Gorilla's in my midst...

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Just a short entry for once...

Gina and I started our long day off flying early (well early for me with no job...), from Cape Town to Jo'burg, Jo'burg to Nairobi, and finally Nairobi to Entebbe in Uganda, arriving at our hotel at approx midnight. pick up the next day was at 9, for what would turn out to be a 10 hour drive to Bwindi Inpenetrable forest.

Our guide is Xavier, (he turns out to be THE WORST guide ever, and the most dangerous driver). anyway, he takes us an hour or so up the road to the Equator. here we get a demo on how the water does infact rotate in diff directions when poured down a sink, and when on the equator itself, does not rotate at all! NICE!
The scenery is nice enough, but the roads become soo bumpy, and he drives so recklessly that it almost becomes unbareable! (Gina actually had to shout at him to slow down after the near pile up with 2 cows, 2 motorbikes and 1 sheppard).
we pass through banana plantations, fields of tea and coffee, and eventually come through Queen Elizabeth National park. as with Xavier's driving, we literally whizz through here, barely time for a breath, and bump and bounce our way to the Gorilla Resort. The place is set right on the edge of the forest, we couldn't see it by that time of night, but you could make out the massive hills all around you. we were staying in a huge tent, which was under cover of a log cabin style building. The beds were big and cosy, and the "windows" could be opened down to let the moon light flood in.

Next morning, after an interesting Brekkie, we head to the briefing, where we are split into groups for tracking. they track the gorilla's from their last known position on the previous day, and there are guys out already tracking so they can communicate to our group were we need to go. after a short drive, and approx 1.5 hours walk up a hill behind a school and village, we are told the are here. the clock is started, as you only get an hour with these chaps. the first one is up a tree, and the feeling you get when you see it is indescribable, you just have to be there for yourself. as we move through the undergrowth, more of them come into view; some small adult males (i say small, only compared to the silverback!!), and the female with a baby clung to its neck. their faces are so peaceful, and they look like the most gentle and passive creatures i have ever seen. they are at peace with us invading their habitat for a short time, but the silver-back did put on an impressive display of power as it roared and swiped at us, and then proceeded to PULL down and snap in half a tree the width of my neck! afterwards he laughed (seriously!!) not a lot more i can say, i think the pics say more than 1000 words, so have a gander and enjoy... quite a Birthday i can tell you!

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