After my morning at Gombe I experienced the reality of domestic air travel in Africa. Rushed through the mud to the airport at Kigoma to catch my flight on to Dar es Salaam. Interesting place -- very rudimentary in many ways, but the waiting room is to die for -- furnished with red plush sofas you can sink into as you wait for the plane. Thank goodness, because we sat for approximately two hours only to be told the flight had been cancelled completely as there were problems with the landing gear.
Fortunately for me Emmanuel Mtiti had waited for me and ferried me back to the Hilltop Hotel for another night. Obviously this all happened for a reason as the zebras were waiting for me calmly again as we approached the hotel and this time I actually got a reasonable photograph! Another quiet night and then eventually got a flight out to Dar around noon the next day so have missed all the meetings we had planned with the eam in Dar. Did meet with Pancras Ngalason, however, the Executive Director of JGI Tanzania and had a short tour of the city as dusk fell.
Back to the airport this morning and very efficient easy flights with Air Kenya through Nairobi brought me into Entebbe this morning. I am now sitting in the JGI Uganda office at the desk of Debby Cox, the Executive Director. The offices are located in a big house on the shores of Lake Victoria and the terrace upstairs has an incredible view of this enormous lake (second largest in the world?) The climate here is gorgeous -- warm but the air is dry and there is a lovely breeze blowing. Have already seen about 20 different species of bird just in the garden around the house. Tried to do my laundry but the cycle is stuck halfway through as the power has gone off -- back to the manual option I guess!
Tomorrow we leave very early for the Budongo forest where JGI has an ecotourism project where you can walk with the chimps in the forest as you can at Gombe. Will be back on Monday afternoon and then visit Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary on Tuesday -- more from me then!!
2 comments:
Jane,
Your descriptions of your trip are terrific... so much so that J is even saying he'd like to visit (maybe you should think about a career in sales?)!
We had your chimps and the alpha male over to watch the football playoffs and dinner yesterday. Not to worry, all is well on the homefront. All (yes all 3) are in good spirits.
Enjoy the rest of your trip
Gail
Jane, I have been following your adventure through your blog, and can't wait to talk to you when you get back. Your descriptions are so vivd, it seems like we are all there with you! Continue to enjoy every bit of this wonderful opportunity! /Linda
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