Day 48 Gorillas!

Sunday January 30^th. Up at 4:30 for a 5:30 start. We drove along dirt roads in the dark that got progressively narrower and rougher as they hug the mountains. We drove for two hours and the sun came up just before we got there.

When we we arrived at our entrance to the Bwinda Impenetrable National Park at Rushaga, the first thing I saw was a bivouwacing nest of red ants. They act similarly to army ants. Then we were met by Meddie, our guide. He took some time to record our info by hand in a ledger, matching our passes to our passports. After that he gave us a briefing about the gorillas and the rules we have to follow. He introduced the other members of the team,one who was carrying a rifle, and our porters who carried our bags. He explained that there were trackers out in the forest looking for them. Then we were off.

We walked up and over hills and through farms. We passed fields of corn, potato, sweet potato, coffee, and other crops. The plots are all fairly small and go all the way to the top of the mountains and are farmed by hand. This whole area is highly populated by subsistence farmers. This is the major pressure on the gorilla's habitat. There are only about 700 wild mountain gorillas left, and they are divided into two parks, one in Uganda and the other one covers three countries: Uganda, Rawanda and the Congo.

After an hour or so, the guides and porters were obviously trying to figure out how to get us across the small river and into the forest. They found a marshy area and guided us over the river. Then we climbed up a steep hill, slipping and sliding on mud and plants. The vegetation is very dense and had to walk through. Meddie told us we were about to meet the gorillas!

We move slowly forward and sure enough, there was one up in a tree a couple grazing on the plants. We spent about an hour and a quarter, watching, viewing and photographing the Nshongi family of gorillas. We watched them eat, play and interact. We watched as one young one 'stole' a backpack that one of the guides left on the ground. Another one came up and sniffed one of our shoes, and a third 'stole' a walkie talkie. The gorilla was very surprised and confused when the walkie talkie squawked. It was fascinating watching them. Several times we were surprised when there was a loud crash and either one had broke a branch or one had fallen out of the tree.

We stayed there for an hour and a half and then had to hike back. Half way back we sat and ate our picnic lunches. The two hour ride back was more interesting in the light. Beautiful scenery and a couple of lakes.

Back at camp I went for a swim with Andrew and jumped off the high diving board. It was about 20-25 feet and you had to climb up a tree to get to the platform. Swam for a bit and then relaxed. Had dinner and talked to the guys before bed.