Saturday 19th April 2008I am currently writing this with my nose as I am numb from the neck down...The alarm was set for five so after a quick cuppa it was off to the jungle to track gorillas.It would have to be the most fatiguing walk ive ever done .The trackers led the way with maqshettes and it was onward and upward you couldn’t even use a walking stick.The real excruciating journey was the trail home they decided to take us home via the mountain.. the short cut... which involved a steeper than 45 degree assent through dense virgin jungle. Ok Now the story. Sitting only metres away from a great chunky silver back was nothing short of wonderful. We actually had to all move out of the way at one stage as the gorilla eyed off some juicy plants right behind us. They were amazingly docile and seemed quite unperturbed at our presence. It was a great photo shoot. Only 8 people can go in at a time and you can sit with them for 1 hour. It is unthinkable that their body parts could be used as ash trays and coffee tables. What is even more amazing than the existence of poachers is that there is even a market. Tonight is sure to be the best sleep I’ll have had in a long time.. love to you all kaz.. and Karen for my mum and DIL for munkas....
Ps. Just to let you know we went home a different way to Pete and my way was a lot harder.....
Friday 18th April 2008After a 1½ hour drive in the dodgiest van on the dodgiest roads we got to the Bwindi National Park, in the SW corner of Uganda, right near the border of Rwanda & the DRC. We met our guides Caleb & Silver and headed off to find the gorillas. They send trackers ahead to their last known location and track them from there so we were guaranteed of a close encounter. We arrived at the spot where the gorillas were feeding after 1½ hours of trekking through pretty tough terrain, down into a valley and got very excited at the first gorilla we saw. It was about 25 metres away up a steep mountain, but that was completely overshadowed when 2 minutes later we were face to face with a beautiful male gorilla sitting amongst some bushes eating leaves. I was literally only 3 metres from him and he was totally at ease with our presence to the point where the guides were hacking away at the branches next to his head so that we could get a better view. The reason they are so calm is that this family of gorillas is one of 4 that have been “habituated”. There are 32 families in these mountains, this one has 18 members, most have about 10, and when the Wildlife Authority decide to habituate one (mainly because they aren’t too deep into the jungle for us westerners to trek to), the highly trained trackers start visiting them and getting them used to human contact. They make gorilla sounds, pretend they’re eating gorilla food and basically just sit around them for months until they are convinced the gorillas are cool with people. They say the gorillas know that our presence is connected with their protection (the $500 it costs to get a permit pays for rangers who guard against poachers and also pays the local farmers so they don’t harm the gorillas when their crops are raided by the big guys from time to time). Anyhoo, we scrambled around the steep mountainous bush through prickly bracken and slippery undergrowth for the next 1½ hours coming within 2 metres of the silverback and others, our only no-no being the use of flash photography. We all spoke in hushed tones but I’m sure that was unnecessary. I think if you did sneak up quietly on one they would be startled and break you in half so it’s better to let your presence be known. It just felt bizarre that we were stumbling through the bush straight towards one of them with the poise and subtlety of Inspector Cleuseau, then we’d all gather around him, quite literally 2 metres away (I’m not exaggerating) and stare at him, and it didn’t bother him one bit. When he’d had enough of that particular plant to eat or when he’d had enough of us, he just got up and walked away and we’d scramble off to the next rustling tree to stare at another one. A truly surreal experience which, incidentally, the trek back was too. All up hill, hard work, but worth it! Pete.
Over to Elijah to tell you about the pigmy village they visited.Today we went to the pigmy village and we saw a really happy and energetic guy who was 86 years old dancing around, jumping and taking us to his village. They believe if they tell their real age they will get in trouble by their gods so the guide said he might be even older. They took us into their huts and it was really squishy and small. They also danced for us which was really good and funny. When they took us to our car they asked if we could dance around with them before we left so we did. I really enjoyed it. Elijah
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