This is the day I’ve been waiting for. You must have a permit to track the endangered mountain gorillas. I believe there are 4 families and each family can be seen 1 time a day for 1 hour. The gorillas move freely between Uganda, DRC, and Rwanda. The maximum group size is 8 people and their trackers, guide, and any porters they hire. The trackers keep an eye on the gorillas throughout the day and the guide is told where to go to see the families as well as carried a machine gun to protect us. The porters are local men that can be hired to carry bags and/or push/pull people through the mountains.
Due to permit availability, I would be joining a different group for the trek. A driver came and picked me up to take me to Mahinga Gorilla National Park where I would be tracking. The rest of my group got lost on the way and showed up quite late. I almost went tracking by myself which would have been quite the unique experience. They finally showed up just before we left. My group consisted of 3 Canadians who were doing a short study in Uganda for their MBAs, 3 Ugandans from the same university, and myself. One of the men was rather heavy, out of shape, and old. I was surprised they let him trek. He hired 2 porters to carry all their bags and that also ended up helping “carry” him a lot of the way. It took 4 hours for us to get to the gorillas. The path was much clearer than I was expecting. I was a little disappointed about that at first, but we did eventually hit the point where our guide had to clear a path with machete and then I was glad most of our hike was clear and easy. It was a nice hike through the mountains and I enjoyed it more than I’ve enjoyed any other hike I’ve done recently.
Our gorilla family was 9. There were 3 silverbacks (the oldest ones), 2 infants (under 3 years), and 4 blackbacks (adults). We didn’t see all of them, and our family didn’t have any juveniles in it. The gorillas were amazing to watch and we followed them around a bit during our hour as they ate and played around in the bamboo trees. The giants moved so gracefully and powerfully around their feeding area. It was interesting to watch the silverback guarding his family. One of the blackbacks didn’t move much as he just lazily sat eating bamboo shoots. The infants were much more active. They tumbled around with the blackbacks, nibbled on a little food bits, climbed up in the trees to slide back down like a pole, and looked like they were having so much fun. The hour went fast and it was well worth the 4 hour trek to get there. On the way back, we went much more steeply down the mountain. It only took about 2.5 hours to get back down. We wound our way through a village at the end where my driver picked me up to take me back to the campsite and the other group’s driver came to get them as well. I got back to the campsite just in time for a shower and dinner. What an amazing experience!
Due to permit availability, I would be joining a different group for the trek. A driver came and picked me up to take me to Mahinga Gorilla National Park where I would be tracking. The rest of my group got lost on the way and showed up quite late. I almost went tracking by myself which would have been quite the unique experience. They finally showed up just before we left. My group consisted of 3 Canadians who were doing a short study in Uganda for their MBAs, 3 Ugandans from the same university, and myself. One of the men was rather heavy, out of shape, and old. I was surprised they let him trek. He hired 2 porters to carry all their bags and that also ended up helping “carry” him a lot of the way. It took 4 hours for us to get to the gorillas. The path was much clearer than I was expecting. I was a little disappointed about that at first, but we did eventually hit the point where our guide had to clear a path with machete and then I was glad most of our hike was clear and easy. It was a nice hike through the mountains and I enjoyed it more than I’ve enjoyed any other hike I’ve done recently.
Our gorilla family was 9. There were 3 silverbacks (the oldest ones), 2 infants (under 3 years), and 4 blackbacks (adults). We didn’t see all of them, and our family didn’t have any juveniles in it. The gorillas were amazing to watch and we followed them around a bit during our hour as they ate and played around in the bamboo trees. The giants moved so gracefully and powerfully around their feeding area. It was interesting to watch the silverback guarding his family. One of the blackbacks didn’t move much as he just lazily sat eating bamboo shoots. The infants were much more active. They tumbled around with the blackbacks, nibbled on a little food bits, climbed up in the trees to slide back down like a pole, and looked like they were having so much fun. The hour went fast and it was well worth the 4 hour trek to get there. On the way back, we went much more steeply down the mountain. It only took about 2.5 hours to get back down. We wound our way through a village at the end where my driver picked me up to take me back to the campsite and the other group’s driver came to get them as well. I got back to the campsite just in time for a shower and dinner. What an amazing experience!
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