Gorilla Trekking in Uganda

After our week long safari in Tanzania, we flew to Kigali, Rwanda. We had a wonderful time in Rwanda and I plan to blog about our time there later. We drove from Rwanda into Uganda. Border crossings in Africa are very different from any I have been through. I won't go into details, but imagine being the only tourist, no one standing in line, and carbon copy paper instead of computers. After making it across the border we drove many hours down bumpy, unpaved roads to Bwindi. This was a very small town where tourist go to TREK GORILLAS!! You have to get a permit to go on these hikes and you must plan well in advance to get them. The park we were in (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park) only allowed in about thirty people a day. Gorillas are becoming increasly rare and we were very fortunate to see them. Here is how the day went...A few "trekkers" set out early in the morning to find a particular family of gorillas. Gorillas are always on the move so it is very difficult to find them. Plus, they live in very thick vegetation. We started hiking around 9am and headed in the direction the trekkers told us to go. The area we were in is ONLY HILLS! So we hiked up and down quite a few times. Most of the hike was not on a path. The guides in the front cut down vegetation as we hiked. I was constantly tripping over vines and roots. Four and a half hours later we found the gorillas!! I was pretty tired at this point and very excited to finally see the gorillas. This is what the first siting looked like...
I was thinking, I hiked 4 hard hours and paid money to barely see a gorilla!! Luckily, it got better and better. Some gorillas were hiden in the thick vegetation, but some were out in the open. It was amazing to be so close to them and to see them in their natural habitat. I particularly liked the small babies. We even saw a three week old baby, but didn't get a good picture. We were only allowed to spend an hour with the gorillas before heading back. Luckily, the hike back was much quicker. I was extremely sore the next few days, but it was well worth the pain!

Typical houseHere you can see that it was NOT a flat hike.
We started our hike by passing through a local village. The kids would run over to the trail to wave and say hello.
This guy came along just for protection.
Dave hiking over a stream.
You can see why it is called the Impenetrable Forest.
Cute little baby!
And his mad momma! She doesn't look happy with us.
His name was Trouble Maker.