Chimpanzee Trekking For Dummies

These are the lessons we learned today while wandering through a beautiful ravine hunting chimps:

Bring better shoes than you think you need.

Wear washable, salt-resistant, urine-resistant, mud-resistant clothing.

Take two or three handkerchiefs to wipe your sweating face with; one isn't enough and will simply be dirty and gross by the end.

Double- or triple-dip with insect repellent.

Do not approach the spiky thorny bush that is everywhere; if you do, thorns will leap and impale themselves in you, necessitating a trip to a local hospital to get removed.

If Caleb, your guide, tells you that the rocks are slippery: trust him.

Ditto when he tells you to walk on the LEFT side of the rock/stump/sink hole: there is a reason that HE gets to carry a gun and lead stupid tourists and YOU don't.

Electronics fail in conditions of high humidity.

The deepest darkest jungle is a lot deeper and darker than it looks.

100 metres down is a lot bigger than it looks.

Entrance Three ("the second most difficult entrance" Caleb told us cheerfully) is very steep and incredibly scary but is also the hardest part of the trip.

... and the final thing...

it was worth it.

{yes, pics to come, but not until much later; we're at the resort on safari and there's no way to load photos}