Lake Bunyoni/Bwindi Impenetrable Nat

Francis told us before arriving that Lake Bunyoni is know as "Africa's version of Switzerland" and I can understand why. It is a long narrow lake surrounded by beautiful green mountains. It is Uganda's deepest lake approximately 6500 feet deep. The lodge and camp site was located on a hill where the truck was parked at the top of the hill and the campsite and lodges were located at the bottom of the hill. We got lots of exercise walking up and down the steps from the lake and campsite up to the truck for food and our bags.

While the rest of the group went kayaking I decided to go for a swim. A short walk along the lake there was sun loungers with a diving board and hammocks. It was beautiful area to chill and relax while listening to the birds chirping. The weather was very humid so the cold fresh water was perfect to cool down. Francis took over cooking duties today and we had a delicious goat barbeque. It was my first time tasting goat and I really enjoyed it.

The following day we left at 5am to go to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for our mountain gorilla trek. There was a briefing for all hikers at the entrance of the park where we learned that the park is spread mainly in Uganda but also in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. There is 1063 gorillas living in twenty one families within the park. It is a protected park and due to population of gorillas growing they have been downgraded from the extremely endangered list to the endangered list. Rangers track the families every morning before the tourists arrive to monitor their whereabouts.

The group of hikers were split into groups of eight and we were all going to visit different gorilla families. We met our guide Gloria who told us that we may be hiking for a long time before getting to the gorillas. The path was a narrow trial that was steep at times. We were at an altitude of 3600 feet so it was hard at times when climbing

After one hour we were told to take a drink and put on our face masks. This was a sign the gorillas were nearby. Since COVID the park has used face masks to avoid humans giving any infections to gorillas and vice versa. This was the tricky part of the hike as the gorillas were down the side of the mountain among trees and scrubs. There was two rangers who used knifes to cut down bushes in order to make a path down the mountain to the gorillas. The path was mossy and slippery but we didn't mind as we were excited to see the gorillas.

The park rules are that tourists have one hour with one family of gorillas per day. Gloria set her stopwatch when we saw a gorilla eating the leaves from the tree. The gorilla moved down the hill and we followed as we spotted more gorillas together. In total there was fifteen gorillas. The head of the gorilla family is the silverback who is the biggest gorilla and is the father to all the younger gorillas. The silverback gorilla is born with black hair but as he gets older his hair goes silver. I was surprised by the size of the silverback as he was probably the width of two people and his hands were huge. There was a one year old baby gorilla who was been protected by his mother so we saw him from a distance.

The funniest of the group was the three children. These children were approximately two to three years old and they climbed up and down the trees, falling out of the trees and wrestling each other. They were hilarious to watch as they seemed to be having a lot of fun. In the future the two male children will fight it out to be the new head of the family when the silverback gets old.

Similarly to some of the safaris we have done I was surprised by how close we got to the animals without them been bothered by us. One female gorilla was eating and then got up and walked by me to another tree. She was at arm's length away from me. Nobody wanted to leave after the hour however we all respected the gorillas space and time. It was quite the climb trying to get back up to the original trial but once we were at the top we couldn't stop talking about what an amazing experience that was. I have had some unbelievable experiences on this trip but this gorilla trek was one of the best.Læs mere