Gorilla Trekking in Uganda

Apparently Rainer has liked monkeys and gorillas since he was a kid. So, when we found out it is possible to go see Silverback Gorillas in our neighboring countries, that’s what we did this past week! We flew over to Uganda and went gorilla trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. It was such an adventure!

There are only a little over 700 Mountain Gorillas left in the world.... and they are all at the point where Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet. We had to travel a long way to see these endangered animals. Even the gorillas in our local zoos are a different species than these in the wild. When we first laid eyes on them, it was incredible! The massive silverbacks, adorable babies with punk-rocker hair, protective moms, and the lively chest-beating young males were awesome.

We flew to Entebbe, Uganda from Nairobi, over the great Lake Victoria. We then were in a van with our sweet gorilla-sized local guide, Moses, and 3 Canadaians as we drove 11 hours to Kisoro. We stayed in Traveler's Rest hotel, in the shadows of 3 volcanos (we felt like we were in a movie). The next day we continued up mountain-side dirt roads another two hours to our meeting point. Our group of 8 (only 8 people per day can spend 1 hour max with each gorilla family, and the permits to do this go very fast) took off down a valley wall hiking through banana trees and the forest. We were hiking only 25 minutes when our guide spotted the trackers that head out early in the morning to find the gorilla family. He informed us of the rules (don't touch them, as they can die from the human common cold... and if they charge, get low and pretend to start eating the grasses).

We literally climbed through the jungle, on the side of a steep hill, in the bottom of the valley, in search of the family. Our guides lead the way with curved machetes, cutting through the thick brush. Then, all of a sudden, there was a gorilla hanging in the tree right in front of us.. and to the left a HUGE silverback! Rainer was speechless. We continued to fall, trip and crawl our way following the group until at one point there were 11 surrounding us! These 99% vegitarians (they eat some ants) were not scary, and just ate the entire hour we were with them. Apparently they spend their days eating 1/3 of the time, sleeping 1/3, and traveling the rest.

After spending 1 hour with the family, we cut our way back to the trail and climbed out of the valley. It was an amazing blessing and God answered my many, many prayers for safety!