Greenwitch

Jane Goodall


In Gombe, I get up at 6:45 am or an hour earlier if I'm going to un-nest the chimps. Breakfast is usually a piece of bread and a cup of coffee. From my house on the beach I can get to the chimps wherever they are. Un-nesting them means that you clamber to where you left them the night before, sit beneath the nest and wait for movement. They'll get up slowly one after the other, sit for a while, then wander off and start to feed.
My favorite day is spent following a mother and her family until evening. The most wonderful thing about fieldwork, whether with chimps, baboons or any other wildlife, is waking up and asking yourself, "What am I going to see today?" I don't bother with lunch when I'm out. Some of the wild fruit chimps eat are quite tasty when ripe, though most are horribly astringent. There isn't really anything that I've ever craved when living in the bush. I've been lucky in that it's very easy for me to adjust. My one luxury is music: Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler, Sibelius, and so on.
It can be exhausting climbing high, far and fast. Around 3 pm you feel very weary because of spending a lot of the day on your tummy, crawling, with vines catching your hair. Living under the skies, the forest is for me a temple, a cathedral made of tree canopies and dancing light, especially when it's raining and quiet. That's heaven on earth for me. I can't imagine going through life without being tuned into the mystical side of nature. People are too busy nowadayMagical EveningsAt dusk, the chimps nest. It's lovely in the sunset after a hot day. The birds sing, it's quiet. The mother will play with her babies, they'll play up in the branches and come to her arms when it gets dark. When they've nested, I'll pick my way home.
The Gombe evening is magical. It's dark by 7:30 pm and I'll jump into Lake Tanganyika. The clear, fresh water makes all my bruises, aches and tiredness go away. I'll cook something like beans, onions and tomatoes over an open fire. Daytime cooking at Gombe requires House Rule Number One, which is to keep the door shut because the baboons push past you to get to the food. Sometimes in the evening we'll eat under the stars. In the rainy season we'll sit on the overgrown verandah. It's paradise.
Sadly, today, I am very seldom able to spend time in Gombe. When I'm there I just want to walk quietly through the forest, sit with the chimpanzees, re-charge my battery. Since 1986, I haven't stayed anywhere longer than three weeks. These days I sometimes wonder where I am when I wake up. On my last USA lecture tour I rarely spent two nights in one place. There are lectures, new people to meet, receptions, press conferences.
My grandmother's favorite text was always, 'As thy days, so shall thy strength be,' which has got me through everything terrible that's ever happened to me. A day's not too much to get through. A typical non-African day is spent in airplanes, lobbying like crazy, writing letters and sorting slides. In America, people usually recognize me because of the National Geographic so I always carry brochures from the Jane Goodall Institute.
Lingering Memories
In Bournemouth, where I grew up and still have a home, breakfast is at 9 am, which is great for me because I can get in three hours' work beforehand. I find I've still got around 100 letters to write despite just having written that many. I try to answer them all, especially the children's.
In the afternoon there is more writing, a peaceful tea with my family, a walk with the dog, then supper, then more work. I often have problems sleeping. I suppose I'm trying to do too many things. Once I let go, it all comes crowding in and I have pictures in my mind of chimps in chains, chimps in laboratories. It's awful. It colors my watching the wild chimps. I think, 'Aren't they lucky?' and then think about other tiny chimps in tiny prisons, though they have committed no crimes. Once you've seen it, you can't forget...