Gorillas!!!

If a gorilla farts in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? I'm guessing yes, judging by the loudness of the gorilla farts I was privvy to this weekend when I trekked the mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The family group I visited is called Rushegura, and has 16 members, including one silverback (the Alpha male). There are four groups habituated to visitors, and the visits are restricted to one hour per day in the company of the gorillas, and only 8 visitors per group. So, when I arrived in Uganda only 2 1/2 weeks ago, I was ecstatic to get my hands on a permit to see these animals, only found in Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC. Our trek involved about 45 minutes on a forest trail, and then about an hour cutting through thick brush and rainforest with machetes. When we finally happened across the first gorilla, he was only a few meters away, and seemed just as curious about us as we were about him. Soon enough, we saw the giant silverback, who enjoyed showing us mostly his backside. Occasionally the gorillas get can agitated by visitors, but our group was quite relaxed. At times it seemed that they were annoyed by the cameras, turning away as if they were camera shy. Another reached out teasingly towards the tracker who was cutting away some foliage to give us a better view. Amazing, to be only meters away, watching them munch on leaves, or the smaller ones climbing the trees, and most of all it was very cool seeing their very expressive faces. Words cannot really describe, so hopefully a few pics will suffice!






Getting there, however, was a nightmare and a half. It started when the bus driver in Kampala promised us when we arrived at 6 am that the bus was leaving at 7:30 am, regardless of whether or not it was full. This was not the case, and 5 hours later we finally left... Only to break down 2 km out of Kampala. They sent another bus, and somehow seats were rearranged such that my travel companions and I were seated next to the ten boxes of live baby chicks. About halfway through this neverending journey (which only took us to Kabale, 3-4 hours still from the park), we hit a bump and a box of about 40 chicks fell on my friend Hannah's head, scattering on her and the floor of the bus. Finally, we arrived late into Kabale and found a place to stay for the night. The next day the representative from the Ugandan Wildlife Authority told us we were "lucky" because a truck was leaving that day to Buhoma, where we needed to be for gorilla trekking. For "only" the equivalent of about $20 per person. Little did we know this pick up truck was also jam-packed like a bus full of livestock with Ugandans getting a ride for free. By the time this was all revealed, it was unlikely we would have organized alternative transport before the truck which was definite transport was leaving. The driver ended up kicking off the freeloaders for us, but then saying he HAD to allow only two students to join us. This turned into 6 additional people, one of whom smelled terribly as she must have peed herself. We tried to argue down the price after this cramped, bumpy, uncomfortable, bug-eating jouney, and the truck driver went a bit mental. So we paid that a**hole and went on our way. The next day I was not quite over my transit woes, and as my friends I got permits with in Jinja were trekking gorillas the day before me, decided to go on a forest walk. The same little liar from the UWA office in Kabale had told me that since I had a permit for the day after, I could get a discounted park entry fee the day before and do a guided hike. Well, basically the person at the gate and the rangers I spoke to when looking for the forest supervisor laughed at me for trying to argue that their representative promised me this, and that their policy of only allowing the discounted park entry fee the day AFTER a gorilla trek was stupid and nonesensical. After three days of BS I totally lost it, and ended up crying to my hostel manager, who then made the actual forest supervisor apologize to me, but it was too late. I was ready to go on my gorilla trek and never return to Bwindi National Park again! The gorillas were awesome and worth it, but if I ever return, I'm going to try Rwanda...



My luck did change, however, for the ride back, when a couple of the guys in my trekking group were kind enough to give me a ride, in the nicest vehicle I've seen in four months, all the way back to Kampala. Glorious. The journey still took forever and involved some dodgy single lane muddy and possibly dangerous forest roads, but such a relief to travel in luxury. Plus, we did the big tourist stop at the Equator on the way back and I got the obligatory hemisphere-straddle photo: