Advertisement
Published: June 11th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Single handedly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It’s really expensive for the permit but the money goes directly to the national park and into conservation efforts, and the experience is priceless, irreplaceable and can’t be done anywhere else (Congo, Uganda and Rwanda are the only countries with Gorillas) so I stroooongly encourage anyone who’s in the area, who enjoys hiking, nature and wildlife and who gets the chance, to do this with no hesitation!
We drove up to Bwindi national park which was about 3 and a half hours from Mbarara. An hour of it was just going up the mountain! If it were me or any of us Muzungus driving it would have taken 5 hours to get up that mountain, but our driver Sylus was insane (safe I guess, but insane lol, he’s used to the driving here). It’s a tiny road full of rocks and holes and steep turns with the edge of the mountain on your side with no fence or anything covering it all the way up!
So we got there in the evening and the trekking was to start early in the morning. They treated us like royalty at
the lodge. We got there and it was me, Brittany (sarah did it last year) and a couple from the Netherlands and all their attention was on us four. There was a cute fire made (it’s pretty cold up the mountain), hot beverages and snacks waiting for us. They showed us to our “rooms” which were sooo cool. It’s in the middle of the tropical forest right, so it’s basically a huge sturdy tent that is really set up like a hotel room inside, two double beds, towels set up, there was even a toilet and shower inside. The shower had rock floors and hot water that was apparently heated by firewood! It was quite nice!
We had fish for supper with our new friends from the Netherlands and head to bed excited for our morning adventure.
* * *
You get a briefing at the beginning and they tell you basic rules and what to expect. We have to hike as long as it takes to find the gorillas (they stay around the sameish area but are always moving around), and once you find them you have one hour of watching them. A distance of 7
meters is to be kept at all times and if they approach you, you can’t touch them. Also no eating or drinking while we’re watching the gorillas! So it can take anywhere between 30 minutes to 8 hours of hiking in the jungle before finding them!
We were a group of 8 total for the hike and they took us to our starting point, which actually had a little path. About an hour in, our guide told us we would be going off track for the rest of the way. We got into the bushes and started our way into the jungle down the mountain. This is where long sleeves, pants, hiking boots and socks over the pants were crucial cause there’s sharp vines, steep hills, mudd, fire ants, and you will no doubt fall every couple of steps. It was quite the adventure and reminded me I need to get more in shape (although in my defense, the oxygen level was much lower up there!) but the jungle was beautiful beyond words. It felt completely surreal being in that environment, and I had to stop a couple of times just to look around, admire the beauty, take in
my surroundings, realize where I was and remember how lucky I am.
Another hour of hiking, tripping, falling, sweating, and then the guide tells us the gorillas are close! And there, in the bushes, we see our first female. She notices us right away, and stairs straight at us. She seems curious and approaches out of the bush but keeps a certain distance. We all stood still and watched her as she moved around. After a couple of minutes, she becomes a little more playful and starts to roll around. She was completely showing off for us! She got on her back, did summersaults, and even beat her chest for us! She got pretty close to me (a couple of meters) and I decided I needed a picture with her so I took my cellphone out to take a selfie. As I did this I noticed that she noticed and started to take a video instead! I don’t know if it was cause she could see herself or because my back was turned or what but she came right up to me, looked at me and pushed a branch at me and went in the bush, and I caught
it all on tape!!
We start to move a little more in and there are a few more playing around and a silverback lying inside the bushes. The males are HUGE, atleast twice the size of the females and they are called silverbacks because they have, you guessed it, a silver back. We were told that the group we were watching had a total of 4 males but we only saw two. I would say they were the ones that were the least interested in us and did not want to be bothered. Both of them stayed in the deep bushes and slept most the time!
Gorillas all have individual personalities and have been observed displaying emotions like grief. And you don’t need a scientist/ researcher to tell you that. Just watching them for an hour, and all the different ways they each chose to interact with us was evident.
The group stood and watched the gorillas socialize and play around us and I decided to sit down in front and enjoy the view of these amazing animals. One of the babies was just swinging around on trees around us and having a blast. After sitting down
for about 10-15 minutes in the same spot, that same baby came about one meter away from me and flexed his bicep!!! Don’t ask me how they know that that’s showing off their muscles but it did!!! It continued to hang out there and look at me and it’s friend, another female decided to join. I was sitting super still just watching them a couple of feet away and the female decides to come right up to me, put her hand on my knee and gives it a little scratch like “helloooo!?”. The ranger that was escorting us then shook some branches to scare them off (I’m guessing they’re really not suppose to be that close or make contact) but I was shaking of excitement and it was literally so unbelievably surreal. Annnnddd lucky for me, Brit got a picture!!!
I’m sure you already know, but they are soooo intelligent. Fun fact, Gorillas in the wild use simple tools just like us to perform tasks in the wild. For example, they’ll use sticks to test the depth of muddy water and to cross swampy areas. Also, they are capable to learn basic human sign language!
The
My new friend!
The Gorilla gently touching and scratching my leg for attention just before the ranger scared her off hour passed in a flash, and we started on climb up back to the starting point (which was even harder than getting there!). The entire hike including the hour gorilla encounter was a little over 5 hours and so so soooo worth it. It makes me really sad that there are only about 500 of these animals (our closest relatives by the way) left in the wild due mostly to the increasing destruction of their habitat. On the bright side, there are now protected areas like this one in Africa’s national parks specifically put in place to protect the Gorillas.
* * *
On our way back, we got to pass by and visit lake Bunyonyi, which is an incredibly beautiful little lake and a perfect spot to relax! Definitely a must see and something you should add to your African travel radar.
Note: Many more pictures at the bottom! (It's like that in all the blogs)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0275s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb