Bwindi National Park - Gorilla Tracking

I woke up at 7am monday morning. I finished my breakfast by 7.40 and was ready to go with Loris to the park. We drove there at 8. As we pulled up anther vehicle driven by a guide I had met at my lodge was coming towards us. This guy had a permit and was on his way to get me at the lodge. I transferred from Loris's jeep to Anuk's jeep. Anuk quoted me $500 for the permit but before Loris left, I said that he was giving me a discount. They talked for a brief moment and Anuk got the tour operator Steffy to come over. He was the guy I had to deal with. After bargaining for a quick moment, Steffy agreed to give me the discounted price. So I did get the elusive discounted permit. I was so happy to have saved $100 and now I could pass on this information firsthand to other travellers interested in seeing the gorillas. I gave Steffy the money in US cash and joined the group already being briefed about tracking gorillas. As I looked at the group of about 20 people, myself, along with 3 others were the youngest in the group by at least 20 years. We finished the briefing and I joined the smaller individual group that would be tracking family Habinyanja or group 'H'. There are 4 habituated groups in Bwindi and 8 permits available for each group everyday. This means there are only 32 permits available daily and these can be booked out in the high season. Thankfully now is the low season and a permit is available on site most days. 3 groups are tracked from the Buhoma side of the park and one group is tracked from Nkuringo, on the other side of the park.
I joined a group of 5 others, a couple from Germany and 3 from the U.S.. The group H that we would be tracking was the largest habituated group with 23 member but there were located far from Buhoma. We had to drive for 45 minutes to reach the area where we would be entering the forest. We met porters and armed escorts there. The group I was with hired 4 porters. I told them I would be fine carrying my small daypack by myself. Once we met up with the trackers in the forest, our entourage contained 15 people.
We entered the forest without a trail. I was following behind our guide, Meddy, since I was in the best shape of our group. The terrain was fairly steep going up and down but the ground vegetation wasn't very thick. We would stop every few minutes to wait for the whole group to catch up. After an hour of bushwacking we were close to the gorillas. Meddy told us to get our cameras ready and drink water because eating or drinking in front of the gorillas was not allowed. Neither was flash photograpy. We were told not to make any sudden movements or loud noises and keep at least 5m from the gorillas. If they approached us we were to move back slowly. This was it, we were ready to go. The moment we had all been anticipating. We only walked for less than a minute when I started looking up in the trees and spotted my first gorilla. As I looked around I could see more, some high in the tree, some low and some on the ground. I was seeing one of the rarest animals on the planet, with only an estimated 700 left in the wild. Mountain gorillas have not been bred in captivity, making them even more rare. The gorillas in zoos are all western lowland gorillas.
The gorillas seemed to be in a good mood. Young ones were playing with each other and doing phony chest beating. They were so fun to watch. It sometimes looked as though they were putting on a show for us. Meddy motioned for us to get closer so we could see the silverback, the leader of the group. He was sitting up against a tree. I had seen many photos of gorillas and read a few books about them but it didn't prepare for seeing them. I was surprised at how big and scary looking the silverback was. They can weigh up to 180kgs and tear you apart if they wanted to. Thankfully though, most of them are peaceful vegetarians and acts of violence are rare. Group H had been opened for tourist for 10 years now and were fully used to their daily prescence. Some of the gorillas ignored us completely, while others put on a show and some went high into the trees. The silverback casually glanced in our direction sometimes if one of us moved on the crunchy loud forest floor of dried leaves. The ground was quite soft. Everyone got in a good viewing positon and started taking photos and just appreciating what we were seeing. An armed guard was sitting beside a tree when a subadult gorilla came around the other side and tapped him on the back like they were playing a game of tag. Everyone laughed. It was a great atmosphere. Sometimes the silverback would grunt and Meddy would grunt back at him. I also heard a lot of flatulence. Their vegetarian diet makes gorillas extremely gassy. The silverback got up and walked short distance to another tree to sit down. This was when I could really appreciate his massive bulk and shiny silver coat on his back. Gorillas live for up to 40 years in the wild and the silver hair is a sign of maturity. We followed the silverback to his new resting spot and got comfortable again. The time was flying by. Meddy announced that we only had 30 minutes left. Some of the gorillas came quite close to us. One of them walked by on bipedally waving his hands up in the air until he grabbed on to a small tree and swung around. Infants wrestled and rolled on the ground with each other. Some of the group was feeding but most were just resting. Gorillas spent 30% of their day feeding, 30% being active and the rest sleeping or resting. Most groups don't move more than 1km in a day. Yesterday group H was only a 10 minute hike from the road. Before I knew it our one hour time was up. I had taken many photos, some good, some bad. I would go through them later. As our guides left, the Germany couple and I were the last ones to leave the group. As we hiked uphill I looked back and could still see gorillas in the trees. This would be my last glimpse of this endangerd and majestic animal. I was very happy with my experience and think it was totally worth the money.
We got back to the rest of our group who was waiting for us close by. We hiked for almost an hour and then stopped for lunch. I only brought a banana with me and this I had already eaten but I just sat quietly while the others ate their packed lunch. They noticed I was not eating and I told them I had nothing to eat. I was quickly showered with food that they said they would not eat. Sandwiches, apples, dried fruit, fruit juice and even quiche. It was the most nutritous and varied lunch I've had in a while. I was grateful. We reached a thin trail and took this back to the road where our jeep met us. We drove back to the park, leaving the gorillas behind. A percentage of park fees goes to support local communities to build schools and hospital and it's hoped that this encourages locals to support tourism and preserve the gorillas. Gorillas are increasingly threatened and their habitat shrinking. This causes them to sometimes leave the forest and raid local crops. Of course villages don't like this and are trying to strike a balance to live in harmony with the gorillas. I believe gorillas will always be under threat from man but hope that they will be preserved for future generations. Their numbers have been slowly increasing which is a good sign. Mountain gorillas are only found in Uganda and the Virunga national parks in DRCongo and Rwanda.
Back at the park reception we were given our official gorilla tracking certificate and shown a small color poster of group H which we could purchase for $10. I would think paying $500 should include this small poster. I didn't buy it from the park. Later I did my gorilla souvenir shopping and got the poster for a cheaper price when I bought it together with some postcards. Back at my hotel I relaxed in my room and went over the days events. I had seen gorillas, I have done it.One of the world's ultimate wildlife encounters. I was so happy, relieved, extremely satisfied and just filled with a great feeling.