Gorilla trekking

What a day!

At seven o'clock we left the hotel for a short trip to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.

There, we were divided into groups of eight. Each group was accompanied by two forest rangers and at least one tracker. Early, before we arrived, scouts had been sent out to locate where the gorilla families were.

We chose to each take a porter who carried our backpacks. Partly because it was nice to be free of that burden, but even more so because it's a way for many to make a living. “My” porter Barbara is a single mother with two children. She hasn’t had a job for two months, so it felt good to help her a bit.

Before we left, they said that the trek could take anywhere from 3 to 9 hours. We were lucky and found a family in less than an hour. What an experience to be less than ten meters away from a Silverback, a young male, a pregnant female, and four little ones ranging from 8 months to just over a year old.

A life-changing experience that I have dreamed of since I saw Gorillas in the Mist in 1988.