gorillas…

23rd November 2016

It wasn’t exactly ‘gorillas in the mist’, more like gorillas in the rain!

The 7am thirty minute boda ride (motorbike ride) was filled with anticipation and excitement. I had had a very bad sleep but was wide awake and ready for the adventure.

After our compulsory briefing (which was prolonged by a group of Russians which needed to have everything translated – tut 🙄), we got allocated into groups. There are five habituated gorilla groups from the Rushaga gate where we entered the Bwindi Inpenetrable Forest. We were just four people in our group and the gorillas we were trying to find are called Nsongi and there are eight gorillas in that group including one silverback and one baby.

I decided to get a porter even though I did not have a heavy bag, but is good to support the community and in the end, I was so pleased that there was someone there to push and pull me on the slippery slopes in the forest! Benson was my porter’s name.

We set off and walked into the forest for about an hour and a half. At this point it was still dry and we were all enjoying the hike, the views and the company – the other people in the group were a German couple in their 70s (they were so brave and tough throughout!) and a young Dutch girl.

As soon as we got close to the trackers who had set out earlier in the morning to find the gorillas, it started raining – is not a rainforest for nothing I guess! And that was also the time we had to come off the trail and into the ‘Inpenetrable’. The guides had to use machetes to clear a path for us…it was getting more and more slippery and wet but then… a mother gorilla with a baby and another female gorilla…right there in front of us, about 2m away.

The guide was telling us that the silverback was not with them which meant that they would move soon as well… And they did shortly after so we followed them. Which wasn’t that hard at first, just had to follow the sounds of the loud and rather prolonged farts that gorillas are able to ‘produce’. 😀

The mother gorilla wasn’t that pleased to be followed however and got a bit aggressive – so we kept a bit more distance…plus the rain was getting heavier and heavier so we had to slow down anyway.

…and then we heard it, the sound of the silverback drumming his chest! Wow – what an amazing moment. You see it in the documentaries amd films but hearing it live is quite special.

He was however really on the move, apparently chasing another group of gorillas to fight their silverback (not sure how the guides knew this, but I believed them!) so we only managed to catch a few glimpses of his massive, silver-haired back. But we kept hearing him show off with his chest beating.

At this time the rain was so immense that the only thing we could do was to stand still and try to keep our cameras dry – and I think it was actually the only thing I was either wearing or carrying that stayed dry. My phone got soaked, the packed lunch was damper than it should have been and my hiking boots had puddles in them.

The rain settled after an hour and a half and we made one last attempt to see the gorillas again – and we found a couple of the females hanging out in a large tree..

And that was it for us. Sadly we did not have a chance to just sit with the gorillas and see them play etc as we know so many others have experienced, but hey – if it was easy, it wouldn’t be special. And it’s a great excuse for me to come back and try again 🙂