Gombe
Chimpanzee trekking day! I'm trying to pretend like I'm excited about it but you all know how I felt last time. This time I decided to go in the slow group because I thought it would be easier. Umm no...not easier just more breaks.
We had breakfast & went down to the lake to get on the boats. We only took one boat this time & it was the speed boat so we got there in about 45 minutes. We divided up in our groups & off we went. I was in a group w/ Rick, Ellen, Linda, and Gene. It seemed much hotter this time than it did last time & the trail we took had more sun. We walked along the beach & then started up a winding "path." They say there are trails but if I had to find my way back I couldn't do it. This is probably the most clear path we had and as you can see it's pretty narrow & you could easily wander off of it.
We got about 1/2 an hour in & everyone was soaking wet with sweat, breathing hard & hearts were racing. This is not an easy climb. You are going up the side of a mountain & sometimes you only have enough room to out one foot in front of the other.
After several breaks and what seemed like forever Rick started feeling really bad so we decided it was in our best interest to turn around & go back. It was just too tough & too hot. Gene & Linda went ahead w/ one of our guides and the rest of us turned back. On our way back we got in the lake to cool off & it felt amazing! The water is really really clear here.
We started back toward the boat & ran into a troop of baboons so we took several pics.
That was enough for me. It is seriously hard to do! We waited for the rest of the groups and after a little while Laurie, Sasha, Karen, & Jeanae made it back. They were exhausted and said it was much tougher than they thought. They only got to see 2 chimps so I'm glad we didn't keep going. It was great to do it once in my life and if I ever go back I'm going to go into serious training mode with the treadmill on the steepest incline because that's basically what you're doing. It's also really hard because of the altitude so you can't catch your breath. Bottom line is it pretty much sucks. But if you see the chimps it's worth it. All the groups finally made their way back..Katie agreed that it was tougher than last time..and we all headed to lunch. Never mind the fact that it was by now 3 pm. So needless to say we were all hot, tired, & hungry. We had a quick lunch (spring rolls, chicken, rice) & some cider which was much needed!
Then we got back on the boat & headed toward our hotel. We were supposed to have our farewell dinner at 7 so we didn't have much time to clean up. They did push it back to 7:30 but it was still tough to get ready in time.
This time we had our farewell dinner by the pool. We all gathered for a group photo & then had a huge BBQ. The meat was really good & luckily no plantains this time! Dessert was ice cream & we also had lots of wine. After dinner we gathered around to debrief about the trip. We all went around saying one thing that was memorable & what we would take with us. I love this part because you get to hear about special connections everyone had that you may not have known about otherwise. Most everyone agreed that we would all be less likely to let the small things bother us. It's hard to come home & not be completely appreciative of what you have. Last time it made me think so much about if I really needed stuff I wanted to buy & it would bother me when I would see people just blowing money on things they didn't need. I have since learned that I can't live like that but it will still always be there with me. After our debriefing we all went back to our rooms to pack & get ready to leave. :-(
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