Wow, where do I begin? It is still difficult to process everything that has happened yesterday. It all started as usual, we met our guests for breakfast, enjoying each others company, the beautiful morning light on the lake, the fresh air and a tasty breakfast. It seemed to be a very relaxed morning as once finished breakfast, there still were no news on the chimps. At ten o'clock, as the lake was just beautiful and calm, everybody was happy to go for a swim. Once the boat left with our guests, we went back to our office to catch up with some work... just as every other day. After a few minutes, the boat came back and Matius, one of our guides, was just telling us to get ready as the trackers had found a giant pangolin! We literally dropped everything, went running back to our house, jumped into our hiking boots, grabbed the camera and went rushing back after our guests who already were on their way into the forest. We caught up with them just before reaching our trackers... and suddenly there it was, the giant pangolin in the middle of the path just ahead of us. We couldn't believe our eyes!!
What a special sighting, on the way back to camp it was hard to talk about anything else. To cool down a bit, just before lunch our guests decided to go for that swim they had to postpone in the morning. Back in camp, hungry from all the excitement, we were just sitting down and starting to eat, when the guides came with news that the trackers found some chimps. Barely swallowed the last bite, off they went again.
After two hours guests were back, happy to have seen Christmas and Christina. They came down the mountain together with our guests as to show them the way back to camp. The group left Christmas and Christina a few minutes away from camp as the time was up. Everybody was happy about the experience... and suddenly the news were "chimps in camp!". Apparently Christmas and Christina were not finished yet spending time with us, so they came into camp. We asked ourselves: what is happening today? First the pangolin, then chimps, and then chimps in camp?!
Could it get any better after that? It did... the guests went out for another swim and saw an entire family of hippos, walking right next to the boat in the crystal clear water.
And to end this extraordinary day, it was the perfect night to sit in our Big Bird Bar and in a peaceful and romantic atmosphere to reflect on everything that happened during the day. Also, later we had a little birthday celebration as it was Sean's birthday, one of our truly lucky guests. We are be sure that he will never forget this birthday! What can we say, it was Mahale at its best!
