Priceless

Gum boots to keep feet dry in the wet season: 16,000 Ugandan Shillings. Rooster to eat for Edson the camp managers birthday: 18,000 shillings. Binoculars to see chimps in distant canopy: 49 pounds 99 pence.Being chased by angry bee's that think you are a chimp trying to steal there honey and being stung twice in the face: Priceless. There are some things money can't buy or prevent, for everything else there's my student overdraft and overburdened parents. Being in the forest I've learnt to approach challenges with a positive outlook. While in isolation the bee stings could be seen as unfortunate, in reality they were nature's way of prepping my adrenal system for the experience of being charged by a forest elephant the following week. We were with a group of tourists when we came upon the elephant. We smelt it (just like the elephant enclosure at the zoo, unsuprisingly) and saw the dung first. The male was just wandering on the path chewing some branches, the tourists wanted to get closer for photos and when they were within around 12 metres of the elephant it must have got annoyed because it spread its ears wide, opened its mouth and charged towards us. I'd like to say I stood my ground, stared it in the eyes and the elephant turned tail and ran away. But if I'd done that I'd probably be flatter than a chipati. Instead, i ran away with the tourists, I didnt register that the loud bang was the ranger firing a shot from his rifle into the air, causing the elephant to rethink it's strategy and run away, until I had sprinted in the opposite direction. Fortunately I didn't run long, as my route would have taken me directly into another family groups of elephants.
It's been great getting to know the staff better as I've spent time here. They're all completely welcoming and make living here a totally pleasant and incredible experience. One of the rangers, Alimosi, has a business keeping bees. I'm trying to learn more about it so that I can start making honey back in the UK. It probably wont taste as good as the stuff he gets from the Rwenzori mountains, but it is still honey.
Currently going through a dry patch seeing the chimps. As there's so little food in the forest for them to eat at the moment they have to travel large distances in small groups in order to find enough. That means we can go days at a time with no signs of chimp anywhere. Hopefully they will start coming back as they seem to move through the area in cycles, spending some days in each area then returning. There are some fruiting fig trees at the moment, hopefully this will tempt them back to us...
So many more things to mention but time in town is brief, we have to go to two busy open air markets to get supplies plus other administrative tasks. If anybody would like a letter send me your address and I'll try to write.
Hope everyone is well!
Alex