Kibale National Park Day 2

New Years Eve


I woke up at 8am after a restful sleep with the sounds of the forest. I didn't know then that they nature walks began at 8. I walked up to reception and promptly got a guide and was on my way. No time for breakfast. Harriet was my guide. She had medium length mini braided hair and had worked at the park for 10 years. She really liked it but like many Africans, the rest of her family was afraid of the forest.
Kibale forest is at an elevation of 1200m and thought to have the highest density of primates in Africa. In the 560sq km park, there were red colobus, black and white colobus, blue monkey, red tailed monkey, grey cheeked mangabey, l'hoest monkey, chimpanzee and at night, pottos and bushbabies. Primates are my favourite type of animal and I'm always looking for some I haven't seen yet. At Kibale there was l'hoest monkey and red colobus that I was after. I told Harriet this and 10 minutes after entering the forest we found a troupe of red colobus high in the trees. I could photograph them ok and I could see them through my binoculars clearly. Curiously, the red colobus is mostly greyish light brown on the stomach and a little darker on its backside with only the top of its head red. Colobus monkeys are unique among primates in that they have no thumbs. Not sure why, my mammals book doesn't elaborate any more details.
We also saw red tailed monkeys, grey cheeked mangabeys and black and white colobus but I even already saw these just around camp! The l'hoest monkey eluded me for our whole 4 hour walk. Harriet said that they like to forage on the ground and are often seen on the road. She told me to keep keep checking the road. I appreciate her honest advice. I really liked the forest here, deeper in away from the road the undergrowth thinned and it was proper primary forest, really nice with good visibility.
I was starving and ate chips and an omelette. It rained heavy again after lunch but stopped about 3pm. I waked again to Bigodi for lunch. Even though it was almost a 3 hour roundtrip, it was saving me a ton of money and I usually saw monkeys along the way. I walked through a few very small and poor villages where kids would say 'Hi, how are you?' Unfortunately this was usually followed with 'Give me money!' or "Give me pen!' I don't like this and ignore any requests. I arrived back in camp just before dark and was horrified to see an overland truck and 10 tents taken over the peaceful camp. I said hi to a few but kept my mostly to myself. I just didn't feel like meeting 20 new people at the time. After my shower, I read till 8 and then went out on a night hike. I took the road to my right this time, leading north. I walked for almost an hour altogether. I saw 2 sets of eyeshine high up in the trees and judging by their fluent movements through the canopy, I assumed the eyes belonged to bushbabies. I went to my tent to read more before crashing. It being New Years eve, the people from the overland truck had to stay up until midnight and that meant I stayed up till midnight. Some of them apologized the next day for keeping me up. I kind of understood because it was New Years, for me just another night in the forest, but for them a reason to stay up and party. They said I could have joined them but I didn't feel like it.