Gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda
Hiking to see mountain gorillas was an ambition I finally realized earlier this year. I went to Uganda and Rwanda both to check out the changes and improvement of accommodation in the country and to visit the famous gorilla parks. To keep me company I managed to persuade two good friends to come with me as guinea pigs and paying customers.
We begin the journey west of Kampala at Kibale, home to chimpanzees, black and white colobus monkeys, as well as fifty different species of butterflies. From here we headed south to Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we initially kept ourselves busy exploring smelly caves occupied by thousands of fruit bats, not for the squeamish. On an extensive afternoon game drive we saw elephants, eleven lions stalking a buffalo, and a couple of eagle owls.
From Queen Elizabeth we moved further south to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. We stayed here in a simple but comfortable tented camp perched on a hillside looking directly over the rainforest canopy. Seeing the mist creeping through the treetops and not being able to see the forest floor due to the dense vegetation made us realize that the next day’s gorilla hike shouldn’t be underestimated. We went to bed early and sober.
We were lucky. It was only about 2-3 hours before our trackers found the gorillas. It was incredible. Having witnessed so many wonderful sights throughout Africa, I wasn’t sure seeing the gorillas lived up to all my expectations. I was wrong. Nothing could have prepared me to be so close to a 440-pound male, known in gorilla parlance as a ‘silverback.’ When an inquisitive little baby came within a meter of me, I tried to move away as our guide had instructed us earlier to avoid the possibility of infection from the gorillas. I was not there
fast enough. The mother came up to me, snatched up the baby, and bared her teeth at me. I avoided eye contact and waited for the pain. Luckily it never came.
The hour with the gorillas felt like ten minutes. It was a real privilege to have seen them. Sometimes he was scared, excited, amazed. That night we went to bed late and much less sober.
The next morning we headed further south. Arriving at the rest camp at Mount Gahinga, we were told that there had been a mix-up with our permits and that we were going to cross the border into Rwanda to see the gorillas. The Virunga Mountains are divided into three by the borders of the country. The Parc des Virungas (Djomba) is in the Congo. The Parc National des Volcans is in Rwanda and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is in Uganda. A little concerned that traveling to Rwanda had not been our original plan and we had not done any research, some alarm bells began to ring. We did, however, talk to our driver John Mugabwa, plus some clients at the camp who had just returned from there about our concerns, and did some reading. We discovered that the park has been open since July 1999, after being closed during the civil war. The area was stable and the park was protected from poaching and land-hungry locals. We unanimously decided to go.
It was one of the best decisions we made. The usual gorillas in Rwanda are the same ones Diane Fosse studied and made famous in her book and her movie about her life ‘Gorillas in the Mist’. Our guide Francis has worked with the usual four gorilla families for over twenty years, and worked with Diane Fosse for most of her time in Rwanda. The trek to the gorillas here is much easier than in Bwindi, usually taking only forty minutes to an hour. The vegetation is thinner, making for much easier viewing and great photo opportunities. It was a delight when two of the babies began to roll around in front of us playing in the sunlight. Among the group, more than 180 frames of film ran in three minutes. Seeing the gorillas for the second time, in such a different place, is something I would recommend to all potential visitors.
With only 600 mountain gorillas in the world and so few visitor permits issued daily, I feel incredibly privileged and lucky to have seen them. While seeing gorillas is likely to be the highlight of any trip to Uganda, the country definitely has a lot more to offer. With snow-capped mountains and crater lakes covered in lush vegetation, it is an African country like no other.