including the alpha male and a female carrying a baby on her back.   Even when we thought it couldn’t get any

better it did.  They stopped within almost reaching distance of us and went about their daily business with us gazing in amazement.  We hoped we were going to see chimpanzees but we never thought this proximity was possible.

What is there left to say apart from that fact that seeing wild chimpanzees like that will definitely be an experience that none of us will soon forget.