3am pick-up time. I signed up for that. Voluntarily.
Why, you might wonder?
Gorillas. Specifically, Mountain Gorillas, of which there are barely one thousand of remaining on this planet, and which we get to go and see.
So, we painfully got ourselves up and met our guide and driver for the next 2 days. About halfway across Rwanda, the car seems to be having some trouble. Our driver is on the phone (he seems to have a network of people to call at 3:45am!!). And then…
…the radiator blows and we are not moving. Thankfully, one of the calls the driver made was to somebody who was able to get us after only a 20ish minute wait and drive us to the border. Another call our driver made was to the office, where another car was waiting for us at the border station.
I was transporting supplies with me to take to Mbarara. This is common among our colleagues, and I knew what was in the bag, so I wasn’t worried. I knew I might have to pay customs fees, but this transaction felt weird. Ultimately, our driver spoke to the customs agent discretely and slipped him some cash so we could proceed. I was grateful because my experience with bribes is not terribly robust and I wasn’t really sure how that worked. Do you ask the price? Do you suggest an amount for him to forget about the bag? How much is fair? How much is insulting? Well, I don’t need to know those things because it’s all set. On we go!
One of the other calls our guide made was to arrange for us to potentially be assigned one of the gorilla families that was more easily accessible since we were going to be late and we had a long drive in the afternoon. We arrived at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and met our trackers and rangers. We were very pleased to not have to join other groups on their hikes!
This hike was NO JOKE! Other than the single step from the road, you are never walking on solid ground. It’s a crazy jumble of vines, saplings, and other vegetation that the trackers had to machete through. It was hot, humid, very difficult physically, yet completely worth it when you catch your first glimpse of a gorilla in the wild.
There was also a massive silverback in this group. We heard him, and the rangers made grunting sounds back at him. Then they told us to have our cameras ready. (Ready for what? I wondered). Well, I don’t know what you do when 450ish pounds of muscle and fur comes flying through the air in front of you, but I help and flail my arms around. I do not have my camera steady, nor do I have sufficient brainpower to remember how to use it. Silverbacks are big, strong, and scary. They do their job well, and I was happy enough to let him be.
We spent one hour with the gorillas (they don’t sit still, so one hour with them = one hour navigating the challenging terrain). I loved every second, but my body was physically exhausted and so we did not protest when we had to leave.
I understand why the cost of gorilla tracking is so high – these magnificent creatures need serious protection and that is costly – but it is sad that most people will never get to look into the eyes of a wild gorilla. It’s magical.
After a lengthy drive, we finally arrived at our lodge for the night in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Ellie’s never been on safari, so tomorrow is a big day for her!
Vacation Days 