Hello
We have had a busy week this week. I spent Wednesday in the lab poking around with Gorilla poo to see if there were any parasites, which was fun. Saw a few different parasites and got to wear a fancy Jacket and mask which was cool.
We had a massive thunder and lightning storm and got stuck across the road in the bike shed where another of the guests staying at CTPH had set up the bike scheme I mentioned in a previous blog.
The main event f the week though was that we finally went to see the gorillas! It was all very exciting, we had to get up early and walk up the hill to be on standby for the permits so we were not sure if we would actually get to go but in the end we were assigned to go and see the Habinyanja group, which has about 17 members.
We started off with a short drive and then a 2hr uphill trek through the mountains to the start of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. We then had about half an hour walk in the jungle before we reached the trackers and then the gorillas. As you can see form the pics we got be very close to the gorillas, you are meant to be 7 meters away but it was more like a few. We were able to watch them for about an hour and saw them all relaxing and eating and the little ones playing. We also saw the Silverback who was huge! It was such an amazing but surreal experience being so close to the gorillas who were so relaxed in our presence. Definitely one of the best wildlife experiences I have ever had and now I want to go back and see them again to take it all in properly without being so excited!!!
We are pretty tired today form our long walk as it was 1 ½ hours back so have spent the morning doing washing (exciting!) and popped to a local market.
Next week we will be doing more of the same, nutrition survey, hopefully some poo and also some fundraising stuff and then another walk in the forest next weekend but sadly no second visit to the gorillas $1,000 means it’s only something you get to do once!
Hop all is well at home
Lots of love
Helen xxx
Hi again,
So, as Helen said, it has been an interesting week. Work has been pretty much delayed due to heavy rains and meetings at the hospital but the main event was the gorilla trekking.
Started in the dark at 6am, meeting at the trekking headquarters then short drive to the North of the park and a 2 hour trek up into the forest, some beautiful views and then we stumbled upon the gorillas.
They had been feeding all morning and were taking their afternoon siesta, most of the adults were just lying around chatting while the infants were playing and climbing trees.
We got to stay with them for about an hour, sitting about 4-5 metres away, watching them eat, play and communicate amongst each other, occasionally looking over curiously but mostly just ignoring us as we jostled for view and snapped away with our cameras.
Really amazing experience to just watch them peacefully go about their day, lazing around seemingly oblivious to our presence. At one point the blackback male who was behind us walked past within a metre while grunting to the massive silverback in front of us. Felt like being in the middle of a really macho conversation, with deep booming noises passing back and forward.
The infants were very cute, one of the smallest decided to try some tree climbing and spent about 5 minutes handing from a branch while spinning around (will try to put the video on the blog).
Exhausting day but well worth the trip, will be trying a shorter trek next weekend to see the monkeys and then off the Queen Elisabeth park the following weekend.
Hope you are all well
Lots of love
Si
