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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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be very versatile – we were in a remote part of Zaire with nothing but jungle and mountains around us yet when he noticed we were thirsty he managed to find us some soft drinks. He then gave us a hand to erect our tent, disappeared again and returned with some grass. The Arthur Daley of Zaire – what an enterprising chap.

A small crowd of tourists from Truck Africa soon arrived so we got chatting to them. We managed to organise a swap with some members of their group so we could see the Gorillas tomorrow instead of waiting an extra day.

After cooking noodles and discovering diesel is not the best thing to use with a Trangia cooking stove, we spent the rest of the evening chuffing away with three guys from Truck Africa. One of them had a Twister game mat stuffed in his backpack – the staff in his office had presented it to him as a leaving present before he set off travelling. He had made it his mission to take as many photos as possible of people playing twister in different places and was quite excited about the possibility of getting a few gorillas on the mat.

From the sounds of it, the Truck Africa group had suffered a nightmare of an expedition. There were lots of tales of their truck being bogged down all the time, which was a bit of a worry because our next destination was in the direction they’d just come.

As the evening drew on, everyone said goodnight and we settled down for some well earned sleep in our tent… on a hill… next to a jungle… in which lives a band of mountain gorillas!

In Awe of Oscar and his Band [May 6th 1995]

Today was a real, full-on, Indiana Jones style adventure from start to finish, an experience I will never forget. We’d had a great night’s sleep due to a combination of comfortable ground, tired legs and polishing off the local produce ...