We were eager to get to Uganda after the conditions in Ethiopia, dreaming about food we would like and how we could get around Uganda on our own. The main reason for coming to Uganda was to do gorilla tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We decided to splurge and have this experience, and we are so happy we did.
The Impenetrable Forest is penetrable (surprised, weren’t you?). In fact, for the Saturday morning Tamalpais running group, it isn’t much different than when Scott or Dave lead us off trail and we have to bushwhack our way on steep, slippery slopes of Mt. Tamalpais or we have to avoid getting poked by a lot of thorny bushes. We found gorilla tracking refreshingly similar except there are guides with machetes clearing a path and there is a scout with a rifle, it is hot and humid in Uganda and there are enormous gorillas!!!
The scouts tracked the gorillas and to our amazement, there we were in the midst of a gorilla family – so close sometimes that we had to back away not to be in their personal space. In fact one of the very cute toddler gorillas went right past me and Mike and through the legs of another trekker! We were fortunate to join a small group and have Zac on our team. He is a professional photographer, specializing in bears, apes and big cats and is a part owner of a new Kenyan Masai Mara wildlife lodge. We had so much to chat about. He confirmed afterward that we had a very special gorilla experience – we got to spend 50% more time than other tourists do and we had the fortune of seeing 2 toddler gorillas playing on top of their dad (alpha male silverback) for over 15 minutes. Those two little gorillas were cracking me up – their antics were so funny and animated.
Right before that amazing gorilla tracking experience, we had visited the CTC Conservation Center, where visitors can feed some of their animals AND pet a lion! We got to pet Commander – an 18 month old male lion – in an enclosure with about 7 unarmed animal handlers. When Commander didn’t want to stay still for a photo or petting, there was no arguing with him! But the handlers would distract him and put him in a nice pose and have us pet him from behind. It was surreal to be able to get that close and touch a lion. But wait there’s more! My next favorite experience there was with the lemurs (only native to Madagascar). They climbed and jumped all over our shoulders and backs and it was so gentle, even though they are medium sized monkeys and have claws. We fed them as they sat on our shoulders. Wow!
