Try "penetrating" this, without a machete!
Saturday, March 31 (Day 15): The Gorillas! (Well...)
The name of the attendant assigned to our tent at Bwindi was Stanley. At 6:45 AM Stanley came by to wake us, but we had been lying awake listening to the roosters crowing in the nearby village for the preceding half hour or so. We dressed for the gorilla hike in long pants and long sleeves as we had been advised in our briefings, took our gloves in our backpacks and went to the dining area for breakfast.
Another typical English breakfast at 7:15. Except this time we were offered as one choice a dish called French Toast Bwindi. It was indeed French toast, but had cheese and onion in the center of the bread! Since we were trying as much of the local foods as we could, we had to sample this one. Believe it or not, it was delicious!
The tent camp was located within a fairly short distance (about two miles) of the entrance to the National Park, so we left after 8:00 AM and arrived at the park at 8:30 for our final briefing. Some explanation will be needed before we take off in search of the gorillas.
This area was called the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Heavy emphasis on the word "Impenetrable!" More on that in a minute. At this park there were two active gorilla families, and only six permits were issued each day for visits to each family, so a total of twelve tourists each day could go on the treks. I say "treks" because the gorilla families lived in different parts of the park, so one group of six tourists would go one way, and another group of six would go the other way. It could take up to 5 hours just to find and reach the gorillas, or they might be just 30 minutes or so from the park entrance. You never knew from day to day, since the gorillas roam freely and can cover a good bit of ground. In either case we would be limited to a maximum of one hour of viewing time after we found them.
We were told that if one gorilla family was relatively close to the starting point but the other family was far away, the tourists would be split into groups based on their apparent ability to "go the distance." In other words, the young and fit people would go to the far-away family, while the old and unfit group would head towards the closer family. Les and Linda and Carol and I were clearly the oldest and least fit of the 12 people, so we were paired with John and Irene, two friends (probably in their late thirties or early forties) who worked together, and sent off to find the closer family of gorillas. This sounded OK to us! Carolyn, Michelle, Jim and some others went in a different direction seeking the "far away" family. Depending on each group’s experiences, on the following day we might switch, or not. We would just have to wait and see. We were already anxious to compare notes at the end of the day.
We had read that long pants and long sleeves were essential because of the briars and nettles we would encounter. Also gloves were highly recommended for hand protection. We were well prepared and had all those things. We also knew that this was a rain forest and we would likely encounter some rain, so we had plastic bags to protect our camera, my wallet, and any items we wanted to keep dry. The last detail we had to arrange was hiring porters to carry our box lunches and backpacks (heavy with camera supplies, jackets, bottles of drinking water, and so on). Local young men and women were available for $2-$3 per day to carry all of our "stuff," so Carol and I each hired one porter and gave them our backpacks. Les joked that he might hire two so they could carry HIM if necessary, but he and Linda each hired one. As we set out, we were quite a group with the six of us tourists, five or six porters, one guide, 3 "trackers" to actually find the gorillas once we got close, and two uniformed men with AK47 automatic rifles for protection from bandits or rebels or...??!! The guide was talkative, and the porters would talk to us, but the men with the rifles didn’t say much. They did look around quite a bit, though.
We left the park entrance at about 9:00 AM and started off along a 2-tire-track "road" that was fairly level. It led us off into the Impenetrable Forest, with a steep mountainside rising on our right and a valley falling away on our left. After maybe a quarter of a mile, or a half mile at most, the guide turned to our right off the road, jumped over a small ditch, and headed off into the thick jungle directly up the side of the mountain.
I don’t want to over-play this, but you’ve got to get a picture of what was happening. The guide and trackers were now in the lead, hacking and slashing their way through this "impenetrable" jungle with machetes as they climbed the mountainside. I guess the machetes made it "penetrable," otherwise it would not have been.
Try "penetrating" this, without a machete!
We followed, with our porters and armed guards behind. This was a steep hillside we were going up, grabbing on to vines and bushes and tree trunks and pulling ourselves up. Each step forward required a step UP of a foot or two. The ground underfoot was soft and muddy, usually covered with leaves and vegetation. That means it was slippery! Within five minutes I was breathing hard and sweating just as hard! The first thing to go was the gloves (TOTALLY unnecessary!) Then my hat came off and went into the backpack; after all, there wasn’t any direct sunlight penetrating the canopy of impenetrable forest jungle overhead. Shortly after that, my long-sleeved shirt joined my hat in the backpack. That shirt was already sodden from sweat. I was now down to a tee shirt on top, and wishing I had short pants on the bottom!
Looking up, you COULD see the sky, but the foliage was thick.
The elevation at the base of our climb was around 7,000 feet, so the temperature was in the 70s slowly warming into the 80s. But the humidity was very high. We kept climbing. Every 20 minutes or so the guide would pause for a breather. Carol, ahead of me, was flushed and most of her shirt was dark from sweat. When we paused, I could hear my pulse thumping in my ears. At one point my porter came close so I could get some water from my backpack. He was breathing normally and not the least bit damp. In fact, some of them were wearing jackets! He pointed at my arm, which was beaded with perspiration, and smiled, slightly amused at our discomfort.
We climbed for nearly an hour with occasional breaks, finally reaching the top of a ridge. I was hoping we would walk along the ridge for a while on relatively level ground. Not a chance! Our guide kept going straight down the other side. Now you would think that going downhill would be easier, and in a way I guess it was. But remember, the ground was slippery and the slope was steep. We had to pick our way down carefully, holding on to trees and vines and roots for balance. I didn’t mention it earlier, but we had each picked up a walking stick at the park entrance on the advice of our guide. These were a great help in maintaining our balance and footing as we slipped and slid down the mountain. Often I would simply lean forward almost falling until I could brace a hand on a tree trunk below me, then let my feet walk and slide down until I was vertical again. It might not have been as physically exerting as going UP, but it kept us breathing hard.
Several times I told Les that my hat was really off to him! Les is not fat, but he is, after all, 68 years old! During this climb and descent series he slipped and went down several times, but he would always pull himself up and keep going. He reminded us several times that we had actually paid money (and not an insignificant amount!) for the privilege of doing this to ourselves.
Eventually we reached a small trickling stream at the bottom of the hill we were descending. We hopped over it and started climbing again. We had been going for well over an hour and a half, and had no idea how much farther we were expected to go. In fact, at this point Carol turned around to me, dripping wet and face flushed, and said, "I don’t know if I can keep going!" After a brief break, we headed on up the mountain.
After a full two and a half hours (!!) of this punishment, we reached the top of the second ridge where the ground was actually fairly level for as far as we could see to our left and right (probably 30-40 yards through the jungle), but sloped sharply down ahead of us and back the way we had just come. Our guide stopped and complimented us for making it that far. We had reached, he told us, the general area where the gorilla family had been yesterday. It was now the job of the trackers to fan out and locate the gorillas today. They would do this by following tracks and other evidence the gorillas typically leave behind when they travel overnight. Usually they don’t go very far, so we were told to rest and have our lunch if we wanted and they would let us know when they had found the gorillas.
Now this was funny: We tourists were drenched with our own perspiration and huffing and puffing from the exertion. We all headed toward a fallen log or other place to sit deep in the shade where we could maybe cool off. The porters shrugged off the backpacks, looked amused when we immediately wanted to drink a lot of water, went off by themselves to a small patch of sunlight so they could stay or get warm, and sat there. Some of them actually put on jackets – they were COLD! I guess it’s all a matter of what you’re used to!
After we had caught our breath we decided to break open the box lunches and
try to regain some energy. We were already dreading the hike back to the park
entrance. Carol and Linda were both talking about skipping the trek tomorrow,
if today had in fact been the EASY hike! We ate lunch beside the base of a huge
tree whose trunk flared out from about six feet above the ground down to where
the roots would begin, forming flutes or wooden panels about six inches thick.
You can get an idea from the following picture we took of a similar tree during
a breather on the way up.
Carol and Les with long sleeves and gloves. Carol's shirt shows her condition,
while Les's knees show some contact with the ground.
During lunch we learned to our shock and amazement that John and Irene had been with the people who had been killed in Northern Uganda three days before! They (John and Irene) along with some others, were in one vehicle leaving a national park. The rest of their party was in a different vehicle following them out. After John and Irene’s vehicle had left the park, they stopped to wait for the other vehicle. When it didn’t appear after a long wait, they became concerned. Someone was sent back to find it, had no luck, and contacted the authorities, who later found the dead bodies of the other members of the party who had all been shot!! At this point it was still pure speculation as to what had happened. One guess was that the killers were simply bandits who stopped the vehicle to rob the people in it, then were spooked when somebody panicked and tried to run and started shooting. John and Irene were well aware that but for God’s grace and the fact that theirs was the lead vehicle, they could have been the ones killed. We began to mentally question the wisdom of this gorilla jaunt! But at this point we were here, we couldn’t leave, and the chances of anything happening to us were pretty slim, so we tried to just put it out of our minds.
After an hour or so of waiting, our guide informed us that the trackers were having some difficulty picking up the trail of the gorillas, but he was sure they would find them soon.
Waiting for Godot (or whatever you call gorillas). A good indication of the
jungle surrounding us.
Our wildlife shots. For this we scaled the jungle mountains?
We now had enough energy to walk around a bit in the immediate vicinity of where we had eaten lunch. The porters were still sitting and talking in the sun. Their lunch had consisted of bananas. They had brought along a black plastic bag with bananas in it . That was all: bananas. Our box lunches contained (as usual) more food than we could eat, so we offered the porters and soldiers what we didn't want. They seemed grateful. Our lunches had included one banana in each box, which we did eat - they were probably the best-tasting bananas we had ever had! Maybe it was because they had been picked from the tree a very short time before. In any case, we all commented about how good they were! We wondered aloud how the other "fit" group was doing with their gorilla family, and kept looking at our watches.
Finally our guide called us all together to tell us that the trackers had found no trace of the gorillas and had no idea where they had gone. He speculated that a fight may have broken out among the animals. When that happens the family will sometimes take off at high speed and go for quite a distance leaving no droppings or tracks behind. This makes it very hard to locate them. He was very sorry, but it was now time to start back to the park entrance. We had been at this "lunch spot" for over three hours; it was now 3:00 PM!
Well, there really was no choice, so our porters shouldered the backpacks (somewhat lighter now with less food and water than before), and we headed back the way we had come. This time, the first long segment was downhill, not up. As I said earlier, this was somewhat easier, but still exerting. Les slid down a couple more times, and all of us were struggling to keep our footing. Although we had had a long rest, our muscles were still tired from the morning’s efforts.
Down we went until we reached the small trickling stream, then came a long, hard climb. Just when we began to think we would never get to the top of the next ridge, there it was! One more hour of going down the mountainside, then back along the level road for maybe a third of a mile and we’d be back. At about 5:00 PM, it started to rain! As if the ground hadn’t been slick already, this made the last part especially fun! We slipped and stumbled down through the jungle, following the "trail" that had been hacked out for us that morning. Finally we got to the road, and experienced the luxury of walking on a level surface for 10 or 15 minutes in the drizzle before we saw the welcome sight of Denis waiting in the Land Cruiser to take us back to camp! I remember thinking that after all the extra calories I had taken in during the first two weeks of our trip, the workout I had gone through today would probably take care of burning off most of them!
We were all physically exhausted. Carol was sure that there was absolutely no way she would go out again tomorrow and try that again, especially if they expected us to go to the "far away" gorilla family! She proclaimed that she had seen the gorilla’s environment up close and personal, and she didn’t care if she missed seeing the actual gorillas. I was still holding out some hope of feeling better after a good night’s sleep, so I didn’t say much. I kept thinking that we had come all this way and spent all this money, and if I could possibly do it I wanted to see the gorillas.
We learned that the other group had not yet returned, so we went back to camp to begin to clean up. Our clothing was at least damp and dirty, some of it quite wet. We peeled off the dank garments and luxuriated in an all-too-brief warm shower. Word then reached us that the other group had run into some trouble. Michelle had experienced an asthma attack and needed help getting out of the jungle. The local solution was to send someone after her with a bicycle! That was the closest thing to an ambulance they had! Plus it was the only wheeled vehicle that could possibly negotiate some of the terrain they had to cross to get her out.
Others in the "fit" group arrived, looking as exhausted as we had felt. They all loudly exclaimed that although they had found the gorilla family after a 3-hour hike and had excellent viewing, their guide had tried to take a shortcut to get back and had finally reached a part of the mountain where it was too steeply downhill for them to continue, especially after the rain started falling. They were given no choice but to climb back up the part they had already descended. Carolyn (the lady who runs seven miles 3-4 times each week) said she almost cried, that she was actually fearful of slipping and having a bad fall, and that it was the hardest physical thing she had ever done in her life.
By the time Michelle finally got back to the camp, it was almost dark. When everyone had a chance to clean up a bit, supper was served. As we all sat around the table, we began to compare notes. What we learned caused us disbelief!
Apparently the "fit" group was sent off to find a gorilla family that was farther away (three hours of walking instead of 2 ½ like us), but almost all of their hike was on nearly level terrain! They had crossed two rivers; one by stepping on stones above or barely below the surface, the other by walking across logs that formed a footbridge. When they got to the gorillas, they weren’t even tired! OK, the shortcut had been a bad idea, and forced them to attempt a long steep descent (probably to one of the rivers, then back up the other side) which they then had to reverse and climb back out of before walking out for three hours. But they spent a total of maybe three hours on steep terrain – we had spent 5 hours! From their description of the steep shortcut, it really wasn’t any worse than the mountainside we had been climbing and descending all day! And we were supposed to be the "old, non-fit" group! We began to feel much better about ourselves, and decided that tomorrow we might attempt the trek to this "far-away" group if we had the chance. All of us, that is, except for Les and Michelle. They had had all they cared to handle, and Les had seen the mountain gorillas ten years before, while Michelle had good viewing today! Again, I remain very impressed that Les managed that climb and descent on those steep slopes through the wet, slippery jungle. I just hope that when I’m 68 I’ll be able to do that!
We all agreed at dinner that a better system of keeping track of the gorillas needed to be worked out so no one else would go through an experience like ours and have no sighting.
Needless to say, we collapsed into bed and slept like the dead until our wake-up call the next morning.
NEXT: Installment 16. GORILLAS!
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