Sunday, April 1 (Day 16): The Gorillas!

Another 6:45 AM wake up by Stanley, and we assessed our aches and pains before deciding whether or not to go "gorilla searching" today. A couple of ibuprofen tablets the night before had me feeling pretty good, and Carol decided she was game if the hike wasn't all vertical. So we dressed in the same grungy clothes we had worn yesterday (they were only going to get wetter and smellier!) and had another wonderful breakfast of French Toast Bwindi.

This installment will include a few more pictures than the last one. Probably that's because on this day we didn't have to expend 100% of our energy in climbing and descending, and we generally had our hands free to hold the camera, instead of clinging to the vines, bushes and tree trunks!

Denis drove us to the park entrance for our briefing. He had hoped to be included in the gorilla viewing experience, but that would only happen if there were some no-shows and no standby people willing to pay for the permit. Linda and Carolyn decided they would try it one more day as well, but Michelle and Les had gotten enough the day before, so they opted to stay in the camp. Unfortunately for Denis, there were others waiting for the opportunity, so he stayed behind as well.

We made it clear to the guides that if we were making the trek it had to be along the route taken by the "fit" group the day before, but NO SHORTCUTS! This was agreed upon, and our group consisted of Linda, Carol, Carolyn and myself, along with Robie and another man whose name I don't remember.

Carol, our guide, Linda, Michelle, Jim and Carolyn at the briefing. Are there "Gorillas in the Mist" back there?

Once the groups were assigned their respective guides, trackers and armed guards, we were asked if we wanted to hire any porters. Here's how that worked: each day a group of local people available to be hired gathered at the park entrance and waited. There seemed to be a system of "rotating" the porter jobs among the hopefuls, so nobody was able to work two days in a row. Once we indicated to our guide that we each wanted one porter, he simply waved at the waiting group and indicated how many. They came forward eagerly and introduced themselves. My backpack was taken by a young man named Wilberforce. I had to consciously avoid smiling when he told me his name. Carol's porter was named Sullivan, but he pronounced it "SOOL – ee – von."

We set out in bright sunshine along the same road way we had started on the previous day, complete with guide, trackers, porters and guards with their AK47s. We soon passed the point where we had turned off yesterday to start our long climb, and continued along the road. After a mile or two the road was blocked by a large fallen tree trunk. Beyond it there was no longer a road, but a well-beaten path still on relatively level ground. Our guide told us this was a frequently used path between remote villages. It definitely looked well-traveled.

There was still a mountain rising above us on our right and a steep valley falling away to our left. The going was easy, however, especially compared with yesterday! There was no hacking through the jungle with machetes and no slipping and sliding on steep slopes. The ground underfoot was soft, and in some spots quite soupy and muddy, but fairly level. Walking was actually a pleasure.

At one point there were monkeys of some kind in the tree tops off to our left. We could hear them and see the branches moving, but were never able to identify them. This area was supposed to be home to several kinds of monkeys including chimps. That would have been a neat sighting!

Finally the trail began to slope down hill, but not too steeply. We were still able to stroll along without grabbing hold of things to keep our balance, but there were some places where we had to go down slowly to avoid falling. We began to hear running water ahead and below. Eventually, nearly two hours after leaving the park entrance, we came to our first river.

About 40 feet wide, it was probably not more than a foot deep in most places, moving along fairly rapidly over and around rocks that formed its bottom. With the guide and porters helping, we tiptoed across on the rocks, picking out some that were just barely below the surface but that looked stable, and some that were high and dry. Most of us kept our shoes dry, but a few slid off a rock into water up past their ankles. The picture of Linda below will give you an idea.

It's shallow now, but… Note the porter's rubber boots. Also note the jungle.

We had a bit of a climb on the other side of the river, then more walking on the path through the jungle. The growth was luxuriant, as a tropical rain forest tends to be, with some giant tree ferns that were really spectacular. The picture below was taken ten minutes after crossing the rocky river. Without a person or other reference it's hard to get a feel for the size of the plants.

HUGE tree ferns in the valley below us.

 
"I can do this with my eyes closed!" Linda had no trouble, either.

Once safely across I saw Linda starting out, and grabbed the camera to capture HER falling into the river! Of course, it didn't happen.

Linda was just about beat at this point. She wasn't sure she could keep going, but knew that they couldn't just leave here there by the trail and plan to pick her up on the way back. So, moving slowly, she continued. Her problem wasn't just fatigue – she was feeling some nausea and stomach discomfort as well.

We climbed a gentle slope and were surprised to see banana trees growing on our left. Our guide told us that technically we had left the national park when we crossed the last river! Soon we saw a house, then another. We began to wonder if the gorillas could possibly be close to a village! We kept on. It was getting cloudy now – no direct sun.

At 12:20, nearly 3 1/2 hours after leaving the park entrance, I estimated that we had covered roughly 5-6 miles, at an average walking speed of close to 2 miles per hour. At this point our guide told us the gorillas were just ahead and about 100 yards down a steep slope. We could see a lot of motion in the brush and vines, but no animals. The guide asked if we could smell them, and we could! It was a pungent odor that I wouldn't have recognized as being gorillas (or any other animal, for that matter). We started down the slope carefully, trying not to make too much noise. As we got fairly close, the porters were told to stay back, and just the guide and tourists went forward. The vines and bushes were thick again here, as you'll see from the pictures. It had also become quite dark as thick clouds had now covered the sky and rumblings of thunder could be heard in the distance, but that fact didn't really register in the excitement of approaching these magnificent animals.

We continued down in single file until the guide stopped and motioned us forward (past him), indicating that the gorillas were very close. Suddenly I saw one! Only about 20 feet away through the leaves and vines. I was at the front of the single file line (no holding back for me!), and Carol passed the camera up to me. We had loaded the 800 speed film in the camera, so I started pointing and shooting whenever I caught a glimpse of a gorilla. They were to our left and right, and straight ahead, but mostly all we could see was moving foliage! Frustrating! As you'll see from the pictures below, it was very difficult to get an entire animal in the frame. As we scanned these pictures into the computer, we labeled one of them, "Gorilla ear." Another one is "Gorilla nose." There are maybe two decent pictures, total!

 
"Gorilla ear." At right, "Other gorilla ear"

 
Yes, there IS a gorilla in there! This was "Gorilla eye and hand." At right: two heads together.

I wasn't worried about picture quality, because I knew we would have an hour of viewing and surely I would get some good shots at some point. Through the leaves on the right I caught a glimpse of a big, dark shape with the characteristic white hairs of a "silverback" male, but I could not see any detail and didn't even try to take a picture of him. We moved slightly forward, and I realized that I was probably within less than the minimum 15 feet of one juvenile gorilla!

 
Two views of the same gorilla eating something. One of the few fairly clear shots I took.

Three gorillas in this picture, but you can really get an idea of the thick jungle!

Just at this point, a loud clap of thunder boomed directly overhead, and the first drops of rain began to fall. Trying to keep the lens clear, I snapped one more attempt at a picture before grabbing a plastic bag and putting the camera inside. It was the 14^th picture I took since first seeing the gorillas. Carolyn and Linda had been trying to take video, but they now shut down their filming as well. The rain began to come down harder and settled into a steady, moderate shower. Oh well, we're in a rain forest after all. What did we expect?

Carol and I each had a collapsible umbrella in our backpacks, so we retrieved those from the porters and waited out the shower. I was already nearly soaked, but it was warm, so I wasn't in any distress. At least the camera and my wallet were safe and dry inside ziplock plastic bags.

The gorillas didn't particularly seem to mind the rain, but they sort of hunkered down in the bushes and vines and were still. Not to mention, almost invisible. It had become even darker, and after about 10 minutes of steady rain, the really hard rain began. The "moderate shower" soon turned into what Texans call a "frog chokin' gully-washer!" It just poured! Within a minute of the heavy rain starting, in spite of the little umbrella that I was trying to share with Carolyn, I was totally soaked from head to foot. I wouldn't have been any wetter if I had just jumped into the river. So I moved away from Carolyn a few feet and told her to keep herself covered up if she could. She seemed concerned, but I told her I couldn't possibly get any wetter, and I would get dry again eventually, so no big deal. And, we stood there.

And we stood there.

Literally 15 minutes went by of this VERY heavy rain. Finally our guide told us, "I hate to do this, but this rain is not going to let up soon, and those rivers we crossed will flood. If we want to get out of here, we need to start back now!"

GREAT! From the time I snapped the first shot until the last attempt as the rain started was just under 15 minutes. So much for our "one hour" of viewing! But, nobody wanted to contemplate being stuck in the jungle overnight behind a flooded river! So, we started back up the steep hillside to regain the trail.

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Getting back to camp.