Trek

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Jan 24
Day 9 
Today we headed for Bwindi impenitrable rain forest to see the gorilas after a delicois breaky provided by the camp of course. It was a 45 min drive or so to the entrance point. Once we arrived they signed us in with the permits and gave us a briefing then we were on our way for our trek. Before we left we took bets on how long it would take us to get to the gorillas.  Although the trek was super wet, muddy and steep I througly enjoyed it. We were hopping from patch of brush to rocks to brush to whatever to avoid the stream of water in the path. It eventually dried up the higher we got. We hiked up 2 ridges before we heard word from the trackers. 
The way it works is the trackers go out early and search for them from where they last saw them the day before then once they find them we would straight line it to them. Well the straight line wasn't known until we had hiked for about 2 and 1/2 hours. We had to go up and down a bout 3 ridges and hike for 3 and 1/2 hours before we finally got where the trackers were.  To add insult to the trek it started pooring just when we got to them. We all orgionally though rain or mist would make it more of a mystical, magical experience but were worried about our cameras and photos not being clear.   
We left or bag and walking sticks behind got another small breifing. "if a gorilla charges don't run or back down just stand tall and hold your ground."  Well we hiked around some thick brush and heard the loudest grunting and rusling I have ever heard.  The tracker made some grunting noises back and told us there was a female charging at us. This happened 2 times before I suppose she calmed down and we got to see here. Wow what a sight such a gigantic beast. There was the female infront of us and a silver back off to our right. He left quickly after we arrived though. It was pooring on us but I don think anyone carred. It was unreal she was sitting looking at us. She then walked infront of us and off to the right and began eating.  She did charge at us one more time before she left. Wow that was cool everyone jumped a little but the trackers got her to stop and go away. We then hiked around some more brush and found the silver back just sitting and eating. What a phenominal site. Although at this point it was raining very hard we were cold, wet and were worried about our camreas and the photos were clouded by the rain. Once he moved on we looked for somemore. Finally we came across a young male eating and it had pretty much stopped raining so we all got some amazing photos. All you could hear now was the clicking of our cameras.  This one was much more relaxed he didn't care about us at all. He at one pint leaned back on a thin tree and even threw his arms around it like any relax man would do. It was so cool. Unfortunately I didn't catch a photo of that though. After we snapped 1000s of shots we walked around (althought I shouldn't say around, we were littleraly walking on pushed over and machetted brush) we came across the dominate Silver Back. Wow again amazing. He appeared through a brush arch way and approached us. Snapping photos of a life time away were started getting nervour as he walked in front of the the front of or group.  Then just as we thought he might charge he did a barrell roll down the hill. The tracker laughed I guess he knew he wasn't going to charge he was jsut showing off. It was freaking awesome.  We hiked a bit further and got to see part of the family a mother and a baby and a couple others. The baby was so cute/ adorable. It was crazy. We again snapped 1000s of shots before the tracker said our time was up and we had to head back. They allow tourists only 1 hour with the gorillas so that we don't intrude to much into their world and actually they rotate the families they visit so the family we saw no one will seem them again for a week or so besides the trackers who I believe study them. We hiked back to where we left our packs had a round of high 5s, rejoiced and had our lunch before we hiked the 3 hours back to the base camp. This hike was mostly down hill so it was full of muddy slips and slides down. It was quite amusing. at one point I asked Mitch if he needed a hand because he started to slip but he caugt himself, jumped the small creek and proclaimed he was like a gaziell and then imediated slipped and fell on his ass in the mud. It was halarious.  A little later on his girlfriend Danny barrowed my knife to cut her pants because they were so muddy and heavy. Then Mitch asked for the knife I started to walk away but then curisity hit me so I back steped and witnessed him curing his underware out from under his pants. Haha apparently he had some serious chafage. We evenutally made it down the slipperly slope. Once we got back to base we we recieved a certifcate and bought some cool treking shirts that say "I penitated the impenitrable forest" pretty sick. 
On the walk back to the van I told everyone we should have nick names I am of course action man maydena is the dealer/ac (ass crack) tan is daddy gouch because of s story she told us on the way here. Partick is silver back Martin is darto which is appparenlty means ciggarets in Ozzie language because she is a closet smoker. Paul is Hugh (Hugh grant). Mitch is the gaziell. Danny is slip n slide as she did that on the way up n down and at one point gave up and actually sat down n slide like a slide down the mud. 
We had our 45 min drive back to camp where moslty everyone got a shower and then had a delicious beef stew with mashed potatoes. Then we all sat around the camp fire for a long time just chatting and enjoying each others company. Then nicked off to bed. 
             

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