Tracking The Gorillas of Bwindi

About half way over the mountain

Today the ultimate journey of a lifetime begins early in the morning.  We have breakfast and pack a day bag with water and protein bars. Our banda is only about a 5 minute walk to where we meet our guides.  There are already a slew of excited trekkers waiting for directions outside of the main office of the park.  Once everyone has arrived the guides give us a briefing of what to expect on our journey, he explains there are 5 groups of gorillas in the surrounding forests and informs us that the previous day (and all week) the trakers have had success in locating all 5 groups.  Basically the way that this gorilla tracking works is the trackers set out about 1 hour before the rest of us, equiped with only 2 way radios and guns, they attempt to retrace their steps from the day before.  They head in the direction that they lost saw the gorillas and attempt to locate where they nested the night before and then determine a direction to set off in.  Once they are located, the trackers radio back and forth to our guides until we reunite with them.  But first we must sit down and watch a video about the gorillas and their protected habitat. 

Our first view of the Gorillas!!

curiosily inspecting the latest visitors

During this briefing we are told about the different groups of gorillas.  There seems to be advantages and disadvantages to seeing all of the different groups.  Nobody has a choice as to which group we will be seeing, but we feel we are very lucky because our group of trackers will be going to see the group of gorillas which has just given birth to a baby gorilla!  We are told that this group is very small in number but the fact that we get to see a 2 or 3 day old gorilla more then makes up for it.  We are also told that within the last couple of days one of the groups has lost a younger male silver back during a turf war with another group.  This is a natural process and thankfully doesn't happen all too often.   We are told that there are approximately 340 gorillas (about half of the entire planet's population) in total in this vast tract of land that spreads deep into the Congo and dips slightly into the Rwandan border. Back in 1997 when the protected area was formed there were about 300 gorillas, so they've seen a modest increase in the species since these efforts to protect them were established.

Bwindi Gorilla eating flower

The briefing finishes with the ground rules of the park.  If we have any sort of illness, we are not to participate in the tracking because the gorillas genetics are so similar to ours that we could pass on our illness/disease.  Lucky for us we're nice and healthy. The other rule is that we are to stay at least 20ft away from them at all times.  We also find out that the group we're going to see has a gorilla in it which is very comfortable with humans and often comes in close proximity to us...if he touches us we are to resist the urge to touch him back.  We are advised that this trek is not a simple task and if anyone wants to hire porters to carry their bags/equipment (there are some seriously professional photographers in our group) or to even carry THEM they can arrange for it.

I'm losing patience with you taking my bed away!! Don't mess with me!

Finally on our way!! After about 30 minutes of walking our guides receive a call from the trackers that they've located our group...they are about 2 hours ahead of us.  We just take our time and enjoy the rain forest and surrounding lush mountains.  For most of this time we are following very well used trails but as soon as we made our way to the bottom of the large hill we just climbed over, our trail becomes more and more dense and less and less clear.  Lucky for us we have two guides out front literally hacking back the brush with giant machettes! 

We ended up walking through some pretty swampy areas where there were obviously tons and tons of bugs, but for some reason the bugs are not bitting us at all.  They are more of a nuisance then a danger.  As we get closer and closer to the gorillas the forest is getting more and more dense, we are now asked to stay as quiet as possible because we don't want to startle them.  Our guides out front start making this very throaty rumbling sound with their mouths, we are told that this is how gorillas who are friendly to the group greet each other.  The gorillas can obviously hear and sense us coming so by doing the friendly greeting we are letting them know we mean them no harm.  Anticipation and excitement is building, at this point Marlene and I are near the back of the group and we are visually told to walk slowly...we can now see the people in the front pointing, smiling and taking photos...as we approach...

Absolutely STUNNING!! This is the greeter gorilla, apparently he is always the first of the gorillas in this group to be spotted and the trackers now know the rest of the group can not be very far from us. The greeter gorilla is just sitting on top of some vines happily eating leaves and flowers.  We are told that the greeter gorilla is very comfortable with humans because he is quite young and he was born after the tourists started coming, meaning he has seen humans almost every single day for his whole life.  He knows they mean no harm to him. The guides tell us that he actually enjoys the company of humans.  The rest of the group is not so happy to see us.  Not that they are afraid or aggressive towards humans but they would rather we just left them alone.

silver back hanging out in Bwindi

As we continue on we catch a glimpse of the large male silverback.  He's very hard to spot in the thick brush but I can just barely see him through my lens as he lays on the ground, on his belly, staring at his finger nails. For the greeter gorilla the guides seem to ignore the 20 ft rule, but for the silver back, nobody want to get any closer then that, nobody wants to challenge his space.  The guides push on past the silver back in search of the momma and new baby gorilla.

We push on through the brush until we finally come across the rest of the group.  We see the momma who is carefully hidding her new born, the adolescent gorilla is sitting nearby guarding the newest member of the group.  When we come across them the mother is very hidden and the adolescent has his back to us.  As we move closer he moves closer to the mother and begins to groom her.  The guides want to give us a better view so they begin pulling and slashing the branches and vines away.  Now we can see them better but the adolescent still has his back to us.

Pondering Bwindi Gorilla

While all this is going on, the silver back has put himself in a position where he can see everything that's happening.  At the moment we are directly between the silver back, the mother and the greeter gorilla. The greeter now begins to move closer to us from behind and next thing I know he's standing less then 5 ft away from us.  Most of the people in the group didn't even notice him come up from behind us because they were too intrigued with mother and baby.  The guides tell us that he is jealous and likes attention.  As Marlene turns to look at him he begins to inch closer and closer to us...until he is literally right beside Marlene.  He looks up at her and rubs up against her leg kind of like a cat.  Although I had the front row seat for this magical event, I was much too close to actually get a good picture of what had happened.  It was certainly one of those moments that none of us will ever forget.  Once he's done gazing at Marlene he comes over to me and literally pushes me out of the way to get by us all. It was unbelievable and neither of us can really describe in words how we felt about that moment.  Of all the things we'd seen and experienced on this trip so far, this had to be the most magical and thrilling thing yet!

Silver back looks on

Eventually our guides managed to get the adolescent to turn around, and got the mother to move.  Unfortunately it was after much agitation and as you can see by this next picture, they were clearly stressed in this moment.  We're not sure how everyone in our group felt about this but Marlene and I felt that the guides had gone too far in their quest to get us a closer and clearer view of the newborn. Although we both have lots of respect for what these locals are doing, we just felt that at that moment they were taking uneccessay steps to get us that money shot. The adolescent actually charged at us for about 5 meters in an attempt to tell us to get lost!  This was a very frightening moment and possibly a defining moment in our relationship. Here is what I learned:  When Marlene's life is in danger she will throw the life of her husband in harms way in an attempt to save her own!! HA!! Our guides had told us if the gorilla ever charges at us, we are to stay still, stay quiet and not look the beast in the eye.  Well Marlene did avoid eye contact but that's only because she was too busy screaming and trying to get on the other side of me. She pushed me in front of her in the process...unbelievable!! on your HONEYMOON?? HAHA!!

Mother gorilla with baby

Silverback Gorilla taking down tres

After all this, our time was up.  The park put regulations in place to ensure the gorillas are disturbed and interrupted as little as possible.  We are only allowed to view them for 1 hour.  Although is certainly didn't feel like 1 hour we were happy to comply especially after we had clearly stressed 2of the 4.  As we walked out I watched in awe as the silver back was now standing up and taking down massive trees to eat.  The animal is pure strength and power.

Silverback saying good bye

mother gorilla peaceful now

This concludes this portion of our incredible journey into Kenya and Uganda.  Thanks again to all those who made it happen and we both hope you enjoyed reading and viewing along with us. Until the next time we find ourselves over seas...hope everyone is well!