Gorillas

Gorilla Trecking

The main attraction of the western rim of East Africa is that it is the last sanctuary on this earth for the nearly extinct mountain gorilla. While there are still a larger amount of lowland gorillas in West Africa, the population of the larger, more gregarious mountain gorilla is currently somewhere around 700! All of which are living within various parts of the rainforest region of Rwanda, east DR Congo (Zaire) and the southwestern outskirts of Uganda. The best place to see mountain gorillas is apparently Rwanda's Parc Des Volcanes; however Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park became the place to see them during the 1990s due to the conflicts in both Rwanda and Congo. This reputation came to an abrupt halt in 1999 when 8 tourists were murdered while gorilla trekking in Bwindi. This episode however forced the Ugandan government to bolster security phenomenally and Bwindi is now a safe and reliable place to see the gorillas.

Ironically, gorilla trekking was not even a priority on my itinerary. I'll admit it was always in the back of my mind. However, I was quite turned off by the ludicrous price (it costs $350 just for a gorilla trekking permit) and the inconvenience of it all. The parks are way off the beaten track with little to no public transport. The main detracting factor was that getting a permit on the spot, unless booked months in advance, appeared to be out of the question. I had enquired about one in Rwanda but was told I had to wait a couple of days (which I couldn't) but then ran into a remarkable stroke of luck in Kampala. I was actually in a travel agency booking a 3 day tour to the Murchison Falls when I saw a photo advertising gorilla trekking. I just thought, "hey why not", and asked about the possibility of getting a gorilla permit for the following day. Incredibly, the Ugandan Wildlife Authority had just issued an additional two permits a day (the standard maximum is 16) for the season the day before and as it was - there was one available permit. I thought to myself about what I would savior more when I became an old man.... saving the $350, or seeing the gorillas, so I went ahead and snapped it.

Above: This was one of my better photos of the male silverback gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Getting to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was a challenge. I opted against hiring a private car for three days from the agency (at an additional cost of $400) and decided to make the journey myself. This meant catching the 4 am bus from Kampala to Kigali (where I'd just come from) and getting off at a dusty town called Kabale, just before the Rwandan border. I did this and then tried hitching my way up to Buhoma, where the Bwindi NP gate is. This turned out to be difficult as there was no public transport and private vehicles were asking three digit figures in dollars to take me to the park entrance (I guess someone told them how much a gorilla permit cost). Finally, I managed to get a motorcycle to take me to Buhoma for about $30. It was only about 100km but took about 3 and a half hours as it was a windy yet scenic road through mountains and rainforest valleys.

Bwindi NP is not a photographers' paradise, as you can probably tell from the photos I got. There is not much light in the misty dim lit rainforest, and the gorillas are moving fast up and down, through, and between trees and bushes. My camera had a difficult time distinguishing between what I wanted a close up on - the bushes or the gorillas. I got a lot of photos with excellent detail on leaves and then this big black blur in the background. I guess the lesson here is to know your camera before coming here. I had just bought my new digital camera, which had been a blessing so far on the trip, but hadn't quite mastered all it's amazing mini-features and had been unable to recharge it for a couple of days due to a lack of electric outlets.

After trekking through the forest for about an hour, we finally found our gorilla group, which contained one silverback male gorilla (the leader of the pack), a couple of female gorillas, and several other quite adorable baby gorillas. Was it worth the money and effort? Well, to be honest it didn't quite live up to the "gorillas in the mist" fantasy that I had about coming face to face with a ten foot gorilla, and I didn't quite get the photo quality that I desired. But it's not just seeing the gorillas, it was the entire experience: the scenic motorcycle ride, walking through the misty rainforest, meeting the orphans in Buhoma (see orphans page), and then of course finding and being with some of the last mountain gorillas alive which made it such a fantastic experience. A lot of my photos came out quite dark but after some extensive work with Adobe Photoshop, here are some of the better ones. If you want to find out more about Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, check out the Ugandan National Authority @ http://www.uwa.or.ug/bwindi.html

Right: A baby mountain gorilla

Below: Gorillas have long had a reputation of being dangerous and violent animals but in fact they are vegetarian and non-territorial.

Left: Catching a ride on the 7 o'clock express.

Above: This could have been a good photo but disapointingly came out distorted.

Right: The male silverback gorilla enjoys breakfast.