East Africa Day 13 - Gorilla Trekking

Today was the day we went gorilla trekking. We woke up early this morning and said goodbye to the Bakiga lodge. We loved staying at this lodge. 

We took a short drive through the forest to a ranger station. At the ranger station we got signed in and had a health check. Then a local group of African dancers performed traditional dances while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. They were dancing with such joy. 

Once everyone arrived we had a briefing. They went over safety tips - what to wear, what to bring (water and food), and rules for interacting with the gorillas. They told us that we should try to stay about 10 meters away from the gorillas. If a gorilla approached us we should move backward slowly, but don’t run or the gorillas will chase you. Also we were asked not to touch the gorillas. They said if a gorilla touched us not to freak out and just move away slowly. We also needed to wear masks at all times when we were around the gorillas. This is not just to prevent us or the gorillas from getting Covid, but also to prevent the spread of other respiratory diseases. Since gorillas share so much DNA in common with humans it is easy for pathogens to be shared between our groups. 

Trekking is unpredictable. The gorillas move a lot depending on what food they want to eat, where they want to nest for the night, and their interaction with other gorillas. The way trekking works is that you keep going until you find gorillas (the odds of seeing a gorilla family is 98%). Once you find the family you spend one hour observing them. Then you trek out. You might trek all day to find the family, or you might trek 5 minutes. Trekking can be quite difficult the terrain is rough and rugged and there is no trail. You are literally walking/scrambling/climbing through the forest. Each group consists of up to 8 trekkers, a lead guide, a couple of trackers, and two people with guns. The people with guns are there for our protection and they told us they wouldn’t shoot a gorilla, but if things went really sideways they would fire a shot into the air. The trackers go out early in the morning and find the location of the family. Then when we arrive they take us to the location they have identified.

At the ranger station we are each assigned to a family that we are tracking for the day. We were in a group with a couple from Austria and two guys from Switzerland. They were great. There are 22 gorilla families in Uganda that have been habituated for tourism and research. Habituated gorillas have grown accustomed to human contact so they won’t attack or feel threatened when observed from a distance. There are also many gorillas in Uganda that are not habituated. The trackers will keep us away from those groups. Our assigned family was Bitukura group. This family is comprised of 13 gorillas. We all piled into our safari vehicles to drive a short way to start our trek. We had more people than seats so Alison and I ended up squeezed into the back of the safari vehicle with a guy with a machete and AK-47 sitting on a pillow in between us. 

Once we reached the trackers we pulled off to the side of the road and entered the forest. The family of gorillas had been moving in our direction this morning. Once we left the road we were only trekking for a few minutes before we came upon two gorillas in a tree. It was amazing!

We continued into the forest and came upon a few other members of the group. Given the density of the forest it wasn’t always possible to stay 10 meters away. There were many times we were a few feet away from the gorillas. They were incredible to observe. We watched them move and eat and play. We moved through the dense brush and at times we could only get glimpses of fur or see them as they passed by through the thick forest. There was a mother with a small baby gorilla on her chest. She kept her distance and we only had a few glimpses of her baby. We also saw the big silverback in the group. He also mostly stayed hidden in the thick foliage.

The alpha male silver-back

The face of the silver-back looking at us through the dense rainforest

There were a few members of the group that came out into the open. It was amazing to see their faces and marvel at these magnificent apes. A couple of gorillas headed toward the road so our group moved out of the forest and into the road. The two gorillas also came out into the road. They would pound on their chest and chase each other. At one point one of the gorillas passed right between two members of our group - that got their adrenaline going. Eventually these two gorillas climbed up into the treetops. It was incredible to watch them climb. For as big as they are, climbing the trees looked effortless. We moved back into the bush for our last few minutes to see the other members of the group. Then our hour was up and we left the gorilla family. This entire experience was unreal. It was everything we hoped it would be and more. This experience made our trip to Uganda totally worth it. 

After trekking we switched guides. Emma was nice, but we didn’t really click. We knew it and he knew it so we coordinated with our tour company and made a change. Our new guide is Brian. 

Brian drove us to the Topi lodge where we will overnight. The drive was mainly on dirt roads through the Bwindi Impenetrable forest and surrounding communities. The communities are located in hilly areas with people living and farming on steep hillsides. We saw abundant crops of tea, coffee, bananas, potatoes, and more. I loved this area of Uganda. It is so beautiful. 

Throughout the drive we saw many groups of children hanging out by the road. They would become really excited when they saw us and would jump up and down and wave hello. They were not in school because school has been closed in Uganda for two years due to the pandemic. Most of these kids can’t afford electricity in their homes much less zoom. The government tried getting school onto the radio,  but even then many of these kids don’t have access to radios. It is really quite sad. The pandemic is devastating to communities across the globe. 

This is an elephant trench around Queen Elizabeth National Park. It is meant to keep the elephants from damaging nearby crops, but the elephants are smart and mostly use the road to go in and out of the park. 

We arrived at our lodge and relaxed for the evening. Once again we are one of very few tourists currently staying at the lodge. I have been keeping track of how many other tourists we see in Uganda. So far we have seen 36 other tourists. We asked Brian about this and he told us it is a combination of low season and Covid driving down tourism. The staff at the lodge made us a nice dinner. The dessert were fried sweet bananas that were locally sourced. They were incredibly delicious. After dinner we called it a night. 

Pictures taken today: 1,295