Gorilla trekking..and yes, a little bit of work!

Well, I am back from my most recent adventure…this time it was a very successful mission. I was sent to Uganda both on mission, and of course, to have a little bit of pleasure.

I was totally surprised by Uganda and what a beautiful country it is! Having only recently recovered from some crazy human atrocities caused by Idi Amin (see The Last King of Scotland if you don’t know about this former President of Uganda and all the crazy stuff he did to the people of Uganda), you would think that the country would still be a bit of a disaster, but not so much. The people are very friendly, have no interest in you because you are white, and don’t call you out by your skin colour! Not knowing too much about the country, besides Idi Amin and the recent rioting that happened there just 2 days before landing, I was not sure what to expect…but I was very pleasantly surprised. The country used to have one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa, with over 20% of its population infected, but now, in just 10 short years, it has been decreased to about 6%! This just goes to show you what a little commitment, money, and government loyalty can actually do for a country! While there is poverty, it is not as much in your face poverty as what you see in west Africa. Those that are considered poor don’t live in mud/straw huts, they actually have stone houses, with toilets, and wells nearby. The average person only has to walk less than a kilometer for water, rather than miles! There are health facilities everywhere, and peop[le pay what they can afford, and child/infant and maternity treatment is free for all Ugandans! I attended some really positive meetings, where pen is actually put to paper and names are assigned to projects, and they are ACTUALLY held accountable for the outcomes (now in my north American mentality, this should be normal, but I have gotten used to things over here, and it is just not the case)!

Uganda has also always been on my list of places to visit, really only because of the gorillas! I had heard you could do some trekking to see gorillas in their natural habitat, so I of course looked into this and told a few people that I was interested in this. Before I knew it, everything had been organized for me, and I was now on a mission with UNESCO! While traveling I was told it is the “Year of the Gorillas”, where extra effort is going into saving the gorillas from poaching and disease. So, off we went from Kampala for what the driver said would be a 4-5 hour drive (having recently done a safari, you realize that this usually means 10 hours!), and exactly 9.5 hrs later (after blowing a tyre, and losing our exhaust) we ended up in Bwindi National Forest (aka. The Impenetrable Forest) on the southern border of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo! It was a very impressive drive, many mountains to go over, only to come to these beautiful tea and banana plantations. We even got to have free safaris along the way, as you need to pass through Queen Elizabeth National Park and Murchison Falls area to get to the gorillas…so got to see lots of elephants, antelopes, baboons, and even a lion as we went!

We finally arrived at the lodge we would be staying at, and it was absolutely stunning, and a full eco-lodge, which is nice to see after all this time in Africa! A lovely, small and simple lodge, but service was incredible and rooms were beautiful…this lodge even had gorillas on the property the week before we were there, so some lucky people didn’t even have to trek to find them! The sunset and sunrise were both incredible. Finally, it was time to see the gorillas! We had our briefing by the trackers (who are all former poachers), and were given clear instructions on what we could and could not do while on the trek…it was extremely well organized, and these people are truly committed to preservation of these creatures. In Bwindi, there are over 23 families of mountain gorillas (ranging from 8-32 gorillas in each family), however only 7 of them have been habituated to humans. Therefore, while these gorillas have grown accustomed to human beings around them, they are still completely wild. The other families are completely wild, and have very little contact with humans (it is usually these gorillas that are being poached). The trek then begins, and you are told that you are heading straight up the mountain to find the family you have been assigned to (only 6 groups of 8 people are allowed to trek each day, one group per family, as the 7th family is only for research), and only allowed to spend one hour with each family! It was shockingly well organized…I can only imagine if Nigeria were ever to introduce tourism to Nigeria (Nigeria actually has over 10,000 gorillas in the south south – border of Cameroon, but they aren’t mountain gorillas and are not endangered at this time – although Nigerians do keep eating them!!). We started at about 1,000 meters, and trekked up to about 1,700 meters, when we were told that the family of gorillas we were looking for had already come down the mountain and were hanging around the river bed! So, we took a short cut down, bushwaking our way through some crazy terrain, and then all of a sudden our tracker stopped our movement, turned around and said that we had to remove all of our bags, jewellery, etc, so we did, and within a minute of this, the first gorilla came into sight!! It was crazy, as it totally came out of nowhere, and she was only about 3 feet away from us (even though the rule is supposed to be 7 meters, but when they come to you, you cannot move), so it was crazy, and I actually got goosebumps seeing her! And then you noticed she had a newborn with her, which not even the tracker knew about! From there, you just started to see them everywhere. The family we visited had 23 gorillas in total – 1 newborn, 2 infants, 11 juveniles, 5 grown females, 2 blackbacks (which are soon to be silver backs, and will have to leave the group and form their own families), and one silverback (the senior guy of the group). You basically then just follow the family as it moves along the forest, they never just sit and eat, and they will eat and move almost at the same time. The tracker is able to communicate with the silver back through grunting sounds, just to say to him, yes, we are just here to observe and will not harm. This is done every 3-4 minutes just to keep the silverback calm! The funny thing is that even though the silver back is huge, he keeps himself mostly hidden!

They are truly amazing creatures to see in the wild! And you see why we are 98.7% related! They play games, pull pranks on eachother, and cuddle and show emotion just like humans do! One of the women I was with actually started crying watching them, as this was basically her dream come true! In all, we spent just over 2 hours with them (I think we got special treatment, as we were with 2 people from BBC filming this, as well, one of the ladies I was traveling with is the Ambassador to Argentina!)! So, it was an amazing and exhausting day! BBC is putting together a special for the Year of the Gorillas, so look out for it, as I am on camera! All in all an amazing day, that I will not forget!

The only funny thing that happened, was when we got back to camp in the late afternoon, and all the groups get together to discuss. In one of the groups, there were 2 people that looked really familiar, but as is what usually happens when you travel a lot, you think that people you see resemble people from home, or work. Figuring they were other UN staff, or something, I started talking to them…it was only the day after when I saw the newspaper, that it was the guy from American Pie (sorry, can’t remember his name, but he was the star)who I had been talking to and who had been invited to come and promote the Year of the Gorillas! There were a few others, but not so sure who they were, as I am a little disconnected from American television and movies these days! Pretty funny, as we were just hanging out comparing stories of the different families we had visited!

Anyways, a really good getaway and really amazing experience. I think I needed the break from the chaos of Nigeria!

I am now back in Nigeria and was immediately sent on mission…literally, I got off one plane from Uganda and within 2 hours was back n the next flight to the south of Nigeria! I got there, and was immediately called back to Abuja to deal with some things in the office, so luckily I only stayed for 23 hours! Funny thing about the place though – it is well known for kidnappings in the area I had been in – just the week before, some guys accidentally kidnapped a poor African albino, thinking he was a white man – this has made many of us laugh for days now!! Clearly, they were first timers! So, I am back in Abuja and finally will get to play some tennis again. This time of year is great because the rains have mostly stopped and it is not too hot…although Harmattan season is again only a few short months away!

Hope everyone is well!

Baci, Andrea