6:00am wakeup call with coffee and tea brought to our room…
we are so excited we can hardly stand it!
A little nervous not knowing how difficult the hike will be… Cheryl and
I have been training for this trip and we are hoping we are ready for the big
hike!
Briefing at the park headquarter before we head out –
learning about the family we are going to be visiting. We will be visiting the “R Group” 13 members
of this group including 3 babies (5 day, 6 month and 3 year old) yippee!!! We
get our porters and we are off the the starting point! We are well prepared for the trek, long sleeve
shirts, pants tucked in socks and knee high gaiters, lots of water and snacks,
walking sticks and big smiles!
The trek starts out slow, walking through the lower
mountains which is a gentle climb through a very small village… not too long
before we hit the steep mountain trails.
It is really hot and humid! The
trek takes you through narrow switch backs as you make your way up the steep slippery
slopes! Our guide would stop about every 10-15 minutes
for a break so we could catch our breath and hydrate! These breaks were very much appreciated! Hiring porters was one of the smartest things
we did! They carried our packs and help
us up the steep slopes, they knew exactly when to hold out a hand for us. I had a female porter that was about half my
size… she was great!
After 52 minutes of hiking we found the gorillas! WOW!
We put our things down and left our porters and went off to start our 1
hour with the gorillas. The guide did
not have us put our gloves on… it didn’t take long for us to wish we had them
on… as we started trekking through the thick bush and stinging nettles… whatever
you do don’t fall down and don’t grab onto anything! Nope gorillas are not here so we need to keep
moving… I ask our guide if we can go back to our porters to get our gloves… Now
we have our gloves on and we are happy and ready for anything!
We see the momma and the 6 month old OMG that little baby is
cute. He was pounding his chest like an
adult would, it was so incredibly cute.
Next we see the momma and the 5 day old… OMG this baby is tiny, he was
nursing and his momma was holding him tight!
As we stood there watching mamma and baby the silverback came over and
sat down making sure that we didn’t get too close to the baby. Next we see the black back male who is second
in command. He sits and watches looking
for the silverback – he cannot move in front of the silverback; he must stay in
the back to protect the group.
It was amazing how relaxed the gorillas were with our
presence… Everything I read preparing for this trip said not to spend the
entire hour taking pictures of them, instead take some pictures and then just observe
them. Boy was that great advice! It was a once in a lifetime experience to
spend time with these amazing gorillas.
(and we get to do it again in Rwanda!)
The trek was difficult, but well worth the experience!
Awwww!
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