Arrived on the 11th and met the group, had dinner with them and allowed to have my own tent even though technically i am not part of the expedition yet. TJ and jake showed me how to set up the tent. Woke up middle of the night to the sound of the rain and put up the rain cover on top of the tent.

I woke up in the morning, 5 a.m. as agreed the previous night, there is not a soul around! I am thinking strange thoughts. I pack up the tent and sit around until eventually there is signs of life. My clock was out by an hour, so I had got up too early. Jake had gone to help me with packing up the tent and had been wondering what had happened to me.

My travel companions: TJ big south african guide, doesnt say much. Jake south african guide. Both are barefoot all the time as is the norm in what I have seen so far. Alex and Paul, young couple, seem to have a good relationship but focus on what little does not work between them, he recons she is lazy and some of the girls tend to get Ban, 18 year old Australian guy to do some of the physical work for them.
Ben is athletic and later on in the trip we do some training together in the pit of the truck as he is getting restless. Nick and Kim, quiet young couple. Carmen, Australian girl, seems nice, gets somewhat injured on the gorilla trek by falling on a stump and hurting her leg. Helen "missy" 33 year old, behaves like a precautions 14 year old. Enthusisastic and in awe of everything. I am guessing she is a bit of a daddys girl. Initially her information about how to do things were ok, but later on she is getting on my nerves
specially when she tries to tell me to be quiet when I am asking Ben to take my photo with the gorillas. I am guessing this is her mating ritual, testing people but she is just irritating and not interesting enough for me to put up or play her games with. She is also accident prone and tends to hurt herself regularly. I am still trying to get used to the routines on the truck and the demands of travelling 10-12 hour days. There is a lot to do on these drives. 3 times a day setting up, preparing food, tidying afterwards, evening and mornings pitching up quite heavy duty tents which may also be wet and invariably muddy.
In addition just trying to stay hydrated, rested and clean with little toilet stops, lack of facilities and running water is challenge. There are lots of clothes hanging all over the truck to dry most of the time.  

By the time I joined the group there were already routines and allocated/volunteered tasks so i did need some info initially. There was lots of cooperation amongst most of the group which made life easy.

i still have some Imperial Mints I bought on the first day in Uganda, i gave these out practically everyday and am amazed there is still some left, they were great for refreshing the taste buds on long journies.