Visiting the Chimpanzees

On Thursday, 5 of us got up very early to track Chimps. Gorillas and Chimpanzees are the biggest attraction of tourists to Rwanda.

We started before dawn and were on the trail at daybreak with our guide, Vedaste. When tracking Chimpanzees you are likely to see them but getting close can be difficult. On another day this week, the tracker only found one.

After dawn, they awake after sleeping in the trees, come down and search for food. After about 10 minutes, we spotted a group and began following them - Vedaste leading the way with his tracking team. After following for 10 minutes we found the whole group - about 11 in one large fig tree with LOTS of figs .... They would be there a while. We were so close to them that one of them almost peed on us!

We sat and watched for as they ate fig after fig and moved from branch to branch. What beautiful creatures.