A lone chimp. I love his expression.
I'd never imagined that I'd see chimps with a beach and lake in the background.
A chimp reclines in the leaves, Gombe National Park.
Lake Tanganyika is long, strecthing from Burundi to Zambia. It is also clear, calm and does a wicked sunset.
The shores of Gombe National Park, where legendary primatologist Jane Goodall researches chimpanzees. The water here is unbelievably clear and mercifully free of water-borne nasties.
Getting to Gombe National Park involves a few hours on this slightly overloaded vessel, where lifejackets were at a premium. They make great cushions.
The MV Liemba is a vital trade and passenger service on Lake Tangayika.
Voyages to Gombe, and beyond to Burundi, start at the poty town of Kigoma, Lake Tanganyika.
This is the First Class Deck of the Merchant Vessel Liemba, which pplies the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika. The deck is not reserved for first class passengers.
Built is 1913, she was scuttled by her German captain in 1916, and restored and returned to service in 1927.
Few of her ports of call have docking facilities. Passengers are ferried to shore in smaller boats, and scramble up the side of the boat.
The 1913 MV Liemba carries goods and passengers up and down Lake Tanganyika. Comfort and safety are not prime considerations.
Loading and unloadin continued at night, with goods and people ferried t and from shore by smaller craft.
We disembarked via a boat like this, in the dark. Unlike the MV Illala in Malawi, shore transfers cost. We had to wade waist deep to shore, into a dark village. It had no food for sale and no hotel.
We slept on the bus which was leaving in the morning.
A young boy in a canoe around the MV Liemba as she unloads, somewhere on Lake Tanganyika.
View from the deck, MV Liemba. Nobody was stopped from using the first class deck, so with people sleeping outside our door, it was not the luxury experience that "first class" suggests.
A baby chimp chews a piece of old denim, at the HQ of Gombe National Park.
A little fella came to say hi in Gombe National Park.
Kigoma is the departure point for Gombe National Park, a journey made on small overloaded boats.
A man selling "kanga" in Kigoma at the main port.
The comings and goings of the port in Kigoma, on Lake Tanganyika.
Hills falling straight into lake waters, with a small foothold for the village.
Chimps make themselves at home around the park HQ.
Keeping an eye on things from above.
A very human action, scratching under the arm.
After an early start and sme sweating walking through the forests, the clear, blue waters of the lake are good for a dip.
Large boxes, bundles of fruit, sacks of rice, small children and old people all get transferred by small boats up the side of the MV Liemba.
One of the larger shore boats used to ferry goods and passengers.
Embarking and disembarking at most stops is via some stairs down to a hatch, and onto these small boats.
An idyllic village of huts and sand on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.