There are only a few hundred mountain gorillas left in the world, all of which live in a small area that crosses the borders of Uganda, Congo and Rwanda. We agreed that our safari around East Africa would not be complete without seeing the gorillas. Many people told us that it was worth the expense and honestly it was. We met some English guy who had just seen the gorillas that day and managed to take a video of the Silver back gettin it on with one of his many ladies. This was really hilarious. I thought that we might be lucky enough to have the same experience but I wanted to ensure the big Silver back could go at it in style, especially with a bunch of mzungus watching. So when we left, I was ready with my iPod, speaker and Feel good Inc by the Gorillaz loaded up to provide a little mood music.
From Kisoro we hooked up with Daniel the gorilla guide from Congo. He took us accross the border and to some spot where congalese guides took us into the jungle to find the gorillas. After about a 2 hour trek the guide started getting excited. Every 5 min he would look back at me and go "see dat, dat gorilla shit" or "see dat, dat gorilla food" or "see dat, dat gorilla prints". Finally we got there and he laid out the rules. Don't touch them and if they charge slowly crouch down. Hmm, Ok?
We walked right up to them it was pretty amazing. International law says that you are not allowed to go within 10 feet of them, but at times we were so close we could touch them. They really are a funny bunch. Unfortunately for us there was no funny business, just eating. So I did not play music for them, I think the guards would have shot me anyway, they looked pretty trigger happy with there AKs.
After seeing the gorillas we travelled accross Congo all the way to Goma where we spent the night. Goma was completely destroyed a couple of years ago when a volcano erupted and the lava hit the town and wiped everything out. The damage is still apparant today and quite shocking.I have updated the white water rafting entry so that it now includes pictures, have a look. It was seriously nuts.
4 comments:
Hi Matt,
I just found out about your blog. Looks like an awesome adventure.
Very cool you guys got to see the gorillas. Great pics.
Say hi to Sarah for me.
Cheers,
Julie
"We win! We all win!" Hahaha just saw the Hockey Night in Kenya story on the CBC. It was pretty cool. I saw that save you made that broke your stick, did you get your money back from those guys? Just kidding...
I like that one guy who thinks Kenya has pretty good hockey players and is now on its way to becoming part of the world hockey scene, pretty confident my good man, good luck with that! If you have a link to the video on the CBC website you should include it in your next blog entry.
Way to go Matt, you are doing great things and what do you know, now you're a star too :) Keep up being a good ambassador to our country.
Matt, CBC played your bit. Saw it Wednesday morning at 5:44 am, replay from the night before. Peter Mansbridge did the lead in, about 2 min. long. CONGRATS!!
This site is really cool! I found here alot of information that I was looking for. I am really happy to be a part of This site! oneminuteworldreview-education
Post a Comment