Moments with Marilyn: Africa

About 6 months ago I watched a TV show about Africa that highlighted a 'gorilla trek', since I knew we would be in the 'neighborhood' in Kenya, I decided to get information and amazingly enough it all worked out that we got to add a trip to Rwanda and Uganda to our time in Kenya!

It was something I'll never forget! I've loved gorillas for as long as I can remember and seeing them in the wild was a dream come true.

Mountain Gorillas can be found in the countries of Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda. We ruled out Congo immediately as there is a lot of civil unrest. Gorilla permits are issued by each government. In Rwanda the cost is double that of Uganda but if you fly into Uganda on a commercial flight the drive to the gorilla areas is a lot longer so our tour company suggested flying into Rwanda and then driving into Uganda for the trek. That is what we did. I highly recommend this plan.

An early morning drive up into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to the staging area started our day. There are 7 gorilla families that are habituated, meaning they are used to being watched by the tourists. They are still wild but don't mind when groups watch them. You must go with an organized group. Permit holders are only allowed one hour with the gorillas. You must wear a mask since gorillas can catch viruses from humans. We were told not to approach them; that if they approached us we should sit down and not run. We used quiet voices, avoided sudden movements and followed all the directions of our guides.

At first light, 7 groups of trackers are sent out to find where the gorillas are that day. They know approximately where each family was the day before so they go to that area and find them again. The locations of the gorilla families are relayed back to the staging area.

These are our trackers. Notice that they are carrying machetes and one has a gun. The machetes are to clear the paths a bit. The gun is to scare off elephants.

The tourists are divided into groups. Because of our age and preferences we were given the closest group. We hiked about 2 hours to the gorillas spent an hour with them and then hiked 2 hours back . Some others hiked as long as 6 or more hours in total. And at least one group only saw 2 gorillas. We were very lucky. Also the rain held off until we were driving home. After seeing that rain, I was very glad that we weren't out in it even with our rain jackets and waterproof pants. It is a rain forest and I have never seen rain quite like it before. I'd call it a torrential downpour!

Our group. We added two German couples who were delightful!

At first we hiked on an up and down trail on the right side of the river. Then we crossed the bridge and starting climbing up into the rain forest.

Sometimes it was steep and the trail covered with plants. That was a bit frightening as I never knew if I was stepping into a pile of leaves or onto a log.

Eventually we left even a semblance of a trail and headed up into the thick vegetation because our trackers had located the gorilla family. We all forgot our nervousness when we started seeing those amazing animals.

There were several youngsters playing happily. They appeared to be tickling and rolling around just like a group of toddlers. We could even hear a sort of happy growling sound that the ranger said was like a laugh.

The silverback or 'big boss gorilla' had been watching us warily. Suddenly he got up, pounded his chest a few times, which was the signal for the entire group to move on. Evidently we had made him nervous. What was so adorable was that the two young male gorillas also pounded their chests! Mimicking the big boss! Oh how I wish I had gotten that on video!

Here's the silverback walking by the youngsters encouraging them to move on. We just followed them all.

You can see just how close we were to them.

Gorillas spend a lot of their time eating!
Mountains gorillas, like these, always die in captivity. They are herbivores and eat leaves, shoots, stems, bark, roots and flowers. An adult male gorilla eats about 41 pounds of food per day. That's a lot of leaves. No wonder they spend so much time eating. The ranger told us that certain things they eat seem to be medicinal. Unlike lowland gorillas, which can live in zoos, they don't eat fruits and vegetables. The assumption is that stress and an unfamiliar diet cause their deaths when in captivity.

I just loved watching the interaction between these three. There is a mother, her 3 week old baby and a toddler from another mother who seemed fascinated by the little baby.

The slightly older gorilla seemed to want the little baby to come and play but mama seems to be saying, "No way! He's too small." She kept him pretty close to her but did allow the other young gorilla to interact with him.