let me just start off by saying good luck to the rest of my life, on living up to this day.
my ultimate bucket list item, and one of my main reasons for coming to Rwanda, has been checked off – I WENT GORILLA TRACKING!!!!
there are only mountain gorillas (the big black ones) living in 3 places in the world: Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo. and i was fortunate enough to see them and spend time with them in their natural habitat. i feel so so lucky and happy. the only downfall is i honestly don’t know what can top this!!
i got a gorilla tracking permit from the Ugandan Wildlife Authority, and my hotel manager at the Bwindi Backpackers Lodge (decent budget option but FAR from luxury) picked it up for me. the reason i chose Uganda is because during rainy season the permits are $450 USD ($600 in peak season) compared to Rwanda’s recent price hike of $1,500. the Congo’s permits are $200 but that may be just a bit TOO wild for me, and it worked out that we were in Uganda for the triathlon weekend. also my East African Tourist Visa gets me into Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. you can also go through a tour guide which will include transportation and accom but also a booking fee. best to book the permit yourself if possible, and then your accommodation should hook you up with transportation because it’s a 2 hour bumpy ride to the forest!!
my trek was in the Nkuringo area of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (impenetrable – how badass is that). there are 2 gorilla families that live there (one with 9, one with 12) along with other wildlife like monkeys, bush pigs, deer etc. no elephants, i checked.
the briefing began at 7:30 and the trek at 8:45ish. i was SO NERVOUS/excited due to our guide giving us instructions to walk backwards and not make eye contact if the silverback charges at you. like that’s a thing. okay. there can be 8 people per group and it was me, 5 old Germans (literally one lady was 76, props to her) and a really nice couple from Greece.
the trek is basically vertical down a mountain and then up again. we went through the cutest sparse little villages amongst banana trees, tea plants, and other crops, with the cutest little kids peeking out at us from behind their houses. it was beyond beautiful. and crazy to me that there are gorillas in their backyard.
it took us about 1.5-2 hrs to get down. there were trackers ahead of us locating our gorilla family and directing us via walkie talkies; our UWA guide Florence; and 2 officers with AK47s guiding the group and bringing up the rear. on the off chance a gorilla were to show aggression to us, they would shoot to the sky as a warning to scare the gorillas. everyone was smiley and nice and i felt 100% safe.
our guides were literally clearing a path for us through the thick jungle with their machetes. my advice is to defs wear high hiking boots – you will be trudging through the bush. and make sure they’re got grip, because did i mention VERTICAL?! you need a walking stick too but they will give you one. without my stick i would have just slid down the hill on my butt.
it was so exciting when we were getting close. we saw a path of flattened bush which had been recently paved by the gorillas. i heard a crack in the branches and saw a black blob flash by. SO CRAZY. we stashed our bags and walked over to them, staying in a big group.
THE GORILLAS ARE SO CUTE AND MAJESTIC AND FASCINATING. i could watch them forever. they just wander around on all fours, plop down and pick some leaves (very selectively, i might add), climb trees, sometimes fall down because a branch breaks and they maybe underestimate their own weight. eat some more leaves. a baby was smiling rolling around with its mom. a few of them were posing for us. we were with the family of 12, which had 2 silverbacks (the dominant one and his #2) and a blackback male, who would become silver around age 12. fun fact: gorillas can live up to age 40!
the craziest part was HOW CLOSE WE WERE!! we would watch them from like 3 metres away, but some of them would walk past us and we would be within a few feet. they didn’t mind us at all, would mostly just chill and sometimes would stare at us. meanwhile us strange humans are just clicking and beeping away on our cameras.
their movements and features are so humanlike. their ears are human shaped. their hands and feet are just leathery black versions of ours. they would use their hands to dig through the bush for their perfect leafy branch, reach their arms around to scratch their back. i saw one pick its nose with its finger. it was so insane to be right there in their home, it was like an out-of-body experience. especially knowing if they wanted to, the silverbacks could casually crush me with their pinkie finger.
we spent an hour with them and then took the vertical trek back up the mountain. that one took about 3 hours because we stopped for lunch, and the Germans liked their rests. but it was an insanely hard hike so i’ll give them that!! on the way up we could hear the children coming home from school and singing from across the mountain. the kids we had walked past would yell “HOW ARE YOU! I AM FINE! GOODBYE” as we kept climbing. it was a total pinch-me moment.
if anyone is reading this i can’t recommend it enough – top 3 experiences of my life. or at least pick the craziest bucket list item for yourself, and then go do it. it’s a pretty cool feeling. 12/10 on the happy scale 🙂
peace play passion 