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Published: February 29th 2012
Our transfer fromTanzaniatoUgandawas one that I was a little bit worried about, because we planned to take an overnight bus fromArusha,TanzaniatoKampala,Uganda, passing throughNairobi. This meant two border crossings, into countries that we didn’t yet have visas for (KenyaandUganda), in the middle of the night! I had heard horror stories of people being left behind by their bus (luggage still on board) as it takes longer to get tourist visas than for the Africans to simply have their papers stamped. Unfortunately we did see a French girl to whom this had happened, but we had no problems at all. An employee of the bus company, Kampala Coach, even told us that he’d watch for us on theKenyaside of the border.
For those of you who haven’t travelled outside North America orEurope, it seems that in most other countries you have to go through both countries’ immigration. You have to exit one country and get an exit stamp in your passport, then enter the next. You also have to do it on foot, and the bus will meet you on the other side. We had become accustomed to this inSouth Americaso we were prepared, but it was a little confusing. During
the walk from one Immigration office to the next, you are also accosted by people selling food, souvenirs (called “curios” after the English way) and currency, as well as people begging, so it can be a little daunting. We made it toKampalaonly slightly sleep-deprived and Chuck managed to find a Barclay’s bank machine to get some Ugandan shillings and negotiate a taxi toEntebbewith no problem. I was also slightly nervous at this stage as it left me at the bus station alone to watch all of our luggage, but again it turned out I had no reason to worry.
When planning our itinerary fromCanadawe had initially planned to spend two days inKampalabefore being picked up for our Gorilla tracking safari. However, when we stayed at the guesthouse inJohannesburgbefore flying toMaputo,Mozambique, it turned out that the guesthouse owner had a friend who ran a guesthouse inEntebbe. We were also a bit turned off the idea of spending time in a big city after being disappointed byMaputo, so we decided thatEntebbe, a small town on the shores ofLake Victoria, was just the place.
We spend the majority of the day we arrived doing laundry, catching up on sleep
after the bus ride, and generally relaxing and enjoying the good food and atmosphere of the guesthouse, called Gately Entebbe. The next day we walked down the road to a place called theUgandanWildlifeEducationCenter, which was a very nice little zoo. The habitats were quite well done and we saw our first Ugandan Kob. We watched the zookeepers feed the white rhinos and the servals and saw a couple of chimps from afar. The zoo maintained that all of their animals were confiscated from smugglers or poachers and they had a strong conservation message, viewing Ugandan wildlife as a valuable natural resource for the country as it brings in tourists.
Another incident which is worthwhile relaying because it again helped to dispel one of paranoias, was what happened when I urged Chuck to take a photo of a military statue in one of the town squares. A police officer dressed in blue camouflage (we later found out that these were the anti-terrorist police) came over and told us that we weren’t allowed to take photos of military statues. We both emphasized how ignorant we were and Chuck showed the officer that he was deleting the photo on his camera
(another advantage of digital; we would have probably had to give him our whole roll if it had been film). By then there were about five officers gathered around, asking us where we were from and where we were going. I pretty much assumed that they were going to ask us for a bribe not to confiscate Chuck’s camera, but they eventually let us go on our way after we apologized profusely and said we wouldn’t do it again! This in fact surprised me more than if they had asked for a bribe! It was a pleasant surprise to discover that I had been so prejudiced.
Finally, it was time to go track some mountain gorillas! We were picked up by our safari company at 7am and it was about an 8-hour drive to Buhoma village, on the edge ofBwindiImpenetrableForest. We didn’t get out ofKampalafor another couple of hours due to problems with the credit card system, but eventually we were on our way! The tour operator had calledUganda“the greenest country inAfrica” and this wasn’t an exaggeration! We drove through rolling green hills dotted with banana and tea plantations and passed herds of the ridiculous looking Ankole cattle.
Their horns are so big that they look like a calf playing dress-up in adult cow horns! It was after dark before we were finally settled in our small safari tent at the Buhoma Community Bandas.
The next morning we were briefed at the park entrance station. The basic rules were that you weren’t to get closer than 7m to the gorillas, which I had assumed was for safety reasons but in fact was so that we couldn’t transmit any diseases to them. We were extremely impressed with the briefing process and the professionalism of the Uganda Wildlife Authority. They told us that if we were feeling a cold or flu coming on we would not be allowed to track the gorillas and we would be refunded most of our $500 permit fee. If we tried to hide the fact that we were sick and the guides or rangers noticed us coughing or blowing our nose, we would be escorted back and would receive no refund. We would also spend only one hour with the gorilla family, and once the guide said time to go we had to follow, regardless of how good the photo opportunities were!
We had decided to spend two days tracking the gorillas, which was expensive but we figured once-in-a-lifetime. On the first day, we tracked the Habinyanja or “H” family. Well we didn’t actually do the tracking. There were rangers that would go out early in the morning and, based on the GPS reading from the family’s location the previous day, would find them. They they would radio our guide and we would make our way to them. It was an hour’s drive to the access point for the “H” family and we had been warned that it could take up to 6 hours to find the gorillas.
The first part of our hike took us through a small village between steeply-terraced tea and banana plantations. Every village we passed in our entire time around theBwindiImpenetrableForesthad little wooden gorillas for sale, and we learned that the villagers were conservationists too. It was hard not to buy one from every cute kid that we passed! Some kids even had gorilla drawings that they had done. I would be broke now if it weren’t for Chuck’s restraint.
Finally we entered the forest and we knew we were getting close
when we started bushwhacking. It was very steep and we learned why we had been encouraged to hire a porter who would not only carry our pack, but would push and pull us over and under the vines and thick layers of slippery fern stalks. We hadn’t hired a porter but several other people in our group had, and there was a helpful girl who would occasionally give my butt a shove if it looked like I was about to go tumbling away into the undergrowth. And then, there they were!
The hour spent watching the “H” family seemed to fly by. They were resting, eating, wrestling and grooming each other in a hollow surrounded by dense foliage. When we first approached, the silverback, named Makara, charged at the guide, roaring and crashing through the foliage. This made us realize that we found the gorillas, especially the hugely-muscled, powerful silverback, way more intimidating than the Great White sharks. Maybe it’s because the sharks don’t seem to be really aware of the humans, but the gorillas were definitely aware of us.
The rangers, unperturbed by the silverback’s reaction, cut away some of the foliage with their machetes
so we could get a good view. There were 17 adults and a couple of new babies who toddled around and tried to climb the trees, their mothers scooping them up and rolling away with them if they got too far out of reach. Our guide had told us that one of the most common causes of death among the babies was falling and breaking their necks, so I would watch nervously until the baby made it safely to the ground.
The 7m rule seemed to go out the window, mainly because the gorillas wouldn’t adhere to it! There were two juveniles wrestling and all of a sudden they came to a stop right in front of Chuck. One of them stared right at him and then came forward and tugged on his leg! Chuck thinks the gorilla was inviting him to play. Our guide told us all to back up slowly. The same gorilla eventually circled around and then ran forward and slapped Chuck on the leg on the way by! I was definitely a bit jealous, but I probably would have shrieked and jumped, which is exactly what you are not supposed to do.
Our morning tracking the “H” family was an absolutely amazing experience and we were extremely glad that we’d planned to track again the next day. We arrived back in Buhoma at around 2pm and we were scheduled to go on a community walk that afternoon. We were definitely apprehensive about this after our disappointing experience with the Masai inTanzania, but it turned out to be a great afternoon. Our guide was a member of the Bantu tribe who could explain all of the customs. We saw brickmaking, coffee bean preparation and banana winemaking and we toured the local tea plantation, school and church. We visited a group of Pygmies who put on a song and dance show just for us and didn’t even ask for any money at the end of it. Our guide told us that they were just grateful to show us a bit of their culture. Who knows if that’s true, but it was definitely more of a genuine experience than the Masai with their backhoe and cellphones asking for tips every way we turned. I would definitely recommend the Buhoma community walk to anyone planning a gorilla tracking trip in that area.
The next
morning we tracked the Rushegura or “R” family, who were actually only about half an hour away from camp. I believe that this is the same family that was filmed in the recent YouTube video of the grey-haired guy getting groomed by a gorilla. At first it seemed like it wasn’t going to be nearly as intimate a visit as with the “H” family, since all of the gorillas seemed to be eating fruit up in the trees when we arrived. Eventually the silverback, named Mwirima, came down from his tree. He was apparently the biggest silverback out of all the habituated families, and he was absolutely huge. He sat watching us for a little while and then stood up and beat his chest! That sure got the heart rate up and there was no question about obeying the 7m rule at that! He swung himself back up into a tree and reminded me of King Kong. It was nothing for him to pull the whole trunk of a neighbouring fig tree (these trees have branches big enough to support a sleeping lion, to give an idea of their strength) over to his tree so that he could reach the
figs.
After that, everyone stayed in their tree for quite awhile and we felt badly for the people in our group for whom this would be their only day tracking. Then, Chuck got touched by another gorilla! I couldn’t believe it! We of course have no pictures because we were just staring, shocked. Two small gorillas, about the size of 6-year olds, slid down the trunks of their trees like fire poles and were wrestling in the ferns. Suddenly one of them stopped, looked up at Chuck, and slowly walked over to him and laid a hand on Chuck’s boot! It was all I could do not to reach out a hand to the little gorilla. Our guide told us to back up and at that point Chuck got a great photo of the little gorilla looking over his shoulder with his back to us, as if he was insulted that Chuck didn’t respond to the touch. We left the “R” family at the end of our hour feeling amazed and humbled by these animals that seem so human.
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Carol
non-member comment
love the gorillas
Great write-up and excellent pictures. Glad you updated the blog