Many people saw the American blockbuster King Kong; in fact, King Kong is a mountain gorilla.
Currently, there are only 800 mountain gorillas in the world, mainly living in the alpine rainforests at the junction of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, which are 10 species of extinct animals in the world, extremely valuable! I have long wished to take a look at the King Kong style!
However, seeing gorillas is not easy. Due to security concerns, most people choose gorillas in the Ugandan "Brundi National Park." As a rule, tickets must be booked in advance for the year, and the fare is $ 500. He can organize observation of 8 people, not only can see gorillas, but also your luck. So, the exact way to see gorillas is to “track mountain gorillas” - they are written in their brochures.
In July 2011, in East African miles, my first destination was to see gorillas.
We rented a buggy in Nairobi and drove to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, for a ticket that was booked by the manager of a travel agency in Kenya.
July 15th, we drove in the afternoon, we arrived in the evening in a small village near Bwindi National Park (Bwindi in the southernmost part of Uganda), the hotel is booked, $ 200 per night, very simple, the hotel does not have electricity, the hotel has a small generator, and it will be sent every night and morning.
I carefully checked all my photo equipment and prayed for the good weather tomorrow!
July 16, we set off at six in the morning and drove an hour and a half before we came to look at the management of the gorilla.
Very lucky - the weather is exceptionally sunny!
After registering and introducing the rules of admission, at almost 9 o’clock we began to enter the park to track the gorillas.
We are 4 Chinese, the rest are foreigners, the photographic equipment is heavy, each of us hired a young man to help us with a backpack and take a tripod.
We have 8 spectators and 5 people in the guide. Before we arrived, they were already in the mountains to find out where the gorillas were, and returned to pick us up.
The road, which was almost two kilometers ahead, was very good, and then went into the depths of the forest. There was no road, the forests were dense, almost all of them were low bushes, and the guides used a machete to cut down the bushes and go forward. Walk in front of the team, 2 guides behind the temple. This is the usual way for gorillas. Although it is sunny, but the legs are rather slippery, I can not stand it. I still carry a heavy camera. Most of the time I rely on guides and young people to help me pack. I began. I realized what it means to “track the gorillas”, as well as what is called “a national park that cannot be crossed”!
The guide asked us to keep it as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the gorilla. On the descent, I suddenly saw in the distance a young gorilla playing in the head of a tree, when I lifted the camera, it disappeared. Then, on the way, I met two gorillas, one of which was a gorilla with a silver back, but the forests were too dense and disappeared in no time.
The road was too difficult to leave. We were a little disappointed. I could no longer hold her. My interlocutor said that if he could return immediately, he would not watch her, but he would not return and could only follow. I think we are lucky if it rains, then it will be finished, there is no way to enter, the tree said, it often rains, and the rains are just amazing!
We crossed the stream at the foot of the mountain and turned around the corner. We saw a young gorilla lying on a tree just 10 meters from us. She did not move there, looked at us for a while, then it was like an angry look. Two eyes widened, stood up and beat the chest, we were a little worried, but it was calm and sat for a while, still hiding behind in the forest. We saw this process very clearly and photographed a clear gorilla.
I began to climb the mountain. In the place where I was returning to the intersection, an adult gorilla hid in the bushes and ate leaves. The guide led us to approach him quietly. He saw us, but did not move and ate leaves. The guide is slow, a little tree that blocked it, this time too close to the gorilla, less than 3 meters away, too clear, his big hand, the beard of the corner of his mouth is clean, I use A sharper image was taken from a wide angle. It looked very obedient, ate some leaves and slowly climbed into the depths of the forest. Our Gorilla Tracking is also a complete conclusion!
Returning to the road we arrived at was already 11 o’clock. We sat and ate. The guide said. This is a gorilla family with 5-6 gorillas.