Mountain Gorillas in Uganda

To go see the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda requires driving around to the east side of Lake Victoria, a remote area. Along the way we crossed the equator again and this time I stopped and did the tourist thing and had my picture taken with me standing with a foot on each side of the equator. Once we left the paved road we still had a long drive to the end of the dirt road.  Here we met our guide, who was in contact via two way radio with the trackers. Who were already out tracking them from where they had been seen the day before. Although there isn’t a guaranty that you will see the gorillas on any given day, they do find them over 95% of the time. After a briefing we set out to find them. Sometimes they find them nearby, (20 minute walk) sometimes it takes all day. Once the group makes contact with the gorillas you have one hour with them. This is done so the gorillas only have to deal with the group for one hour a day (only one group a day is allow to go into see each group of animals). We were going in to find a group of five bachelors which included some Silverbacks (mature males) and some Black backs (immature). He warned us that one of the Black backs was playful and liked to charge at the tourist and try to punch them. He said it was very rare for him to get past himself and the trackers.

We started in on a trail in the direction of where they were yesterday. The hike in was a steep trail running up and down, but it was an enjoyable hike because the scenery was beautiful and our pace was slow (one person in the group was quite slow). After a little while the trackers called that they had found them and they were moving away from us. We set off through the jungle, no more trail now. I was enjoying the scramble up and down through the cloud forest. The irony is that the slower people were complaining about how hard it was and how long it was taking to get there, were making it longer because the slower they went the farther we had to go.

At last we caught up with them; I was in the presence of Mountain Gorillas! The first time I see a truly magnificent animal like this in the wild, is always a breath taking experience for me. After we watched the first one for a few minutes we moved a little farther and found the two young ones. They were being playful and putting on a show. Chasing each other and rolling about and having fun.

Suddenly the bigger of the two charged at the woman who was crouched down next to me. From the angle he came from the guides could not intervene.  The guide had told us not to run if one of them charged us, but she did. Instead of pursuing her he turned towards me and I held my ground, at the last moment I lifted my arm and shoulder to protect my face. As he ran by he punched me in the side, with a good solid hit! I had just been punched by a Mountain Gorilla!!!! It was awesome! It was hard enough hit that it stung but fortunately not hard enough to break a rib. How perfect, I’m the one crazy enough to love being punched, and I’m the one he punched, what could be better. The woman who he had first come after was glad she had run and so was I. Normally I get a high out of touching live wild animals that I have caught on one of my wildlife jobs, this time I got a high by the animal touching me!

We then moved over to watch the two Silverbacks. They stayed in the bushes more and were harder to see but what can you say about being in the presence of Silverbacks, very impressive. They are a very strong animal (as I now had firsthand experience), but they are normally very peaceful, my experience was with a teenager and not a usual one.  We hiked out; our total time was under four hours. To me this was perfect amount of time, you don’t want such a unique experience to be over to quickly and the walk in the jungle was beautiful. This was truly a wonderful and one of a kind experience.