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Published: December 1st 2011
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Day 9 - Day 8 of tour
This is the big day! Ridiculously early start at 4:30am for gorilla tracking.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a 2.5 hour drive from Lake Bunyonyi and much of it is on a very rough road. Bwindi is also an extremely mountainous park, has about 50% of the world's gorilla population and can be very rainy. 😞
Gorilla tracking is something of a misnomer. They used to bring tourists along to track, and this would mean going to the previous day's nesting site, following their trail such as looking for traces their movement, however, they would find that the tourists would be exhausted before the gorillas were found. Now, the trackers do all the work to find the gorillas, radio the location to the guide, and the guide leads the tourists to the gorillas. A hike can be up to 8 hours depending on the gorillas' location.
There a whole list of rules to protect the gorillas: don't spit, can't visit while sick (share 97% of DNA), can't eat, don't point, don't move suddenly, wear muted colours, one hour max visit and group of 8 people max.
The other 16 visited
yesterday, so we were lucky to have a group of 6 people.
After initial instructions from our guide, our entourage of six plus guide plus two armed guards started our trek around 9am.
We walked along a road and then turned right onto a trail. We walked 45 minutes down a steep, soft trail and then suddenly encountered the trackers and what appeared to be a large black rock with a silver/white spot on it.
Well...of course it wasn't a rock, unless rocks have somehow grown a thick layer of fur.
It was a first encounter with a gorilla and it was a silverback. We put down our poles and packs and it was explained that we must not surround the gorilla to ensure that it does not feel threatened, and that we must follow the guide's every instruction.
We approached it and it looked at us. After we took a few pictures, the silverback walked away. The guide instructed us to follow it. Of course, a mountain gorilla can go much faster than a human on this terrain. It was a steep slope with bushes (similar to blackberry bushes), thorns and vines. We stepped on the bushes but on some spots your foot would get tangled in the vines or sink into a hole.
We then encountered an infant (approx 4 years old) and his mother. In the distance there was a gorilla in the tree. The mother was disturbed by us and the baby was curious about us so the mother picked up the baby, put it on her back, and moved further downhill.
We followed them, and then encountered another silverback gorilla. Apparently the mother wanted some protection from us and without realizing it, we walked not more than 7 feet from the dominant male!
The guys in our group were in the front, and the silverback stood up (it was huge...up to 400 lbs of muscle), made a growling noise at us, and took a step towards the guys. All the men immediately looked down and did not make eye contact to look submissive. The guide made soothing sounds and the gorilla backed down. We were all holding our breath, and did not think of taking any pictures!
There were some fantastic photo opportunities of the silverback, and the baby. The silverback seemed to be interested in us, and was making eye contact. However, it wasn't long before it got tired / bored / annoyed with us/ decided we weren't a threat and turned his back on us. The baby gorilla would hang on a tree branch, and play around. It was also very curious about us and would peek at us through the trees. He very much reminded me of a human toddler!
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