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A journey across the Ugandan border and into the mountains of the Virunga National Park region in Zaire to see mountain gorillas. This adventure was a real honour and privilege for me, a very precious and unforgettable memory.

Uganda, Zaire - Gorillas in our Midst

Matthew
2004-03-05 23:50:59

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Phil stopped a few hundred yards from the crossing and we soon set off on our mini-adventure.

First stop was the Ugandan passport control, which we discovered was closed so we had to ask some kids where the guy who ran it was. We eventually found him just up the road so he walked back with us, opened the office and stamped our passports. The next office we found ourselves in was Zaire immigration control. Here we had a few more stamps added to our passports after which we set off with our porter Jack. Jack knew all the shortcuts to the area where we were going to camp. He led us through open fields where locals were farming and past the occasional bamboo hut.

There were women everywhere with young kids on their backs while the children who were old enough to walk were always happy to see us. They greeted us with beaming smiles and excited laughs.

I don’t think I’d ever experienced such a “sense of adventure” so to speak. As we began to climb into the mountains, the view of the scenery around us increased and we really felt as if we were just stuck in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We loved it; an unforgettable experience and we hadn’t even seen any gorillas yet.

I was very worried about Jayne. We had to stop to let her catch her breath more and more as we went along but we eventually made it. By the time we reached the campsite we had been trekking for almost four hours – an exhausting four hours at that.

On arriving at the base we met “Jackson” who by then we knew all about from the members of our truck we’d met heading back to Uganda. We’d passed quite a few of them; all very excited from the gorilla encounter they’d had earlier in the day. They filled us in on everything they’d been doing and even dumped a load of food and water with us just in case we needed to stay an extra day.

Jackson proved to be ...