Gombe - 10/10/11

Yesterday, me and 3 of the Research Assistants made the journey to Kigoma to go on a field trip to Gombe. Gombe is a pretty huge destination in the world of primatology. It’s the place where Jane Goodall studied chimps for 50 years so unlike the chimps where I work, the chimps at Gombe are very tolerant of humans. There’s only 1 way to get to Gombe from Kigoma and that’s by boat and if your poor like me your only option is the water taxi which costs about 2 quid. The journey is 3 hours long. The water taxis are huge! They are basically the only means of transport for the villages all along the coast of Lake Tanganika and they leave every day at noon. Needless to say they get completely rammed with people, chickens, goats, rice and just about anything else you can imagine. So for 3 hours we were crammed in shoulder to shoulder till we got to Gombe! A cool experience.

Me on the boat to Gombe

An early morning view of the town of Kigoma

A boat much like the one we were on to Gombe

Gombe itself was fantastic. The chimps are very habituated which means you can get pretty close to them. On a few occasions we had to get out of their way. On one occasion a dominant male charged another male. This other male had the great idea of running straight towards us! So low and behold we had a large, angry male chimp charging at us, luckily he passed me by about a foot or two but the guys weren’t so lucky. They had to quite literally dive out of the way, ive never seen them move so fast!

Me, Mlela and Msigwa of the beach of Lake Tanganika, Gombe

Jane Goodall and Anthony Collins' living room in Gombe

Olive baboons on the "Come Again" sign on the dock of Gombe

Mama chimp and baby chimp

Myself, Joffrey, Msigwa, Mlela and our  Guide

Mama chimp picking nose and baby chimps playing

Juvenile chimps

"Im a boy - see!"

Crocodile dundee in the shower (Gombe)

Deep in thought "is that my foot or my hand?"

Me with Chimps - Taken by my fantastic photographer Mlela. Believe it or not, this is the best picture he took and it doesnt even have my face in it!

 When I first came to Gombe I was introduced to a gentlemen called Anthony Collins. Anton, as it happens is the Director of baboon research at Gombe, which is the longest baboon research project in existence! He is also the acting director of Gombe itself whilst Jane is not there, needless to say an important man. He is also a fantastic host, he had us over to Jane’s house to have dinner and took great care of us. I was invited by Anton on our second night to go to the daily chimp meeting which, from a scientific perspective was very interesting. All the Gombe research assistants were also very interested to hear all about our camp.

Myself, Dr Anton, Mlela, Joffrey and Msigwa striking a pose on the beach of Gombe

All in all it was a great trip!