After a steep tough climb of 4,5 hours in which we went from 1700m up to 3200m we finally encountered the group of 37 gorilla's who were taking their siesta at that time. We immediately forgot about the struggle up the mountain. The gorilla's taking their siesta enabled us to take a good look at them while they were playing, relaxing, sunbathing and sleeping. Some of them made the famous 'gorilla sound' by pounding on their breast. In advance we were told to keep a distance of at least 7 m from the gorilla's. This is to keep the possibility that we humans infect them with our viruses and the other way around, as small as possible. And probably for safety causes as well! But because some of the gorilla's were moving and playing, this distance sometimes was no more than 4 m, sometimes even 1,5 m! We were told not to walk or move to much and certainly not to run, otherwise the gorilla's may attack you. The first gorilla's we saw were twins of 1,5 years old, playing, running, and tumbling over each other. The silverback, the leader of the group was only 3 m away from us. What an impressive ape, he was huge! The youngest in the group, a 3 month old baby gorilla and the mother stayed around the silverback. We were told that the carrying time of a gorilla, like we humans, is 9 months, and that a baby gorilla weighs no more than 1,5-2,5 kg, which is amazing, since a grown up gorilla weighs up to 200-300 kg! You don't wanna mess with that huh?!! The gorilla's acted as if we weren't even there, allowing us in their environment. For an hour we observated the group, astonished, amazed and touched by what we saw. Then we had to leave them, 2 of the guides/rangers stayed there, in order to protect the group against poachers, which, unfortunately, is still necessary. We went down the mountain again hardly realizing what we had just experienced! A lot smoother than up the hill off course. But this also had to do with this amazing -once in a lifetime- experience!
Bilden tagen: 18 september 2006
