gombe continued

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that night we slept at the park hostel, which is rather expensive at 20 dollars a night per person. the night before if i didnt mention, we went to stay in the village near the burundi border and woke up early to catch a boat to gombe. the night in the park we met a very nice solo lady traveller danielle and spoke to her all night about her travells for the past 10 years all over east africa. the 2nd day at gombe was not near as exciting as the first because there was a major fire in the park. all of the researchers went to take care of the fire all night so there were none in the forest tracking the chimps. therefore, our guide who knew nothing took us up and down mountains on a power-hike, he wouldnt slow down for us to enjoy the forest, but it was a good work-out anyway. i noticed 2 chimp nests and pointed them out to him. its amazing how the chimps make a new bed high up in the trees every night. we also passed a baby baboon that was dead on the path, it must have falled from a tree. there were beautiful views from very steep slopes and we passed some nice yellow and white flowers on a tree than made the whole area smell sweet and wonderful like a lily crossed with honey suckle. we finally came back to the camp because we got a radio call that there was a chimp in the camp itself!!! very unusual also. he sat in a high tree just by the lake eating nuts and throwing them down around us and doing small hand movements. his name may be turbe and he was 28 years old. he came down the tree startling me and natalie, though danielle who was with us was calm. the chimp then went to drink from the stream that runs into the lake. a lad who cooks for the researchers in the park was showering in the stream and so she threw a kanga around her and laughed with us about the whole situation. watching the massive chimp drink was amazing. we were facing each other. his legs wide apart he put his lips in the water and then put his face up to see us, and repeated that. he then moved to sit with his back away from us. i felt sortof bad tracking him through the campgrounds, as if he just wanted to be alone. that was the last chimp we saw.
after lunch though we went again on an even more off-the-beaten path really rigorous hike, i think our guide was testing us. i never did get to like him. many times i almost fell off cliffs, i had to throw myself at trees, catch the tree, hold on to its trunk, and use to to move down. after throwing myself at a dead tree that then cracked and i fell a little down the steep slope, natalie, danielle and i just slid on our shoes and our butts the whole way down. it was good we found so much humor in the situation. on this hike, even though we didnt see any chimps, we saw an amazing scene that changed my mind about the emotive capabilities of baboons completely. 15 feet from us we saw two large baboons grooming. one grooming the other. they were facing one another. when it was time to check her back, the male baboon moved to behind her and a baby baby baby newborn baboon appeared under the mom. it could barely move. it sortof crawled, but so meekly! the mom then lay down to habve her back inspected and she turned her head to look straight at us and starte to fall asleep. the male worked tediously, hands working hard and deliberately, eyes focused on every spot of her back. the baby climbed all over her. after a long time the mom stood on all fours to have her belly inspected and the male looked under her to pick at her belly hair. it went on and on like this for as long as we waited and we decided to leave them be, though they cared little of our presence. THAT was amazing. it was absolute peace there, i soaked it in.
now i am just trying to recover and enjoying a bit of kigoma. please wish for me a quick recovery, i wish all the time that you all are well.

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