Oct 6, 2012 - Bwindi National Park, Uganda

Oct 6, 2012 - Bwindi National Park, Uganda

We woke at 5 and left the hostel at 6:30 for a 1.5 hour drive to Bwindi National Park from Kisoro.  Our driver, George, said the road was the free massage road and he was right.  That was the bumpiest hour and a half I have ever had.  Im suprised his car is still in one piece. We arrived at the park and received our permits and a briefing about the trek.

It was another 30 min drive to the start of the hike.  Our trek had 6 guests 1 guide, a security guy with an AK47, and 3 porters that carried some of the guests bags.  During the briefing the guide told us the guy with the gun was in case we came across jungle elephants, who if caught off guard can be very aggressive.

The hike started with a steep incline on a dirt road.  This turned into a grass path, and then finally reached the jungle.  The jungle was a huge relief because the jungle was about 20 degrees cooler than the direct sunlight.  Every day for the gorillas treks they send 2 trackers our early to track the gorillas location.  They start where they left the gorillas the previous day.  When they find the gorillas they radio back to our guide the location and then we hike our way to them.  We followed elephant paths for quite a while and then began bushwacking our way through thick jungle growth.  This meant climbing over, under and through vines and downed trees and even briar bushes (i have a few scratches from those).  After four hours of crazy intense up and down sometimes almost crawling hiking we came to a small family group.  This father, mother, and son group were part of a larger group of 15 in this area of the jungle.  The big silver back male was resting under and vines.  The 8 month old baby was very active and curious as he kept sneaking closer to us.  Mother grabbed him and took him back 2 times while we were there.  We were about 20 feet max from these gorillas and they were so magnificent and huge!  We stayed and just watched for about an hour and then the group got up and left for a new location.  We followed for a little bit but then started our trek back.  The trek back was a lot more bushwacking and wiggling through the jungle.  We finally made it back to some worn paths and some easy hiking. BUT THEN all of a sudden our guide had a paniced look on his face, the jungle trees started thrashing around, there was loud tree crunching, and the guy with the AK47 cocked his gun and ran up to  have a look.  This immediately put a shot of adreniline through my body and sent my heary racing.  Our group had come upon a jungle elephant!!!!!  The porters, guide, and security guard jumped into action.  They instructed us to keep in a tight group and we detoured from our worn path to bushwack WAY around the elephant.  It was a very frighenting 10-15 minutes while we hiked and avoided the elephant.  Just hearing the sound of crunching trees sent me almost running throught the thick vegitation.  I am happy to report though that everything turned out alright and the elephant left us alone.

It was an expensive and exhausting day but worth it to see this awesome creatures close up and in the wild.  So blessed and thankful for this opportunity.
What I learned:
Safari ants have a mean bite.
Jungle elephants are to be avoided at all costs.
There are only 750 wild mountain gorillas left in the entire world and they are all found in the rain forests near where the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda meet.