Awesome African Adventure. Day 11-April 19, 2025

Happy Birthday Mary. Gorillas-Bwindi Impenetrable NP.

Happy birthday to Mary today. 

We kicked off with breaky and our packed lunches. We needed passport copies, got our walking sticks and water and met Ivan again. Loaded up in the van and headed up the hill again to the World Heritage listed Bwindi Impenetrable NP entrance and through to Gorilla Tracking briefing area. 

The women from Ride 4 were dancing for the 24 odd tourists who are tracking the gorilla today. 

There was an amazing artist drawing one of the silverback gorillas  – with artwork for sale. The one he is working on is USD$1000. 

We then were introduced to head Guide Amos (40 yo and guiding for 13) who provided further briefing. There are 7 families of Gorillas here and we are to break into groups of 8 and will trek into the mountain forest to visit one of the families.  He went through the rules and told us about porters who can assist for USD$20. (Dennis had already suggested we do this to provide them with work) it seems there are about 40 porters and they get a job every month. They also have a seat to carry the elderly or disabled for $300USD) one lady was taken off on the seat. We later learned she had hurt her knee. 

We were allocated the Mebare Family along with three Spanish folk Louis, Mia and Estelle.  Our guide was Enoc and we had two guards – and an apprentice guide – Joseph. 

We then bundled back into the van to drive right up the hill to the starting point for our group. Quite a woolly steep trip on a very ordinary road. Ivan did well.

The hills are quite steep and farmed – with tea, coffee and other crops growing on the steep mountain sides.

Trackers have been out in the forest to find the Gorilla groups and guide us to them. 

My porter is Jackson. Extremely good. He has good English and helpful in pointing out things like a giant African snail, elephant tracks and Menlopis green plant good for nesting and food for the gorillas. The porters will hold your hand and guide you down and even pull you up the tracks if you need. It was very helpful to have him carry the pack with water, lunch, jackets and a few other bits and pieces. 

We trekked up and down for quite a while. Heard and saw some baboons from a distance. Before stopping to make contact with the trackers again. 

On we went.

Then we left our walking poles and porters and donned our masks to protect the gorillas from any of our diseases and walked on with the guides and guards to meet the Mebare Family. 

Then we walked to Eve’s childhood home. Her brother and sister in law have a house there and they run a chicken house – 200 chooks running around. It was very generous of Eve to share her family story. Her parents graves are in the yard. 

OH MY GOD!! it was amazing. There were 11 gorillas lazing around in the forest. Mr Mebare the Silverback, two young ones (a 1 and 2 year old) and various others.

There were several others in the trees, some of whom walked back between us to join the group. One walked right between Mary and Suzie and they had to move out of its way. 

We were able to move around and see them all.

The babies were tricky to photograph as they were swinging behind leaves on a wobbly branch. But just such a privilege to stand and watch them all interact. 

Then it was time to move on. Mr Mebare the silverback started to move, gave a few grunts and they all followed. They walked out where we were standing so we had to shuffle out of the way.

Then a couple of others shimmied down the trees and rejoined the group. It’s almost as if gorillas had us on the clock and we had spent about an hour with the family. They were not concerned with our presence at all.

We all felt very pleased with what we had seen. 

The walk out was shorter but quite steep in places. A bit of a challenge but we made it. 

Had a drink and biccies from our lunch pack before paying our porters and heading back to the van to beat the impending rain. We managed all of that and Ivan negotiated the steep rough roads back to the briefing centre. Here we received our certificates. I was visitor number 23 537.

Ivan returned us to Ride 4 and we sat and reviewed some photos.

Keith has sent emails overnight- yet again Kenya Airways has rescheduled a flight which messes with our plans. Keith has sent some possible options. So we sat and tried to understand what they had done and what it meant. As ALWAYS Keith has some options which he is now sussing out for us. Not easy as everything needs a form and one for each of the four of us. He continues to do an amazing job, having secured refunds from the other flights and even the seat selection cost has been refunded. 

Suzie, Mary and I went to look at the shop, made some purchases to send home. This took quite a while for them to weigh and measure and sort it out. We were MORE than happy to sit and review photos and chat quietly with Geraldine from Ride 4 and Estelle, our new Spanish friend and watch the ladies working. 

Suzie headed home to shower and recover from the hard climb out from the gorillas. Only to be called back as Eve had brought ‘Naughty Winnie’ to see Suzie. Winnie was one of the women here when Suzie came 8 years ago.

Eve offered to take us to see the chicken house and the market. Suzie declined and off we went.

The Market was in line with the rest of Uganda – organised chaos.  There were stalls selling everything – shoes, produce, pants, meat, dried fish. Take away foods – like bbq corn which Eve bought for us on the way home. 

We walked past the church her father funded significantly. 

Then we returned home with our Bbq corn for a Birthday drink with Mary. Chatted with another of the Spanish tourists. Then quickly went home to dump some gear and grab a jumper. 

We picked Suzie up and came back for dinner. 

Ate once again with Eve and Dennis. They really have treated us like family

Entree was Corn Chowder, followed by Pork and Vegies- Shared, then birthday cake (carrot) and banana fritter. 

A birthday treat for Mary. The all singing, all dancing Happy Birthday performance by Eve and all the staff – and a HUGE cake.

The birthday cake was accompanied by all the staff singing and dancing for Mary.

Phil had the candles at hand. What an amazing effort by all. A very impressive end to a happy birthday and an impressive day. What a way to hit the 63 mark. 

At the end of each meal. Our R4W team ask us to choose our next meal from the menu. 

Ruth came with breaky menu. A couple of new options for Easter Sunday. Fruit salad and porridge for me. 

Then home to download pics and watch the final episode of Missing You. Suzie reckons it’s the two cops – Charlie the IT savvy cop and Saggers the boss cop. I’ve got no idea now., but the dog man can’t be good.