After a disappointing first trek, I knew it would only get better because they wouldn’t possibly assign us to the same group would they? Luckily, our driver accompanied us this time instead of the camp manager, and he heeded my preference. He gave us 2 options: one group has baby gorillas, the other has a huge silverback but no baby gorillas and is a longer trek. Of course I picked the huge silverback and longer trek.
We were assigned to the Mubare family with some fit looking hikers (couples from germany, czech republic, and another from CA). Before setting off, the guide asked who would be the slower hikers, but no one raised their hands. So he said, “we’ll find out.”
Off we went. We followed the same path as we did yesterday, but we quickly branched off the main path and started climbing uphill. The uphill continued for the next 2+ hours through clear path and then through dense shrub, and amazingly everyone kept up with the guide, and he admitted he was impress with our group. He said usually he’d have a huge gap between him and the rest of the group, and would have to stop to wait for everyone. Our group just stayed on his tail.
At one point, we had to back track as the trekkers who had set off 2 hours before we hadn’t locate the gorilla family, but we were soon on the right path when we spotted gorilla dung – I’ve never been so happy in my life to see poop.
Shortly after we were following 2 females.
And then we saw the giant silverback.
Then we just all forgot about all the other members of the family, and kept following the silverback.
Members of our group
and our guide hacking away at the brush so that we could get a good view of the silverback.
The silverback was just busy eating and not paying us any mind. The whole time he would be grunting to let his members know that everything is fine. He also made a noise that sounded like something from Jurassic Park. It was quite eerie.
Finally our time was up and it was a 2 hour hike back down to the headquarters. As we got closer to the headquarters someone pointed out a gorilla in the trees. Then we saw baby gorillas on the ground and realized we had unexpectedly run into the Rushegura family (the family we saw yesterday)!
By the time we got back to the camp, it was a little after 2PM, and we were soaking wet, but what an exciting day. This totally made up for shorter hike we did the day before. This time I made sure I didn’t touch the boxed lunch so that I could have a proper meal back at the lodge.
We took advantage of the free laundry service at the camp. Had our dirty hiking clothes cleaned so that we could pack up for our departure the next morning. Not only did they clean our clothes, they cleaned our hiking boots to the point where it looked like brand new pairs of boots!
Africa 2018 