Travel Stories - Uganda

It was very early this morning when my bus from capital Kampala left for Butogota. The first part of the (bus)route was pretty dull and it seemed like hours before we had left all the buildings behind and we drove into the mountains and jungle. I get my camera out of my bag and local people around me try to point out the most beautiful places from the bus. Together with an American tourist I am the only white person on the bus. It is almost six o'clock when we finally enter Butogota. It is still about 17 km to our final destination Buhoma where the headquarters of the Bwindi national park is situated. A gentleman comes to us who will drive us but we can not go in the front. Our big bags go with us in the back of the open pickup. We make a nice price and because it is already so late we decide to go and loose a day. It is a rough ride and we constantly fall from one side of the truck to the other. Arriving in Butogota almost everything is already closed. I immediately see the campsite next to the rangers reception and walk in that direction. The owner still has luckily a banda free in which I can sleep tonight. I order a bite to eat in the small restaurant and ask the woman if it is possible that it’s possible to go already tomorrow with the gorilla tracking. I paid the tracking months before via the internet and have been in contact with the organization for a while now.

After a quick breakfast in the morning I sign up at the headquarters of the UWA and I am on the list to go on gorilla tracking today. There is another group with the American whom I met yesterday in the bus. We leave exactly at half past eight. It is still a decent group when we leave with a guide who also serves as a "tracker", carriers and a number of armed soldiers who are with us for our safety. I remember the story that about eight years ago about eight tourists were kidnapped and then murdered in this area. Afterwards, the security measures have been tightened up and for me the perfect time to go here - what is the chance that it will happen again? You never know in this region so close to the border with Rwanda and Congo.  

We walk for half an hour through the tropical rainforest and it is exciting to know that the gorillas are probably not far. What strikes me is the open terrain of the jungle – I expected thick jungle but we are going through a tea-plantation. Then we walk in front of me into the real impenetrable forest where this park is known for. This is the real deal. There is a phone call from the mobile phone and suddenly we are faced with a place where the animals have slept last night. The grass and bushes are completely pushed together and you can see how they build nests for sleeping. The big monkeys can’t be very far away. 

Then suddenly we stand still - the guide makes it clear that we now have to be very quiet and pay attention. We walk on our toes and dab our besweated foreheads again The jungle is really impenetrable here and the sun is struggling to get through the foliage. Then suddenly we see something moving further down the bush. It is black and quite large. It turns out to be our first gorilla. Only then I realize that we have found our gorilla-family and see everywhere small and larger black shapes in the green of the jungle. The guide makes it clear to us that we really can not come any closer than this and that our hour (and not a second longer) has now come into play. Where some people start to grab their camera and shoot like crazy others are just looking at these nearly exterminated animals with their mouth open. There are a number of young gorillas who want to play and are really close. Before we entered the real jungle our guide explained that each family has an alpha male who will protect his family to the death. He’s responsible of the safety of the group and will act like that. The alpha male is also called the "silverback" because of the large gray silver stripe he has on his back. He is usually a bit further in the green but keeps a good eye on things. The guide has assured us and warned that if you make eye contact with this gorilla that it is guaranteed he will attack because of the fact that you have challenged him. Second guarantee is that you will lose this battle. 

While our "silverback" in the back of the bushes is eating his bamboo, the little ones are getting closer and closer. When they are just a meter distance the guide gestures that we have to go backwards. It is clear that these gorillas are pretty known with humans. Of course it is true that this endangered species is helped by the high entrance fee by securing them well against hunters. The hour flies by and a moment later the guide gestures that we are off. Just one more picture, a look and then it's over and we walk back to the camp, still thinking about what has just happened. 

It turns out that the second group has not been so lucky (like us) at all. I speak to the American who was in the other group and he complains that he has not seen the gorillas at all. A retired couple wanted to stop the walk because they thought it was too heavy and he insisted on continuiing their walk alone. After walking through the jungle for hours, there still was no gorilla-family in sight. He can choose to get his money back or try tomorrow again. He is very disappointed because he has to return to his homeland tomorrow because he booked already a flight. Very sad.  

In the restaurant at the campsite I meet a whole group of individual Dutch people who are also all travelling through Uganda. One of them works as a professional guide elsewhere in East-Africa. He tells us that he was almost attacked by an alpha male gorilla because he had challenged it (by accident). The silverback came to a halt about two meters before him and then walked back. We order an ice cold beer and food while we talk about the terrible stories that have come to us that a whole gorilla family was murdered because the little ones were sold as pets and the parents' hands were used as an ashtray. With my oil lamp I walk after some beers and our diner to the toilet that suddenly looks black inside. If I keep the lamp close I can see that the wall is full of flies. 

The next day I would take the waterfall walk with two Dutch ladies. It is a pretty hard walk of 3 hours in total that takes you to the 33 meter high waterfall "Munyaga".