Journey to Mahale

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This morning we bid farewell to our hosts at Chada Katavi camp and board our flight to Mahale.  In just 30 minutes we are dropping over the Mahale Mountains to Lake Tanganyika.  The landing is very steep landing but the pilot expertly guides us in for a smooth touch down.  We are greeted by our guides, Mwiga and Butate and board our wooden boat for the 1.5 hour ride to Mahale camp.  As we arrive the entire camp staff is on the beach with huge smiles and waving arms welcoming us to their paradise. 



The lodge is amazing - an open pavilion on the beach features a bar lounge and dining area with a second story under a thatched roof where there is as small library and lots of comfy chairs to sit in the cool breeze coming off the lake. Our lodging are individual thatched bungalows that are open air and face the lake in complete privacy.  This is what they call bare foot luxury.  We are here for the chimps which can be very elusive and hard to fund so we are shocked when we here a call go out from the back of camp “The chimps are in camp!  The chimps are in camp - come quickly!”. Sure enough we scurry barefoot to the back of camp set in the deep forest and into camp walk about 20 individuals from the alpha male with his crew and mothers with baby on belly.  They soon climb every tree in the area and start feeding in the fruit.  Calls are made and echoed and we just stare in awe at these majestic creatures.  Some even walk down the oath and brush right past my legs - crazy!  We have donned surgical style masks which is a precaution to avoid spreading illness from human to chimp.

I can’t believe my luck - chimps in camp within the first twenty minutes of arriving!  After about twenty minutes with the chimps they move off and we head to the beach front bar to have drinks and celebrate our good fortune.  

Later we dined on a fabulous curry seafood dinner. Yum!


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