Magical Encounters with Gorillas in the Wild
For our 40th birthdays in 2008 we decided on doing “a trip of a lifetime” to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda. At that time there were only 700 left in the wild - half in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and the other half in the Virunga Mountains. Due to fantastic conservation efforts by courageous rangers and all of the people involved, with their dedication to the protection of these beautiful animals, the number of gorillas today has grown to around a thousand!
Our trip began in Entebbe at the shore of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake. Ham, our amazing guide from Wild Frontiers Uganda Safaris picked us up and drove us to the first highlight: the Kibale Forest National Park. Here we stayed at the very charming Ndali Lodge, set upon a hillside with gorgeous views over a crater lake. We really enjoyed our stay there along with the owner’s lovely dogs.
The Kibale Forest National Park is famous for its East African chimpanzees of which there are around 1200. This subspecies has also been extensively researched by the famous Dr. Jane Goodall. They are our closest relatives, sharing an estimated 98% of their genes with us humans. It took us quite a while to find them on our trek through the forest and when we did, they were sitting high up in a tree happily munching on juicy figs! By the end of the trek we were definitely ready for a neck massage 😊.
Our next destination was the Queen Elizabeth National Park and Lake Edward. Driving south we crossed the Equator and spotted some very colourful markets along the way.
We spent three nights in this fascinating national park enjoying the typical African safari vibe, pure nature and wildlife. The landscape was remarkable with huge cactus trees and the Ruwenzori mountains in the distance. On the first day, we did some excellent game drives and saw many animals including elephants and buffaloes.
On the second day, we took a boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel. This was a great way to explore and gave us a different perspective of the animals grazing and drinking at the water’s edge. We learnt that this channel has the world’s highest concentration of hippos and there were also many rare and beautiful birds.
The buffaloes were enjoying their mud baths in the river and they seemed to be good mates with the hippos! Watching a herd of elephants chasing away other animals was fun to watch too.
Here we stayed at the Mweya Lodge which is located on a peninsula overlooking the Kazinga Channel with spectacular views of the Ruwenzori Mountains. One evening whilst we were sitting on our patio enjoying the view, a hippo suddenly appeared right in front of us! This huge animal wanted to feast on the lodge’s green grass – so we quietly but quickly darted into our room, preferring the safety of our window to observe him!
The southern area of this national park is called Ishasha and we stayed in the Wild Frontiers Safaris own Ishasha Wilderness Camp in a spacious and beautiful tented room with the typical African bucket-bush shower. It was perfect!
This area is well known for its tree-climbing lions and what a spectacular sight they are! Ishasha is one of very few places in Africa where you can experience these sightings. Besides this lion in the photo below, we saw another one lazing in a cactus tree and a Mum with her gorgeous cub. Nature at its best!
Another really spectacular sight in this area is the Shoebill. These birds are classified as ‘vulnerable’ with an estimated population between 5'000 and 8'000. They can grow to 1.5 m and really do look pre-historic!
The landscape was peacefully beautiful in this area with antelopes grazing amidst the high grass. Already we’d experienced so many highlights, lots of different kinds of animals and birds, some of which we hadn’t seen anywhere else in Africa.
Our next destination was the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for our first Mountain Gorilla trek. We were driving along some extremely dusty roads, dry areas and villages and were surprised when Ham said that we’d almost reached the national park. There were no trees in sight yet - only farmland!
This was when we realised how severe the habitat destruction really was. In 2008 there were only about 350 mountain gorillas left in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Today there are over 450 which is a huge success, but it does make us wonder about their further growth with such limited space. The picture below gives a good idea of this limit of space.
There are 4 locations for tracking gorillas: Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga, and Nkuringo. The 4 locations now have a total of about 19 habituated families. The length of the tracking-trek depends on where the families have moved to during the night. So it can be a short trek or one over many hours that awaits you. Ours started in Buhoma and turned out to be a long one which we really enjoyed – very hilly, sometimes very steep, up and down, first through farmland and then through thick jungle, hence the name ‘impenetrable’.
One word comes to mind of the feeling when our ranger-guide found our ‘family’ and our first glimpse: euphoric! The first one we saw was the family’s chief - the silverback. Very relaxed he was, just sitting there enjoying his grass-meal.
We then heard a bit of noise when a Mum carrying her baby on her back just appeared out from the bush and meandered on by right in front of us! It was a breathtaking moment which we will never forget. More of the family joined the scene and it was just so heart-warming and incredibly amazing to sit and be with them so close, just watching them live their life.
Experiencing these amazing animals in the wild is one of the most magnificent, touching and awe-inspiring wildlife encounters you can get. The money for the permits goes towards the conservation and protection of these beautiful animals and is therefore a great investment – one for your heart and soul and one for their fragile situation. On the trek back to base we met this lovely family. They were on their way home - a long walk through the forest, carrying their products on their head. These people are poor and thanks to tourism there are jobs for them, helping them to support their families. Another good reason to go and visit.
Our second Mountain Gorilla trek was in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. Before crossing the border we saw the Red Cross camps, bringing to realisation just how close we were from the human disaster happening in Congo.
It was in the Virunga Mountains where Diane Fossey was fighting to save and protect these Mountain Gorillas. She was killed by the poachers in 1985 and her story was told in the movie 'Gorillas in the Mist'. We stayed at the spectacularly located Virunga Lodge which is set on hillside with breathtaking views of the Virunga volcanoes and Lakes Ruhondo and Bulera. Here again, the space for the gorillas is limited with only the top of the volcanoes as their protected area. This misty sunset photo shows where the farmland ends and the protected area begins.
Next morning we rose early to get to the starting point of our trek. The complete change of vegetation compared to the thick jungle of Bwindi was a real surprise - the terrain here is thick bamboo forests!
We didn’t have far to walk to meet this gorilla family – an easy walk of around an hour. As in Bwindi, we made our first acquaintance with a silverback. We were all taking photos, when suddenly this big guy first looked up at us, got up, walked toward us and then stopped right in front of us! Our ranger told us to hunker down to show him our respect and that we knew he's the boss. It was a pretty exciting moment! Once satisfied he knew that we knew our place and with a last glance down at us, he returned where he was sitting before to continue his breakfast 😊.
After a while we slowly walked towards the group and met a Mum with her youngster. There were two other adult females laying on their tummies who were watching us and…picking their noses!! What a laugh!
In the meantime, the silverback had been joined by a very cute youngster who wanted to play with Dad! This little guy was so cheeky, climbing all over him, pulling and tugging and it was just amazing to watch this playfulness and how the huge silverback was so gentle with him!
After our trek we drove by a cemetery reminding of the massacres that happened in this region. Despite years of war in Rwanda and Congo, conservation efforts have been successful. Mountain Gorilla population in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo has grown to over 600. But this achievement didn’t come without awful loss to the Virunga rangers – so very sadly, over 140 rangers have been killed in the line of duty since 1996.
Back at the lodge it was on to Christmas celebrations and we were invited by the village people to watch their dancing performance. It was a spectacular setting, the dancers in colourful traditional dress and a great atmosphere.
By then our time in Africa was sadly almost over. On our way back to Kampala we saw some Ankole longhorn cows - an indigenous cattle breed of the Bahimia people. This rare breed was once on the brink of extinction because of cross-breeding.
We spent our last night at the Mihingo Lodge close to the Lake Mburo National Park. This is a beautiful little lodge in a great location and we just spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching zebras at the waterhole from our veranda.
There are many more highlights that can be done from Entebbe such as wild water rafting on the river Nile or a visit to the Ngamba Chimpanzee Island Sanctuary on Lake Victoria.
We truly recommend visiting Uganda and Rwanda – for us it was just amazingly beautiful! Thank you, Ham, for being a brilliant guide and for becoming our friend!
Our other African blogs so far:
"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"
(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)
Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker
© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker
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