From the Plains to the Rainforest

 

Over the weekend we went to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in an area called Nkuringo, which is the Southwest most corner of Uganda.  This was a BEAUTIFUL area, filled with luscious vegetation.  From our mountain-top camp you could see both Rwanda and Congo in the very close distance, in fact the active volcano you can see is in Rwanda.   

We then hiked about an hour and half down into the valley, until we got into pretty thick forest and we then came upon the gorillas.   

We hiked from the very top of the tree line to were this picture is taken, then we got into the thick stuff...

Mountain gorillas are endangered, there are only 700 remaining, none of which are in captivity.  The only two places they can be found are in Uganda and Congo.  There are about 300 in Bwindi, divided into families of about 10-20, and we saw one of those families.  We sat about 10 feet from eight of the gorillas for about an hour and took pictures.   

Here's Katie and Kelly taking a pic of the silverback

About halfway through, a ninth gorilla joined the party, and in walking by us his arm brushed my knee!  There was one silverback, a couple of smaller males, a few females, and two babies.  Unfortunately the pictures did not come out great, as there was thick canopy over us and we were strictly restricted from using flash!  But it was an amazing experience to watch them in their own habitat.  We then had to hike out of the forest which was a bit strenuous at 6,000 feet! 

A mom nursing a baby

That's the silverback right behind me

After going through all our pictures and reflecting on our time with the gorillas, we went for a walk through the village, where we found the most friendly people meet we’ve meet yet!   

View from the top of the village

The children in the village then performed some traditional dances for us which was really adorable. 

We then had this incredible hail storm.

It was by the way it was MUCH colder at that altitude and our camp was cabin-style so no electricity, but there were showers (water heated by fire, and flow was by gravity), beds, and toilets so we weren’t roughing it too bad.  The rain left some fog the next morning, which made for some nice pics.