Gorillas

We went through Uganda and into Rwanda to see the gorillas. I was of the opinion that it would be okay but somewhat like being in a zoo. It turned out to be quite amazing.

The group I went with did the shorter of the hikes; only thirty minutes to get to the gorillas. We were with a gorilla family called "Group 13".

It was amazing to come so close to them. They just ambled about eating bamboo and playing not minding the strange people with cameras.

While we were watching them, the alpha silverback realized my uber-masculine prescence and got a little worried. He thought he had to challenge me to maintain his authority on the group.

If you have ever tried to face down a silverback then you can obviously sympathise with me. 300kgs of raw muscle and fists like sledge hammers. He charged from about ten metres and came straight up to me face to face. I was crouching down to show him that he was superior while the tracker made "oompf oompf" noises to calm him. He stopped just in front of me, decided I was suitably simpering before him and then pushed me out of his way so that he could eat some more bamboo. It was rather exhilerating with lots of adrenaline going through the body.

The baby gorillas were very cute, jumping to get to food and crawling all over the mothers. One mother was up the duff by seven months too.

All in all it was an awesome day.