Tracking the Mountain Gorillas

We woke early in the morning to a beautiful sunrise and a very clear sky.  We took off by 7:30am with our guide Johns and our 'protector' Ben (i.e. the one with the rifle).


We walked for most of the morning through farmland on the border of Mgahinga National Park – a small natinoal park that is continuous with parks in the Congo and Rwanda. It was so beautiful. Hands down the most gorgeous part of Uganda that I’ve seen.

After about 3 hours Johns told us that we were getting close to the family. I got nervous. Really – like butterflies in my stomach kind of nervous. We then met up with another guide, who had tracked the troop earlier in the morning and had since been giving us directions. We kept walking. We passed two huge piles of gorilla poo. I got really, really nervous. We met up with a third guide, and at this point Johns told us to get our cameras ready. My stomach settled immidiately.

We walked through the dense bush, and 5 metres in front of us was a giant, black, beautiful female mountain gorilla munching on leaves with her baby doing the same beside her. It seemed surreal.

We spent the next hour with this family. There are 9 gorillas in total, including two silverbacks. We saw only 4 – and the silverback was a surprise. We were sitting and watching one of the females climb up a tree that appeared far too small to bear her weight, when a huge shriek came from behind us. It was the silverback, and it scared the shit out of me! Turns out that one of the guides was standing between him and the rest of his troop. We moved – quickly. The silverback then lay down to rest and we got about 10 metres away, watching him roll slightly, grunt occasionally – all in all it was kind of slow. Then he hopped up. Again, scaring the shit out of me. He gave a grunt, which the guards understood to mean ‘get outta the way.’ So, we got out of the way and he lumbered past us, not more than 5 feet away. (unfortunately no pics of this - the clearest view we had of him - but I do have a video that I'll try to upload once I'm on a fast internet connection again).

We spent the next hour watching them sit and eat and play and roll and grunt and scratch and climb trees. It was incredible. Oddly enough, the most memorable and striking things were the noises. The sound of the mama’s giant hand scratching her behind which sounded shockingly like wood on really coarse sandpaper. Being close enough to hear her grind the leaves between her teeth. Listening the the silverback's sighs as he slept in the sun.

People we met beforehand told us it would be lifechanging. I don’t think I would say that – but it was defniitely an epic experience.