THS 2010 Adventure Launched

Kenya and Tanzania 2010 is now launched at school




• Search for the 'Big Five' in the Serengeti ecosystem
• Stunning scenery and wildlife of the Rift Valley lakes
• Amboseli's elephant herds and views of Kilimanjaro

See reception or Mrs Kirk for details

Its a plug thing with electric trickery

All back safe and sound

Humble apologies for lack of updates on the road, electricity supply was sporadic let alone a computer or internet !
Will endeavor to back date posts and pics etc.
Hopefully the muddy coloured girls deposited back to you will give positive feedback.

Off to spend an hour in the shower and buy a washing machine.
Work for me in the morrow :(




Yes that is a warthog inside our campsite !



The gorillas did not heed the 5m rule. Wow !

Breaking camp in Kibale

An early start




Ezre prepares porridge



Vikki and Annie prepare the toast



Miss S washes up by te 3 bowl method and Kate and Simrat "shake and dry"

On to Queen Elizabeth National Park

One camp site done.
Arrived at Kibale National park after a long drive.
Set up camp, all of the girls mucking in and no real dramas
Our Kirk Ezra and our driver Charles are both excellent.
Ezra cooked fish and chips on a two ring stove !

We where split into two groups for chimp trekking, one it the morning one in the afternoon.
Both groups had excellent sightings of chimps, ours involved watching a lone male eating high up a tree. He then climbed down within 8m of us and set off along the forest floor.
What ensued was a calamatous 30min romp through the jungle following the guides and the chimp.
The speed was incredible, the sight of the a chimp bum just ahead dissapearing into the undergrowth.
Just trying to keep up was an effort, we all tripped fell and laughed as we walked through vines, spiders and all the rest.
Simba the male chimp put quite a display on, bnaging the buttress of trees to signal.
A quite incredible adrenaline rushed adventure.
A swamp walk later gave us sightings up close of 5 species of primate and lots of birds.

So really excellent.

A quick toilet stop in Fort Portal and now on to QE national park. Games drive this eve.

The girls are doing brilliantly and dealing with all the challenges thrown at them

more later if and when we can.
sorry about typo's to sloooow here.

Night time at Kibale

After a successful day we settled down to night in camp.

Enjoyed some Cadbury's hot chocolate, ate fish and chips cooked on the charcoal grill


And then headed up to the bar to confuse the poor staff with a request for 10 diet cokes/sprites/krests/whatever was cold. Miss T then entertained us with her monkey impressions!




We were delighted to find proper flushing toilets, with lights, but then dismayed to discover that the lights attracted the bugs, and there's no worse time to be attacked by deadly killer grasshoppers! Luckily our screaming and laughter scared them off.


Head torches on we headed back to our little campsite.

Chimp Tracking

Aware of the time and effort that the first group had put in to find chimps the second group once again tucked their trousers into their socks, packed a lot of water into their rucksacks and headed off into the forest!

Ten minutes in we spotted some chimp droppings (still fresh)













and whilst we were merrily examining these we heard the somewhat blood curdling call of a male chimp, which made us all freeze with excitement/fear !
So we left the path and headed off through the forest.

After 10 minutes of fighting with vines and branches, including Sophie getting herself rather tangled up, we reached a big tree, looked up and there he was.....


(others have far better images, but honestly we could see him munching away)


(Pete's pic)

Pete and his gaggle joined us, we generously allowed them to view out chimp (they'd set off before us and had had the pleasure of climbing a steep hill only to have to scramble down again when our guide radioed their guide)



We stood and watched the chimp feed and then our guide wandered over to tell us that the chimp would come down from the tree soon and to move to another, so we had to be ready to follow. As if on queue the chimp climbed down and set off into the forest and we followed..........

What then ensued was 45 mins of adrenaline fuelled running, scrambling, climbing, ensnaring, tripping etc. Every now and then the chimp would stop and kick a tree buttress. The girls were incredible, keeping up with the fast moving chimp, I however managed to do half a somersault when I tripped on a tree root and land firmly on my head (many thanks to Sarah for staying with me whilst I elegantly scrambled to my feet!)




Eventually the chimp found his desired tree and breathless we settled down on a log to watch him feed. Later he was joined by a bigger male chimp who rather blatantly displayed his superiority!

Monkey spotting

We split into to groups, one to walk through the village, farmland and the edge of the park looking for monkeys, birds etc, the other group to head into the park proper to look for chimps.
The morning monkey spotters; Annie, Sarah, Lucy, Vikki and Sophie set off with trousers tucked into their socks and cameras at the ready.

We spotted a plethora of things; black and white colobus monkey, grey cheeked colobus, red tailed monkey, red faced monkey, a big blue bird, a monkey with brown bits, and a big eagle type thing, and many other things that I've forgotten!

























After a successful mornings spotting we returned to the camp site for lunch.























And then prepared for phase two of the day, chimp tracking!

Kibale camping

We arrived at the camp site to pitch the tents for the first time. Some set to work assisting Ezre with chopping others settled down infront of the campfire.

Kampala to Kibale

After an early start we left Kampala to head to Kibale, a 10 hour drive.

We stopped on route for our first encounter with local toilet facilities!










We then drove out of town to stop for the first of many road side lunches.














We then headed for the town of Fort Portal, one of the prettiest towns in Uganda, a fact we didn't appreciate until we'd seen how ramshackle most of the other towns were!

Touchdown

Arrived safe and well.



Bags all arrived albeit a little moist.



Arrived at the very luxurious (for Ugandan standards) Hotel Africana

Late arrival so basically straight to bed.

A relaxed day today, up for a talk with our guide Samantha and then off on a bus ride

across town to the Kasubi Tombs in Kampala.

Kampala is everything imagined, ramshackle in places, hustle bustle and a non existent

highway code.

We drove past most of the interesting buildings and had a good trip around the burial "palace" of the ugandan kings. So some history learnt and culture experienced.



In the afternoon had a little down time, some chose to stay in the hotel, the more adventurous

accompanied me to the mall for some supplies. Headphones are very cheap so the girls (Sophie and Victoria) who had lost theres, pushed the boat out with some replacements. A whole 12 gbp for some fancy sony ones. Frivolous.

I of course bought a couple of maps (sad) and an icecream



Just about to go out for an Indian meal ! and then to bed.



Early start for the lovely 10 hr, yes TEN drive to Kabale NP.

The luxuries of a Hotel will soon be a distant memory !
Internet also will be non-existent

Onward....