Family

I realised when I started planning my trip to Kigoma that I have some close relatives living just 25 kms away. We all have. Ninety chimpanzees live in Gombe Stream National Park, by the Burundi border north of Kigoma. Jane Goodall did, and still does intermittently, her research there. It’s on the lake shore and only accessible by boat. One of Ahmed’s “brothers” arranged for us to hitch a ride there in the National Park supply boat.

Coming back we weren’t so lucky. We had to wade out to catch the 7am public boat in pouring rain and shove our way under a big tarpaulin being held up, by the 100 or so passengers, over themselves and their goods. But we were fairly lucky with the chimps. We had a whole day trekking the forest trails with our guide Isaiah and a trainee guide, Wilbrod. Lovely jungly plants and sounds, big butterflies flapping everywhere, yellow baboons and two big troops of Colobus monkeys swooping and whooping through the trees.

They apparently thought we were chimps (thanks) who sometimes attack and eat them. We searched the hills, the valleys, the beaches, but no sign of chimps apart from their nests in trees.

We were in two-way radio contact with a tracker (Isaiah ending every exchange with “Lodger”) but the tracker couldn’t find them either. Just when we had decided to give up and head up to a 25m waterfall, we came upon a mother chimp and baby, right on the path.

I stood very, very still while she mooched past us and climbed a tree. The way she climbed, expertly but not at all monkey-like, made it completely believable that we share 99. whatever it is DNA with her. A bit later we saw another lone female. The “power shower “ of the waterfall set us up nicely for the hike back to camp. The swimming and snorkeling in the lake is also fabulous there although you have to watch out for baboons running off with your stuff while you’re in the water. That’s almost it for the Kigoma trip, except for one more stroke of luck. The indomitable MV Liemba came into port while we were there.

The Liemba was launched as the Graf von Gotzen in 1915 and scuttled by the Germans a year later. In 1924 she was pulled up from the bottom and renamed. She has been doing the 1000km round trip up and down the lake weekly ever since, the oldest operational passenger vessel in the world. Thanks to Ahmed’s mum’s first husband’s brother we managed to go on board and have a look round. The 3rd class seating area below decks didn’t look that inviting for a long voyage but the 1st class cabins above were the picture of shabby elegance. The ship’s wheel and binnacle on the bridge must have been original. Hmmmmm………………How to organize a trip on Liemba? Time to talk to Ahmed again.