I had purchased a gorilla trekking permit from the Uganda Wildlife Authority several months ago. I actually got lucky. Most people need to book as much as a year in advance to secure their preferred dates. I am impressed with the strict regulations and guidelines the UWA has developed to protect and insure the safety of the endangered mountain gorillas. There are only three place in the world where you can find these beautiful animals; Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. Sadly, there only 700 remaining. Uganda has armed soldiers surrounding the forest and along the border to insure the safety of their gorilla families. Unfortunately, it is not the same in the Congo where there is currently a civil war going on in the very jungle where there is the largest number of mountain gorillas in the world; it was recently announced that four were found dead having been killed in the cross fire. I guess we’re down to 696 now. Only eight people at a time are allowed to observe a family of gorillas and your time with them is limited to one hour. You can take photos, but no flash. Its about a 45 minute drive from camp to the base of the rain forest where we meet our porters and begin our trek. My porter is Moses. He carries my backpack that contains four bottles of water, lunch, rain gear, towel, and camera. Doesn’t sound like much, but when you are climbing straight up a wet mountain with no path, Moses became my new best friend. Before reaching the forest we wound our way through small villages were the children were happy to great us. Their houses were set in the middle of rows and rows of banana palms. The guide informs us that occasionally the gorillas will come out of the forest to raid the banana plantations. The villagers will gather and play drums and other homemade instruments to scare them back into the forest. It reminds me of the movie “King Kong” where it is just the opposite. There, the villagers play music and sing to get Kong to come out of the forest. Once we enter the forest the real trekking begins. Our guide communicates via radio with the guards on the exact location of the family my group of eight are assigned to visit. We follow him straight up the mountain. After over two hours of trekking, we are told that the family of 24 has been separated and they are on the move trying to locate each other. Great. Off we go. The vines become so dense as we climb, men (I don’t even no where they came from) pull out machetes and start clearing a “path” so we can continue our climb. Then, we hear them. A deep, almost tenor like, call. I get a burst of energy and move to the front of our group. Next thing I know Mr. Machete is hacking away with three or four swings, then pulling me up behind him, hacking away three or four swings, pulling me up behind him. Is this for real?! I didn’t care. I was close and I knew it. The rest of the group was struggling to get up the mountain. Nothing was going to stop me, even if I had to recruit the help of Mr. Machete. Let me tell you this… it was worth every bit of the challenging. There he was, the silver back mountain gorilla resting on his back eating leaves. The leader of the family. He looked straight at me as if to say, “What took you so long?” I didn’t even take a photo for awhile. I just watched him. I couldn’t believe I was only 10ft. away. I wanted to throw my arms around him and say, “It’s me, Kelly! Meeting you in person has been my dream! I’ve read so many books about you and watched movies and documentaries and I never, ever thought I would have the opportunity to visit you in your home… your REAL home. And, I get to meet your family!” Not sure if he could sense the fact that I wanted to hug him but it was at that moment he stood up and decided to charge me. His charge was complemented with a King Kong type roar. I don’t think he’s the hugging type. The guide was standing next to me and I had been given instructions on what to do if this happens. The instructions were, “whatever you do, don’t run. And, don’t look him straight in the eye”. First of all, after climbing straight up a mountain for three hours I was so tired I couldn’t even walk let alone run. And, for some odd reason I didn’t feel afraid. I knew he just wanted to let us know that he is the boss and this is his territory. Hey, no problem here. You can have this damn mountain. All together there were about 10 members of the family of 24. The babies were the most fun to watch. They also seemed to be interested in our group. It was difficult to take pictures because the jungle is so dark and we are not allowed to use a flash. I managed to get a couple of decent shots, but mostly I just wanted to live in the moment. Not spend my whole hour taking photos, but to enjoy the time I had being with them in their natural habitat.
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