Mzungu in the Mist

This blog is a little cheerier than the last, although I'm writting it very tired and frustrated that there is no water at the campsite and possibly the entire town...TIA....TIA!!!

Let me cut to the chase, about 3 hours ago, I was standing about 2 meters away from a silverback gorilla!  He was massive!  He was accompanied by 2 teenagers (boy was 4 years old and girl was 2 years old) who were playing.  We then saw the rest of his family, including an 8 month old baby!

Had this been at the zoo, I wouldn't be so tired.  Instead, this was at the Volcanoes National Park and there was a intense hike to get there.  We treked 300 meters uphill (reaching 2800 meters) through mud and dense jungle forrest, including the infomous stinging nettles.  It doesn't hurt too much to walk past them (they still prick you) but not nearly as bad as falling on them...but the pain is gone fairly quickly.  I'm happy that i bought some winter gloves at a market because I'm sure that I accidently grabbed a few plants.  Luckily, we were given walking sticks to use.  I can't imagine how I would have made it up without them.  I was also very lucky that we had a trekker, with a machete, who would cut the plants in front of us and who would occassionally grab my hand and pull me up places that my little legs wouldn't reach.  He will be forever known as "the man in blue".  There was a period of 100 meters, when we had to leave out walking sticks behind. I still don't know how I managed to survive walking on what felt like canopies of leaves surrouded by stinging nettel.  There were only few places to hold on for balance.




It took about 45 min to reach the gorillas. I don't think I could have made it up any further, but I feel like I earned my visit!  We then had an hour to watch them and take photos....before trekking back down, the same way we went up.

The gorillas were amazing!  The silverback was ginormous and he was only 26 years old. He's got another 20 years to keep growing. (They get their silver back at 12 years old, I wish grey hair had the same sign of dominance in humans!)   The teenagers were play flighting.  They were banging their chests, running around and rolling on top of each other all over the place.  The boy came up and grabbed Hazel's pant leg.  She was about to run away, but then remembered that he would probably chase her and it could also upset the silverback...and you don't want to mess with something that big!  When we had about 5 min left with them, the silverback turned around.  We followed then and there was more of his family!  (or at least part of it)  There were tiny babies and more teenagers.  They were all just sitting there and were happy to let us take photos.  We were not supposed to be with 7 meters of the gorillas, but I think we were much closer! 

They are AMAZING creatures and much easier to photograph than the chimps!  i'm exhausted and gave my muscles a work out that I'm sure i'll feel tomorrow, but it was worth every moment.  For sure one of the top highlights of the trip (possibly #1).