This was one of those early mornings you don’t mind getting up. We had a quick breakfast and loaded into three trucks to head out. My car had a great driver, Moses, who enjoyed some loud music filled with mixes from home. The roads were a bumpy mess he called an African massage. We drove for two hours and enjoyed the beautiful scenery outside once the sun finally came up.
Moses taught us a lot about schools in Uganda. It was fascinating as a teacher to listen to the differences. Their kids start much younger as parents want them to begin learning English early. Some students will start their trek to school as early as 4:00am for preparatory classes! We watched as many children were out in the dark making their way to school which could be well over a kilometer away on their own. And I’m talking tiny little kids! I am always so impressed with other countries views on languages. Moses could speak over five and was still learning more!
The entry to the gorilla trek was filled with people! This I was not expecting as I didn’t think that many tours could go at once. At least 80 people were sitting around awaiting their tour. Our passports were checked and we were excited to watch a choir sing and dance.
A guide taught us a bit about the gorillas. In their forest they have 50 families. Out of these, half of them have been trained to have people around them. Each family has a silverback leader and then a mix of younger males as well as females and babies. The guide takes a group of eight people max and are escorted by two security members as well. Turns out the security is more for the elephants than the gorillas! The jungle elephants can charge and guards use the guns to scare them away by shooting in the air.
Our small group was led by a female guide, Goreth. We had an all girls group! Minus one of our security guys and the porters. She shared a picture of the family we would be visiting and we took off on the trek to find them. The paths were well maintained and any area needing help was whacked with her machete. Along the way we found elephant footprints and paths, but no animals. At one point we had to stop because the trackers looking for our family said the elephants were in the area. This turned out to be a great stop for learning more.
Uganda has a phenomenal program to protect the gorillas and forests. People train in multiple areas before they can become a ranger, including medical and weaponry. Goreth has been a ranger for 13 years and was very excited to teach us more. We learned that while gorillas are not hunted in Uganda any longer, they have not made it out of their endangered status. Some factors for this are low numbers of female gorillas being born, and many gorilla babies do not make it to adulthood, some die of sickness, some from falling out of trees, some from lack of milk from their mothers who have to breastfeed for three and a half years. Some gorillas get caught in traps that are meant for the mountain antelope. Rangers do frequent checks to minimize the traps in the area. They are working to continue increasing the population.
We trudged on through the gorgeous forest until the trackers said they were ready. During the time we had with the gorillas we had to wear face masks to keep them safe from our germs. With our systems being so similar this was a nice added protection. At this point you leave the trail and make your way into the vines and abundant leaves. I turned and right in front of me was a female gorilla! She just sat munching on leaves and couldn’t care less that I was there. The trackers would grab each of us and move us to different spots to get a good view. The family moved through the trees ignoring us and eating non stop. The silverback was the largest one out of all of the families in the forest. He had a very impressive stance and grunted his way to tasty treats. He really enjoyed showing us his silverback and his butt. We had to work a bit harder to see his face.
The cutest was of course the baby! He was having fun rolling around and being ridiculously adorable. We got one hour with the gorillas which flew by quickly. I never felt unsafe and couldn’t believe how close we could get. Periodically the trackers would grunt or pound their chests to show we belonged. We all sat down to watch them for a few remaining minutes and just sat in awe.
Our hike back was short but incredibly muddy. We all got to our end point a bit dirty but fully fulfilled with our trek. We each earned a certificate with a picture of our silverback proudly displayed. What a day and unbelievable experience in Uganda!!!
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