By Hamza Mmole, Greystoke Mahale
It was a peculiar day of its own kind when I went out chimp tracking with a group of six guests. We encountered a large group of chimpanzee’s crossing Lubulungu river heading south which is near the border of another chimpanzee community that is not habituated.
We spent 35 minutes watching them and they were all in single file stepping from rock to rock and holding on to only the dry rocks. It is known that chimps are very careful to avoid wet rocks or any area with water. One characteristic of Chimpanzees is that they cannot swim, very similar to the Makua people, which is my tribe.
It was very interesting to observe chimpanzee’s bending their necks drinking water while other chimps were crossing the River.
On our way back to camp one of the guests who has been to the Serengeti told me that the Chimpanzee’s crossing the river reminded him of the very spectacular crossing of wildebeest on the Mara River.
