Day 10: Chimpanzee Tracking
The alarm went off at an hour that should not exist. Out the door by 5 a.m. for chimpanzee tracking in Nyungwe Forest. No amount of coffee fully prepares you for hiking into dense forest before the sun has properly committed to being up.
The Wrong Turn
Things got off to an interesting start when our guide misheard the directions for where the chimps had been spotted. This sent us on an extra hour of hiking through terrain that, under different circumstances, I might have called scenic. In the moment, with mud sucking at my boots and the slow realization that we were going the wrong way, scenic was not the word that came to mind.
Miscommunication eventually got sorted out and we corrected course. But that extra hour added real physical toll to an already demanding day. By the time we were back on the right path, everyone was muddy, winded, and highly motivated to actually find a chimpanzee.
The Sighting
We found one. After the hiking and the detour and the mud, we spotted a single male sitting in a tree up in the canopy. Relaxed, going about his business. We stood below on the muddy trail and watched for about 20-30 minutes.
Part of me had expected something more dramatic — a whole troop vocalizing and moving through the trees. What we got was one individual, at a distance, doing what chimps do when they're not performing for a nature documentary. He sat. He shifted position a little. He sat some more.
But the longer I watched, the more it settled into something real. This was a wild chimpanzee in his natural habitat, completely unbothered by the group of humans standing below him. No barrier, no enclosure, no interpreter between us and the animal. Just a muddy hillside, a forest canopy, and a primate sharing about 98% of our DNA going about his morning. Strip away the expectations and that's actually remarkable.
The Hike Back
Return hike was just as muddy as the way in. Boots wrecked. Legs tired. But there was a real satisfaction to it. Came out before dawn, hiked for hours through difficult terrain, got turned around, corrected course, found what we were looking for. That's what tracking is. Not a zoo visit. Earned.
By the time we got back I was ready to sleep for twelve hours. But I kept thinking about that chimp in the tree, sitting there like he had all the time in the world. He probably did.
