Africa - Uganda and its Impenetrable Forest

In 2008, I was fortunate and blessed enough to be able to fulfil a lifetime's dream of visiting Africa. We spent weeks planning our trip - where to stay, where to go, what to do...what to wear?! Once we got there, everything fell into place. Kenya was our first stop. The tented camps, the safaris, the topography, the animals, the Masaai/Turkana/Samburu tribespeople...an amazing experience - from being 3 feet from a grumpy lion with a freshly killed (and gutted) wildebeest to welcoming a black faced vervet monkey into our tent. After a couple of weeks travelling across Kenya we moved onto Uganda - country of tea. Despite my love of things tea-related, we were in Uganda for another reason, specifically the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest down south. Bwindi in Uganda is right across the border from Rwanda, where Diane Fossey immortalised the mountain gorillas through her many years of work, and of course the film Gorillas in the Mist. We took a tiny 3-seater plane from Kampala, 2+hrs south to Bwindi and landed in the middle of a tea-field. It was intentional. The pilot, Mike from South Africa, did a flyover to warn the workers we were arriving (I almost had a heart attack, I didn't realise we would do quite that much of a low flyover...) and then we circled and came back in to land. Enroute from Kampala we flew over Lake Victoria and also part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. G loved it, upfront with his walkie talkie headset on, hearing the downlow on JFK Jr's piloting skills, and how to fly in turbulence etc. I was happy enough squished int the back with my ear protectors and luggage. It was clear why they have a limited baggage requirement...15lbs... anymore than that and you have to leave it behind! Not sure how they would deal with it if the passenger were on the heavy side though... For me, the first difference between Kenya and Uganda is the greenery - there is endless foliage in Uganda...forest upon forest, and from above the palm trees look like green diamonds. There is stunning greenery in Kenya too of course, but Uganda greenery is brighter, if that makes sense and it goes on as far as the eye can see. Kenya from above has large patches of arid land, desert, water...Uganda's greenery is without breaks. We stayed in a lovely tented camp just a few 100 metres from the Park entrance. G did a 3.5hr trek to the waterfalls on the first day - I chickened out and stayed at the camp. He did well, it was a hard trek and it rained on him. I am sure that made walking through forest undergrowth a lot of fun. Not. He was accompanied by a ranger - with an AK47. We're still not sure if that was for protection against the gorillas or guerillas. The next day we kitted up and walked in a group of 10 into the Impenetrable Forest. Impenetrable is an apt name. Hard work - constantly climbing up and then down, over and under tree stumps, vines etc... Thankfully we each had our own porter who carried our 2litres of water and lunches...and also gave us the literal hands-up when needed. In my case that was frequently. If you're funny about a stranger shoving his hand on your bottom to push you up a hill, you will not last long doing this trek. I was more than grateful however and would have happily had him drag me along the ground by my boots if it meant my trek was made any easier. We walked, and walked, and climbed and struggled and climbed some more, and then we saw him. Up in the trees with his back to us. Right at the top of a tree, perched, eating some foliage. A silverback. To say he was like King Kong would be exactly it - he really was King Kong, there is no other way to describe him. A few feet on, we got charged by his 2nd in command...the deputy silverback I suppose. We stumbled upon him stuffing his face under a bush - he was keeping up the rear of the family and clearly got distracted by something tasty. Our lead ranger startled him, he screamed and came bounding out with a lot of chest thumping. All fine - it was more a warning than anything else, but the lady who insisted on being at the front of the group decided to walk at the back after that little incident. This particular family (the H family) comprises 26 mountain gorillas - each distinguishable by their nose print - the wrinkly bit just above the bridge of their noses! This family has 2 silverbacks - not that uncommon apparently, due to the size of their group. They range in size from the size of a human 6-month old baby to, well, King Kong. The adult males are disciplinarians and the roles of all in the group appear pretty similar to those of a human group - the men lead the way, check out the route (probably don't ask for help if they get lost), find a safe place to stop and eat. The females bring the babies, apply lipstick, ok no. Their names are unpronounceable in Swahili but one female's name is translated as Woman with the Small Body. Cute. She, sadly, was sick - a vet came with us to check her out. She had a large gash above one of her eyes and they believe she might have got blood poisoning as a result. She was lying on her side, arm thrown over her face and curled up like you or I would be if we were in pain. The vet wasn't too concerned about her, though I suspect he wouldn't have admitted it even if he were. The Ugandans are proud of their mountain gorillas and in parallel, these animals bring in much of the tourism revenue every year. It is a condundrum - in Rwanda, the country needed to recognise the animals as a source of revenue (masked as national pride for some years), in order to get the locals to stop the poachers (Diane Fossey couldn't do it and probably died trying). This took years. I don't know if this is the case in Uganda, but my stomach churned on realising the cost of one ticket to see the gorillas was more than the annual salary of a nurse in Bwindi. We witnessed the main silverback physically reprimand a junior male - we are not sure what he'd done wrong, but the beating was severe and carried out in the treetops with us all standing below - in awe and at the same time horror as we watched the silverback dole out severe punishment (biting the back of the infant's head, beating his body) and the infant screaming nonstop. It lasted probably 2 minutes but felt like hours. After his walloping, the infant laid out on a tree branch, too exhausted to even eat. The gorillas move nonstop - they stop every 2 to 3hrs to eat for about 10 mins, then they are on the move again. Up and down trees, in and out of the bushes, constantly cleaning one another. It made me wonder how on earth the gorillas in the zoos can stand their lives inside concrete walls with no room to roam and not much to climb. I had always thought they didn't move around much, until I saw firsthand that this couldn't be further from truth. They cover miles every day which is why one can go for 9hrs on a trek and never find a family. Since my return, I haven't been able to bring myself to go inside the monkey house at the zoo. After our incredible trekking day, we collapsed exhausted back at the camp. Wherever we go we seem to befriend animals - in this case a cat from the camp next door. Her name is Jen. What a cutey - a talkative and cheeky one too. She slept in our tent at night - and tried to find the mouse (I say mouse because the thought of it being anything else, ie bigger with more legs, horrifies me) every night. She never did though. Still, because of her sterling efforts and cuteness, she got to sleep on the spare king sized bed every night and her snoring was ignored. PS - I now understand why the film was called Gorillas in the Mist - some of the photos show the mist that engulfs the forest in the mornings - it moves so quickly it is almost as though someone is blowing smoke across the treetops. One minute it's there, the next it has gone. We visited an orphanage - more like a recreational after school facility for children from broken homes really. It was fantastic and heartbreaking at the same time. The children put on a musical performance every day at 5PM - dancing and singing - really lovely. Afterwards, the supervisor hands out clothes to them that have been sent by their sponsors (foreigners who donate to the children) - we're not sure who designates the items of clothing or toys but it was quite something to see a 10yr old boy being given a pink babygro. He took it well though, and even put his leg into one of the arms! Optimism at its best. The children were cheeky, smiley, loving - then the heartbreaking part was seeing them try to sell their drawings and carvings "to support their families". There is something so saddening about a 6yr old girl hoping that a simple line drawing is a ticket to a bowl of food. Over here, our children draw these pictures nonstop and think nothing of screwing them up and binning them. In Bwindi and elsewhere, these pictures represent food and water. The town is small - and every shop sells gorillas - wooden, hand carved...everyone sells the same things and nobody seems to mind. The women walk for miles every day - to get water. There is no running water so the village women and children walk anywhere up to 30km one way to get water from a well. Sometimes children are too tired or distracted and end up bringing back water from a nearby river - leading to all kinds of sickness and disease. If I were a 7 year old and had the choice of a river 2 miles away or a well 25 miles further, I know which I would choose. One afternoon, G saw a man walking through the forest in a suit, carrying a briefcase. A very weird thing to see in a forest. It turns out he was commuting home - the fastest way home after work was through the forest - a small 20km daily walk. It made me think twice about complaining when my car breaks down. On our penultimate day, the fighting broke out in Goma, not far from our camp. The border patrol is situated just feet from the camp entrance so we would see Ugandan army soldiers patrolling - rather nonchalantly walking the streets with AK47s in their hands. The only difference we noticed once the fighting began was a soldier carrying an additional piece of weaponry - an RPG slung over his back.