Critically Endangered Giants

Let’s go on a journey together to see gorillas in the mist. I’m not monkeying around here. I’m your host Steven Bailey, and I want to tell you a little bit more about gorilla trekking, how it is, how you do it, where you do it, the experience that seems so far away. ‘Cause it does, it seems surreal. The world’s largest primates, marooned on these volcanic mountains in the sky. Take just one step beneath the rainforest canopy, and the experience is very real. You walk through dense, tangled forest, tracking a troop of critically endangered giants.

Critically endangered due to severe habitat degradation. There are only around 1000 of them left in the world. One thousand mountain gorillas. You will never, ever, see a mountain gorilla in the zoo. There has never been a mountain gorilla in a zoo. They have never been made tame, despite the best efforts of many European and American zoos during the 1970s, zoos that would — and, and this is true — zoos that would kill adult gorillas so they could steal the baby gorillas and take them back to the zoo.

Only In Three Places In The World

But it never worked. So these mountain gorillas, you can only see in three places in the world. Uganda, Rwanda, and sometimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, because there is one troop that straddles the border in that area. So, trek through to forest, deep forest, thick forest, with the guide cutting at the trail with a machete, opening the trail. Most of the track is on elephant paths because forest elephants also live in this wild place. You can see them, the gorillas up ahead, black fur, or you can hear them.

You can hear the sounds. You can sense they are close. And then there is this beautiful moment. A moment when time stands still. A wild mountain gorilla is staring at you, gesturing, communicating, revealing. Welcome to their world. Welcome to the world’s most intimate wildlife experiences. Go gorilla trekking, and you get to spend one hour with an habituated troop of gorillas.

So what happens is, researchers and local trackers, they spend two to four years in the presence of a troop, getting the troop used to human presence. That means that you can go trek to visit a troop. Everyone does it in the same way. It’s a maximum of eight people per tracking group. The tracker goes ahead of you. So, the trackers go out in the morning to locate the troop, and then you track towards them. In Uganda it can be anywhere between one hour and four hours of trekking, because maybe the gorillas are on the move. So you have to keep moving, keep following them.

I Would Have Set Off And Just Kept Running

In Rwanda it’s usually a little bit shorter. You don’t get too much choice over which troop you can go see. ‘Cause usually the guides base it on how fit you are. If you’re not very fit, if you’re quite old, they’ll try and take you to the troop that’s easiest to reach. If you want an adventure, tell them, they’ll take you to the furthest part of the forest to the troop that’s there. When you’re there, you get one hour. One hour feels like a lifetime. One hour with a whole troop of these gorillas can go on for so long. There’s so much happening, it’s so magical and it’s difficult to know which way to turn.

When I did it, there were gorillas in front of me, but there were also two baby gorillas in the tree above me. And then I turned around and there was a Silverback. Officially you can come to a seven metres distance, but this is a really wild setting. So it’s not like there’s a barrier. It’s not like there’s a specific place where you find them. Usually you encounter them during the middle of the day, when they are resting, eating. It’s timed this way to be least disruptive. And there really is this moment when time stands still, because the gorillas know you are here. They know you have come. In fact, they are used to seeing people like you every day and they do this show, this gesture.

This one came out at me and she was moving her arms. She was making a lot of noise and I almost ran straight back to England. I would’ve set off and just kept running. It was frightening. But the guides — literally, as I hesitated, kept pushing me forward to make sure I didn’t back down. And after this initial show of “look, this is our territory, this is our world, respect us” — but yeah, there is no touching. You know, you don’t go there to shake a gorilla’s hands. Even if you want to touch, that gorilla is going to do you a lot of harm.

You Are Supporting Conservation

And by going gorilla trekking, you are supporting the conservation of these incredible animals. You are ensuring their existence because the money you pay goes directly to the communities in the area. It goes directly towards preserving that habitat. And the great thing about gorilla trekking is over the last 10 to 15 years, the gorilla population has increased for the first time since these numbers were even recorded. Since the first time we ever knew there were these mountain gorillas in the forest.

The two destinations are very different. The experience itself, it’s very similar. You get one hour, seven metres away. It’s a lovely track, beautiful forest, Rwandan gorillas are a bit — they’ve got longer hair, a bit stranger-looking than Ugandan ones. The difference is the accessibility and level of adventure. Rwanda is best if you are short on time, because you can fly to the capital city Kigali, from there it’s two to three hours on a really good road to Volcanoes National Park. You can stay in a lodge. The next day, either do gorilla trekking or go golden-monkey trekking.

The next day, you might do another gorilla trek or do the other activity and then go return to Kigali, take the international flight. So it’s a good option if you’re doing the gorillas as a safari add-on, especially if you’ve been going on safari in Tanzania or Kenya. Uganda, the trekking takes place in Bwindy National Park. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. And it’s a long way away from Kampala, the capital, the roads are terrible and you can’t do it on the cheap or you can’t do it on the quick. If you go there, you are really going into one of Africa’s most remote places, you need to allow a good day to get there.

Dian Fossey’s Projects

And that’s with a safari flight. Then to spend two or three days just getting used to the area with the gorilla trekking included in that. So, gorilla trekking in Uganda is more adventurous. It is also cheaper for the permit. Gorilla trekking in Rwanda is easier, the actual experience is just as adventurous, your permit will cost more. Either way, there is no question. It is really one of the bucketlist experiences in the world. Only 1000 mountain gorillas in the world. They’ve always been wild.

They’ve never been in a zoo. You could do it. Maybe you could do it next year. Maybe it’s on your bucketlist. Check out Kated.com. Search for gorillas, search for Uganda, Rwanda, check out the different options, including a really exclusive gorilla habituation experience that takes place in Uganda, where you actually get four hours with the gorillas as part of their habituation process. There’s also experiences with Dian Fossey and her projects going on — not Dian Fossey, she’s obviously not here anymore — but her projects, community projects and conservation projects going on.

Also in Rwanda, go see the chimpanzees, go see other primates. Same in Uganda. There is a lot going on in these two countries. So that a bucketlist experience like gorilla trekking can become the centrepiece of a much longer holiday — and hopefully a holiday and trip you’re able to do next year.