Posted in Nature Writing, Travel Writing

Gorilla trekking (part 1)

Posted on by kindeyesandstrangeplaces
View this post on Instagram

The Uganda post deluge begins now! ••••• Seeing the critically endangered mountain gorillas in their natural habitat at the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest felt like a sort of religious pilgrimage. We were giddy and nervous and ready to face the forest, and to meet a family of our ape brothers on their own turf. • • The 2.5 hour hike there,through the rain forest with our merry band of 16, was complete with extensive bush-whacking, precariously crossing streams and rivers, very quiet men with very big guns accompanying us, elephant tracks that had become mini wading pools, machetes and vines, butterflies aplenty and the cold smell of damp mud. (Talk about feeling alive.) It felt like we were all learning to walk again with new legs; what had been so easy on solid ground now became a labored task, full of spills in the mud and shoes taken off feet and stuck in quicksand. • • About an hour after diverting from the path and scaling up a vertical incline of (truly) Impenetrable verdigris, negotiating with stinging nettles and thick vines in every shade of green, our guides howled to the trackers. They howled back. We were close. The Nshongi family was having their Saturday lunch less than a kilometer away, and we were their unexpected guests. • • [more to come…]

A post shared by micaeli rourke 💭 (@hearmerourke) on

Unknown's avatar

Author:

Stories of travels, of tribulations, and of learning to tell the difference.

Leave a comment