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This was the highly anticipated day that we finally got to see wild mountain gorillas. Our permits were all approved and 8 of us would be off before dawn for our 10am trek through Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
However, being rainy season, we soon realised what a problem landslides on the steep mountain roads would be. Upon our first landslide, we eagerly jumped out of van into the chilly mountain air, assuming that we could somehow move all of the mud out of the way. However the volume of thick gluggy mud, as well as sheer cliff to the side of our very narrow dirt road made us sadly hop back into our car and plan a detour. As we ventured further into the misty mountains and the sun rose, we came across an even larger landslide, and no other alternative path to get us to the gorillas. Our solution was to pay the local farmers to shovel the mud away for us, which took almost 2hours to complete. Us scared tourists decided that we would walk on through, and then hop into our van once it had safely made it to the other side. Thinking the worst was behind us, we got word that there about 8 more landslides ahead of us blocking our path to the gorillas! At that stage a ute arrived for us, saying that it could get us on through, with all of us jumping into the back and clinging on for dear life. It was very nerve-wracking as the ute stumbled through the mud, being jolted mere millimetres from the sheer-drop cliffs. We passed by a local school where every single child came running at full speed towards us, cheering and waving with great big smiles. Finally, after being bogged in the mud, half our group on the verge of tears with fear, and several hours late, we arrived at our trek starting point.
We were initially going to venture deep into the forest to find one of the larger gorilla groups with babies, however our late arrival meant that we were instead going to visit a smaller, yet closer group. I (Ella), not being much of an athlete at the best of times, was struggling with the high altitude and not handling the trek well. We were told that our trek would take about 1.5hrs… although infamously some gorilla treks take up to 8hours! It was our lucky day, and within 20m of setting out, we came across our very first gorilla.
At this point we ventured off the walking track, and up into the thorny, ant-y, steep slopes of the park to witness the gorilla group. There were 7 in total, including one silverback and one alpha female. Unfortunately there were no babies in this group, who are typically the more curious ones and like to come on over and slap tourists on the legs before running away and giggling.
Michael got a long thorny stick stuck up his jeans, which kept on rising higher and higher until he had to excuse himself and take his pants off to get it out. Us humans looked away, but the alpha female looked on with interest (and apparently lust). Later on, as she walked on over to the silverback, she passed in front of me (my knee was 2cm from her), but strode on over to Michael and used her back leg to give him a playful… and maybe flirty bum slap! Michael was ecstatic, and the only person in the group to have been touched by the gorillas.
We got to watch them eating leaves, relaxing on the ground, climbing up trees, and even the cranky silverback started throwing some sticks at our group!
Our hour with them was up, and despite being very stung by ants and insects, having prickles all over us, being rained on and Michael having stacked it in the mud (all to protect my camera), it was an amazing experience to have been so close to such an impressive and endangered creature.
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