Tag: gombe lake tanganyika

A meeting of the elders - the chimps of Gombe National Park - from the Kasakela group Copyright Rupi Mangat

Rendezvous with the Chimpanzees of Gombe

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Above: A meeting of the elders – the chimps of Gombe National Park – from the Kasakela group  Copyright Rupi Mangat

Click to watch the chimps of Gombe National Park

Published in Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 2 December 2017

Sunrise over Kigoma – copyright Rupi Mangat
local fishing boat belonging to Congolese fishers at Kigoma – in French – Notre Tresor – our treasure. copyright Rupi Mangat
local fishing boat being repaired at Kigoma – . copyright Rupi Mangat

The night air is fading as we make our way to the secluded bay on Lake Tanganyika at Kigoma to climb into the motorboat to Gombe National Park. It’s the only way to get there. Continue reading “Rendezvous with the Chimpanzees of Gombe” →

Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika

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The end of the road   

Published  Saturday magazine Nation media 18 November 2017

Kigoma Railway Station- Copyright Rupi Mangat
Kigoma Railway Station- Copyright Rupi Mangat

Superlatives fill the lake as l dive into the dazzling blue warm waters Lake Tanganyika. It is Africa’s longest and deepest lake – a veritable African Great Lake in the Albertine Rift, the western arm of the Great Rift Valley. It is also the world’s longest freshwater lake stretching 675 kilometers and holds 18 per cent of the world’s fresh water.

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Tarangire - land of the giants - centuries-old baobab tree and elephant Copyrith Rupi Mangat

Tarangire National Park

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Part 2 of 2

By the river’s edge

Watch the drama

Published 14 October 2017 Saturday magazine Nation newspaper

Above: Tarangire – land of the giants – centuries-old baobab tree and elephant
Copyright Rupi

It’s stark dry – August at the height of the dry season. Tall and golden, the sun-bleached grass shimmers under the blazing sun interspersed with stoic baobabs and towering termite mounds.  We drive across the dry riverbed and into Tarangire National Park from the adjoining Randilen Wildlife Management Area and watch a family of banded mongoose playing around a termite mound.

Banded mongoose dig a grub-fest by Silale Swamp Copyright Rupi Mangat
Banded mongoose dig a grub-fest at Silale Swamp Copyright Rupi Mangat

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Playful young chimpanzee in Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Copyright Rupi Mangat

To Tanganyika

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For the chimpanzees (sokwe mtu in Kiswahili)

Published The East African Nation media 16-22 September 2017

Above: Playful young chimpanzee in Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.  Copyright Rupi Mangat

When l heard Dr Jane Goodall talk in Nairobi about her ground-breaking pioneering chimpanzee research in Gombe it became my mission to get there in search of our closest relative whose DNA is 98 per cent like ours. It was Goodall who first documented chimpanzees using tools for a purpose – inserting sticks in a termite mound to fish out the insects for a snack – that made Louis Leakey the Kenyan paleoanthropologist quote famously, “Now we must redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as humans” Continue reading “To Tanganyika” →