Nanny ship

This morning’s trek was fabulous. And not only because of the large number of chimpanzees that we saw. It was the group activity that we found to be so amusing!

Today Fatuma’s 2,5 year old daughter spend some quality learning time with her nanny of choice; Gwekulo. The single most popular nanny in the group, Gwekulo is liked by both babies and mothers. Sadly she has never been able to conceive children herself.

Gwekulo with Fatuma's baby sitting on the tree.

Now 50 years old, Gwekulo certainly tries to make up for that by teaching valuable life lessons to infants and spending plenty of time with them.

The lesson of this morning was how to impress other chimpanzees. This was done by pounding the back leg on the tree as loudly as possible. Although not totally visible on the picture, the scene was hilarious. As the baby tried to pound her little leg on the tree, Gwekulo watched her in satisfaction.

Fatuma's baby raising her right leg to start pounding the tree in order to impress others... 

The other lesson was pant hooting. Though chimpanzees panthoot for many reasons, this morning’s lesson focused on paying respect to higher ranking individuals. 

To the right Gwekulo is pant hooting in a submissive way. The baby is paying attention and trying vocalize too...

As alpha male Primus approached the group, Gwekulo showed how to panthoot as a form of subsmission.

Gwekulo moving forward towards Primus as she keep pant hooting.

With the baby paying attention to every detail, you can see how she makes the effort to move forward on the tree branch, trying to pant hoot in the meantime.

And after Gwekulo also Fatauma's baby move forward trying to show respect...

The scenes of this morning were totally amusing and very interesting to see - we hope to catch some more nanny ship lessons in the coming week.

The Cotton Stainer

Often overshadowed by the charismatic and more appealing chimpanzees, the great variety of insects found in Mahale Mountains NP is certainly very interesting. Especially after a little research you realize what and enormous array of bugs share the same place as us.

A bug often encounter along the forested paths of Greystoke camp is the pale cotton stainer. Relative small in size with a body length up to 17 mm it’s brightly colored and feeds mainly on seeds associated with species of wild hibiscus and kapok . Interestingly adults remain mated for days!

Mating cotton stainers on the forest path near Greystoke camp

And where the name comes from…?

The Cotton Stainer is widely spread with over 300 species worldwide. Adults can pierce cotton bolls to suck sap from the seeds, allowing a fungi to enter the cotton which stains it with a yellowish color. Especially during the industrial revolution in the USA this little bug caused massive problems.

That’s what I said – you just have to look it up and it becomes very interesting!

My best Monday

To us trekking chimpanzees is outright adventure. It so very different every time we are out! I know I am repeating myself here, but it’s hard to imagine how positively intense the experience of viewing chimpanzees in the wild is.

This Monday morning we approached the chimpanzees in the northern reach of their territory. A long but beautiful jungle hike through dense greenery, we could hear the chimpanzees vocalizing well before we actually saw the first individuals. Listening to their voices from afar, our guide Robert could tell some of them were fighting.

Alofu, 33 yrs, 2nd ranking male in M group (left), Kalunde, 54 yrs (center), Carter, 28 yrs.

When we found the chimpanzees a good five minutes later, peace had returned to the group. From where we stood we counted the surrounding forest floor and some of the trees and could see at least 20 chimpanzees. Some of them – Bonobo for example – freshly wounded.

Right in front of us on the edge of the group, three males were peacefully grooming each other. With all the time in the world Alofu (left) groomed Kalunde (center), who on his turn groomed Carter. As we spend another 50 minutes with the chimpanzees, it seemed like quality family time for them. All peacefully resting and grooming on the floor of the jungle.

But how close do they sometimes get? 

Primus; the nr. 1 ranking male of the M - group just sat there for a couple of minutes...

Well - very close. As we stood and observed them, Primus (the M-group Alpha male) walked straight up to us and sat down right in front of me. Less than a meter away from my legs, my heart pounded but I so much enjoyed the thrill of the experience. My best Monday so far!

Greystoke's water world

Sure enough chimpanzee trekking will take the best part of your day in Greystoke. Though many people make it back to camp before lunch and so there is plenty of time to join in other brilliant activities.

Just a couple of our favorites to get your fantasy going…

Suzanne, Richard and Anna Williams on a Kayak trip.

Get some exercise and Kayak the lake waters north of camp. Did you ever kayak a crystal clear lake full of deserted beaches, mountainous forests and wildlife? Here you go!

Snorkeling the rocky coast.

More exercise! Swimming in the Greystoke bay is refreshing and cool with water temperatures hovering between 24 C– 25 C (72 - 75 F) year round. Had enough of normal swimming ? Gear up with a snorkel, mask and fins from the camp and have a look at the nearly 400 colourful Cichlid species that Lake Tanganyika has to offer. Especially in front of our rocky bar area the snorkeling is excellent.

Diving of the from the front of boat during sunset - brilliant! Picture courtesy of Ariadne van Zandbergen. 

Then… likely to be our favorite non-chimping activity of all; sunset cruise meets diving. Sail out far from the coast to the deep blue waters of Lake Tanganyika and take in the stunning surroundings with a cool drink. The lush forest covered mountains are everywhere. Then as the sun starts sinking in the sky, get off that shirt and dive from the boat.  

Other worldly sunsets

Powerful, spectacular and short; this area of East Africa is known for its tropical thunderstorms. And with these brilliant storms, we offer sunsets you will find hard to believe - so beautiful. 

Just before 19.00 hrs, the sun sets over the mountains in Congo.

As you can see afternoon storms brewing over the Lukuga basin across the lake, you know what’s soon coming our way.

Often unleashed over the lake as they make their way from west to east, the sky remains littered with shreds of stormy clouds all around.

Shreds of stormy clouds fill the sky.

Then when sunsets kicks in - close to seven o’clock – the dense and humid air is lit up in a way that is close to other worldly. Sometimes even, lightening is still striking as the sun is painting the horizon!

How’s life at your end?

If we develop even the slightest of an office day feeling out here, we’re careful enough to take our remedy immediately. We sail one of the boats out on the lake, have a drink and take in the scenery…

Greystoke Camp and surroundings from the water.

The lake, the mountains, the vast remoteness of it all – this place has no space for dull feelings.

Lucky nr 7

Chimpanzees do visit Greystoke Camp itself too, as I hope you have come across on one of our blogs. Though most of the time when they visit, the M-group members decide to stay within the forested areas of the camp. The fruit bearing trees are obviously more of an attraction to the chimpanzees than our stunning beach front.

Orion; crossing the path to the beach at room nr 7.

Spotting chimpanzees from your room veranda therefore is a special and rare event.

Lucky us!

As we were taking measurements in room 7 we heard leaves and branches cracking. Like someone was approaching from the right. And sure enough here came Orion, silently leading Tani and her son Teto along the beach front.

Orion waiting for Tani and Teto to follow him.

Interestingly that morning, Orion – as part of the M group – tried to mate with Tani but was denied in favor of the much younger Teddy. Now taking Tani and her little son Teto on a private walkabout away from the rest of the M group, sure enough Orion increased his chances on copulation.