Uganda: Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest

It was an early start as we had to be at the start of the gorilla trekking trail at 8 am and it was over an hour to drive there from Lake Muhele. We were also unsure of the state of the roads, which were unpaved, from the previous night’s storms. So, after a quick breakfast, we were off, packed lunch in hand. The reason is that you might be in the forest tracking gorillas for up to 6 hours. The way it works is that you have an hour with the gorillas you find however long it takes you to find them.

This remote, mountainous part of Uganda shares an ecosystem with Rwanda and the DRC which is home to the remaining 1000 or so mountain gorillas still living in the wild. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to a good number of these.

When we arrived at Bwindi there were about 100 people waiting for their trek. Obviously, mountain gorillas are a big draw to Uganda, it was for us! Who knows how long these beautiful cousins of ours will be with us? It is not cheap to undertake a gorilla trek – the trekking permits run out at $600 per person. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The checking-in process was laborious, as seemed to be the case everywhere we visited in Uganda. All the drivers collected the passports of the visitors and passed them to one park ranger, who handed them to another, who handed them to another. The final ranger hand-wrote the information into a large hardback notebook. I had to wonder what they did with all the data they collected – not for liability cover I am sure. All of this took a long time, so to occupy the visitors some ladies from the local village performed some traditional songs and dances for us – which were highly energetic and all done without the aid of sports bras. After this ‘show’, which was a fundraiser for their community efforts, we had our briefing from another ranger and were then broken out into groups of nine.

We knew this would be a difficult trek over steep and possibly slippery ground that would be densely vegetated. As best we could we dressed appropriately, covered head to toe, and with our walking poles. We expected to spend a lot of time on our arses.

Our ranger introduced himself as Benjamin and gave us a rundown of what to expect. He asked whether anyone needed a porter to carry their bags or help them navigate the terrain. Our instinct was to say no, not out of bravado, but because it felt demeaning in some way. Yet for these people, it is their job and source of income. So we said yes. Another elderly American man, visiting with his daughter (something felt a little odd in their relationship), said he did need any help. In the end, about half of us agreed to have porters. Our porter was Justine, a slight young lady – but we’d already seen how strong Ugandan women are. They are not afraid of physical work.

So, off we went. The first part of our trek was along well-worn tracks, but already the American man was having to be helped by someone else’s porter to negotiate some of the rocket sections of the trail. About 10 minutes in Benjamin took a call. Every morning before the visitors arrive at Bwindi teams of rangers head out into the rainforest to track the family groups of gorillas. They relay this info back to the rangers with visitor groups. The call had taken was from the trackers telling him a group was near us and coming our way. We were so excited.

About 10-minutes we were told to leave our walking poles and put on our face masks (apes can catch Covid). Next minute we were hacking our way through the forest heading down near vertical slopes. Both scary and exciting. And we were suddenly there. We had been told that we were to get no nearer than 10 metres from the gorillas, but we found ourselves no more than 3 to 4 metres away from a juvenile and a huge Silverback. Normally, this would be very dangerous, but a number of family groups in Bwindi have become used to human visitors. I had for a long time dreamt of this moment, but I was overwhelmed with emotion. It was several minutes before these two moved out. We followed with the help of our trackers. It was arduous and physical work to keep up with the gorillas. Karen was helped numerous times by the rangers and porters going up the vertiginous slopes of the deep gully we were in. More than once she was unceremoniously helped by a push-up on the arse. It was tough going – but so worth it. Finally, we caught up with the gorillas. The Silverback had stopped for a snack and was happily munching away as we annoying tourists gawped in amazement. Close by was a female gorilla and her baby. She was very attentive as he firmly hung on to her. Eventually, the baby decided it was time to learn the ropes of arboreal living and went off exploring the trees – not going too far away from mum. We patiently watched for seemingly endless minutes and suddenly they were off into the depths of the undergrowth heading into the gully below. Again, our trackers went off and in pursuit. Our time with the gorillas was nearing an end but some of our group followed the trackers down the slope. It looked like getting down was really hard and getting up even harder. So, a group of us stayed behind. 10-minutes later our time was up, and we had to head back. It had been the most incredible experience. Of course, getting down had been hard so reaching the top was challenging. The pain in the arse American, who didn’t need a porter, found he did … and rudely used everyone else’s (and didn’t tip them at the end). As we left the gorillas, we said goodbye to the trackers. Without them, we’d never have been able to find the gorillas or track them through the forest without their deft use of machetes