Close Encounter with the Gentle Giants

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Well, this was a long anticipated day. I was going to see gorillas in their natural habitat, at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest NP, a Unesco World Heritage site. After breakfast at 7:00, I headed to the park entrance at 7:45 for a film on gorilla behaviour plus the UWA briefing for gorilla tracking. Basically, stay 7m away from them, no flash photography, and no eating, drinking or smoking in their vicinity.

We were told to expect anywhere between a 15 minute and 6 hour hike through tough tropical rain forest. We were to have sturdy boots, with pant legs tucked into the socks to avoid fire ant bites, and to have at least 2L of water each. We also needed to have rain gear and long sleeve shirts were strongly recommended to avoid getting all cut up on thorny bushes. As our day packs were loaded down, they also recommended that we hire porters to carry our packs, and to buy a walking stick from the local crafts men before we leave.

Yes, this place is called the Bwindi Impenetrable NP ... Impenetrable sounds pretty tough eh. We were shown pictures of the habituated group we were going to see. There were 18 members including a silverback named Mwirima, 2 blackblacks and numerous females with babies. It was called the Rushengura group. Only 8 tourists get to visit each group in a day, and we can stay for a maximum of one hour. Besides the guide, there were also 2 armed guards, supposedly there to shoot warning shots if we ran into forest elephants.

This is how the gig works. Every morning, a group of trackers start tracking each gorilla group starting from their last known location. By the time the paying customers start hiking, the trackers should have caught up to the gorillas to radio back the GPS coordinates, so we can go direct to them without meandering through the jungle for endless hours. The Rushengura group was last seen up and over a very steep hill, and as such we were likely to have at least a couple of hours hiking.

3 German speaking women in our group of 7 hired porters, as they didn't look very fit. They were smart to have done so. They had all the hiking gear, but didn't look like they were used to much hiking. We were also told that people in wheel chairs can be carried through the jungle for a charge between $300 and $400, depending on the weight of the person! They called this the 911 service. One could make use of this service if you broke a leg, or had bitten off a bit too much.

We were off by 9:00 and by 9:10 we met up with the trackers. What! No hike? Along with the 3 trackers was a gorilla doctor, and 2 young Ugandan students studying tourism. The Rushengura gorillas were pretty well at the park entrance. OK. It was wonderful to see the gorillas up close. But, I missed out on a hike.

One time the silverback charged at one of the subordinate males who'd hidden the rotten piece of wood the silverback had been eating a short while before. At that instance, the silverback was no more than 2 meters away from our group. One curious youngster came within 2m too and just stared at us for a while.

Many times the silverback or other gorillas were so close, that I couldn't take pictures with the long lens I had fitted. Good thing I had the pocket camera for those times. The long lens came in handy for shooting the gorillas up in the trees.

There was a brick and concrete water conduit built to bring water to the park HQ. The gorillas made their way to this structure and started searching for rotten boards that had been used as cement forms. They like to eat the rotten boards it seems. I asked if the boards had termites. The guide said no. He said the gorillas will eat termites and ants, but that they often prefer rotten wood to fresh leaves.

Well, there were advantages and disadvantages to the gorillas being out in the open by the water conduit. There was good light, and not much vegatation to obstruct the view. But, it didn't look like a very natural setting, with all the brick construction right behind them! Anyway ... we did stay the full one hour with them, and the hike back was via a tea plantation by the park entrance. The hike back was maybe 10 minutes.

The group that came out included the 7 paying tourists, guide, 2 armed rangers, gorilla doctor, 2 tourism students, and 3 trackers. So much for a small group eh.

I also have to learn to use my new camera. Many shots have the foreground leaves in perfect focus while the gorilla's body is a blur. Seems the auto focus prefers the sharp edges of leaves and not the mass of indistinguishable hair on a gorilla body. But, I could not tell that this was the case when looking through the view finder.

To make up for the lack of a hike, in the afternoon, I went on a hike to a series of waterfalls. The hike took two and a half hours with a lot of vertical parts. That made it a perfect day. The hiking guide was very knowledgeable, and pointed out a red tailed monkey, duiker tracks on the foot path, butterfly species, and identified many trees and plants, explaining their uses by both animals and humans.

Though this was a regularly available hike, I was the only one on this hike. Well myself, and the guide and two armed rangers - "just in case they have to fire warning shots if we encounter a forest elephant". Yes, in the past, foreigners have been kidnapped in these areas and taken to the Congo. So, that's the real reason for the armed rangers. But, I like the cover story. After all, firecrackers would be a lot more suitable for scaring elephants than an AK47 shot. Why else would the second ranger stay well behind of the group? I suspect it's so he can radio for help before showing himself and his weapon.

When I got back, I got confirmation that the trip to Murchison Falls is on. There's enough people to make a group. More good news.

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