Time foe the main event! Today we are going to visit the Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.
We had breakfast at five in the morning with a plan of beeing on the road by 5.30. In the end it was almost 6 o’clock before we got going. Not to bad.
It is a two hours drive from our current stay to the park it self, and a lot of that time is spent on bad back roads, getting “the African massage”
At the park entrance we got a general briefing and was divided into groups based on how much trekking one wanted to do. In general the groups are spilt into easy, normal and hard treks. However the Gorillas do what they feel like and you never really know.
Each groupe was then introduced to the guides and to the family that we were to visit. For our group we went to meet the Bweza group.
We started walking from the base camp at around 8.40, going back into the nearby village and then down toward the jungle. Even before we came to the forest edge our guides got a notification from the trackers that the group was just outside the village.
By 9.15 I had my first photo of the big male silverback. We were extremely lucky just having to do a little bushing.
When you locate the family you are allowed ro spend an hour around the animals. And this hour was the shortest ever. The Gorillas did not seem to mind us at all, and sitting down in the bush within two meters of the greate male just watching was amazing.
At on point he got up, walked within a meter of the closest of us before changing directions for some new bushes.
This beeing a family we also had younger gorillas wrestling, the family clown standing on his head in the bushes and a sister caring for one of their very young.
All in all an amazing hour and something we’ll worth doing.
Back at the gate we had a debrief and the our guide took us to Rushaga Gorilla Lodge where Jonas was waiting. This was the place that was the first camp site that was used for the Mountain Gorillas by Rosabussarna, however the roads in there are not very suited for bringing the bus. Later trips have the done what we did today.
We had lunch at the lodge before starting the two hours drive back. We had a brief stop in Kabale and I tried to get a data sim card for the rest of the trip. Most campsites have WiFi connection, however the badwith is horrybly low. And like with a lot of other countries in Africa the mobile networks are all 4g with good connections. However I had no luck getting one this time since I needed my passport. I’ll probably try again when we leave here in a few days.
Back at camp the other groups were already back having had longer hikes, but driven right back. A lott of good stories and pictures to look at.
I spent the rest of the afternoon getting a nice hot shower, the first of this trip, and getting some clothes handed in for washing. This will be the last place were heavy trekking gear is required so a good time to get it cleaned of and ready to be packed away.
In the evening I joined Jonas, Angelica and Thomas and we went to Birdnest @ Bunyonyi Resort where they have a great restaurant. A very good end to a very good day.
We still have two days left by Lake Bunyonyi and I think those will be used to do as much of nothing as possible. We have had quite a few eventful days already and it will be great just to relax.
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