August 25 - Golden Monkeys

Paul and Francis headed out early today to go to the park for a trek to see the golden monkeys. 

The golden monkeys are found nowhere else on earth except this wildlife area that covers this corner of Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo.  Mary slept in.  She was not interested in another mountain trek.

Francis was with a third, extra guide, and when that guide was called to help on a guerilla trek, Francis went back to the entrance.   

While Mary worked on photos and the blog and checked emails, Paul was hiking a pretty major trek for us now.  The trek started at 7,700 feet and ended at 8,924 feet.  

His porter said to take it easy, and not to worry about keeping up with the main group of 10.  Almost all of the 2 hour (for Paul - Paul lagged behind the man group quite a distance) hike up was uphill and fairly steep in most places until one got to the bamboo forest near where the Golden Monkeys lived.  And the hike was at a high elevation.  His comments later were that Mary could not have made the hike and he really struggled himself, partly due to the elevation, and partly due to being out of shape.  The group had two guards and two guides.  There was always one guard and one guide at the front of the group, and one guard and one guide at the rear.  Since he was always far behind, he essentially had a guard and a guide (and his porter) to himself.  

A view of a nearby crater.

However, they did see the golden monkeys…mainly buried in the trees and brush.  But he did get a few pretty good photos.

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More Golden Monkeys
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The hike took them though a bamboo forest.   

On the way back they saw a reasonably sized chameleon.

He was back to the lodge by about 2:00.  Took a shower and decided to have his first ever massage (the lodge gives out one free half hour massage).

After dinner there was a lot of packing to do as tomorrow we fly to Entebbe and we must be sure that our luggage meets the weight allowance.  We were right at the limit and unfortunately we’ve picked up a few items.  We’ll see if we make it.