Whlst we were in Uganda, we decided to 'treat ourselves' to a gorilla tracking trip. In the mountain rainforests that border Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are some many of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas (as in 'Gorillas in the Mist'). As part of the effort to protect these amazing creatures, money is raised for local communities and for conservation by charging small numbers of rich tourists large sums of money to track them, with guides, in the forest and then spend time with a group of gorillas that has been 'habituated' to human contact. There are only a few groups of gorillas that are visited by people in this way and they restrict contact to one hour a day by a maximum group of 8 people. This opportunity is in high demand, and usually you have to book 3 months in advance to do it.
Towards the end of our trip in Uganda, we desparately wanted to see some of the country, having spent nearly 4 weeks, in one of the most beautiful countries in Africa, in a village near Kampala. We expressed an interest in seeing the gorillas to someone who organises trips, and they managed to sort out a trek for us very quickly so we toured across Uganda (it was a 3 day trip) to see the gorillas. Every report we read on the net cited this as a truly amazing and wonderful experience.
For me, one of the most amazing things was just being in the rainforest. The scenery was just stunning. We spent the night before our gorilla encounter in a tent on a platform overlooking the rainforest. Truly beautiful.
We trekked for a couple of hours through the forest until we came to our gorilla group. The first gorilla was just sitting in the bushes eating.
The second gorilla, a very large male, decided to 'play'. Apparently, a normal way of approaching an unknown gorilla, if you are a large male hoping to be a silverback one day, is to run at them and see if you can knock them over, thus proving who is strongest. We had strict instructions not to move, should a gorilla run at us. Apparently, running away would be seen as unfriendly and possibly provoke wrath on the part of the gorilla.
What happened next is a bit of a blur.... A very large male gorilla bounded down the hill towards us and quite high speed and knocked me over. Was standing at the top of a fairly steep slope at the time, so hit the ground backwards with some force. Scrambling to my feet bruised and muddied with a twisted ankle, sore head, sore chest and stiff neck, I couldn't help wondering which of us was endangered...
Spent the rest of our allegedly magical experience feeling somewhat shaken and rather scared. Was suddenly aware of how very large and strong these creatures are. Even the young gorillas we saw playing looked somewhat fearsome from where I was standing!!! Luckily, Andy took lots of pictures so I could relive the more magical bits away from the forest in the safety of our own living room!
Me, immediately post gorilla attack.
The assailant.
The view from our campsite
Wow! I can't imagine that ever happening to me. I would have been so scared, no matter what they told me to do should a gorilla run towards me, I would have taken flight!
ReplyDeleteGood thing you weren't hurt worse than you were! Brave lady!