There are about 720 gorillas in the world, all living in the mountains shared by Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. Those gorillas that can be visited have been habituated to contact with humans - that is to say that they are used to observing us as we observe them, all at close range. In Uganda, there are 3 groups of habituated gorillas. Each can be visited by up to 6 tourists for up to an hour daily.

In 1997, a group of Congolese rebels in search of money kidnapped and killed a group of tourists and their guide. Since that incident, a group of soldiers has been posted to Bwindi and each gorilla visit is escorted by armed soldiers.

Our group of 6 tourists (a couple from Denver, USA, a couple from Holland, and us) was escorted by a guide, 5 soldiers, and 3 porters (our fellow travellers had LOTS of camera equipment for the porters to haul).

Gorillas spend most of their time eating. As vegetarians, they need to have a steady and plentiful supply of greens to sustain their large bodies. Consequently, they've chosen to live in a lush rainforest. Spending so much time eating, they don't cover more than 1-2 kilometers daily, making tracking them fairly straightforward. An advance party of soldiers hikes to the place that they left the gorillas on the previous day, then follows their track of broken branches and droppings to their present location. We slower moving tourists follow a guide with the porters and 2 soldiers bringing up the rear. The going is not easy. The rainforest is hot and sticky and the steep and narrow 'trails' are slippery from the frequent rains.

The trail is rarely more than a few days old (since the gorillas move around) so the guide is often improving it by hacking away at the growth with a 'panga' or machete. Once we reach the spot where the gorillas were visted on the previous day, our guide radios the advance party for confirmation of the direction to follow to the gorillas. From this point on, the panga swinging doesn't stop as our guide blazes a fresh trail. After about 2 hours, we reach the advance party who tell us to leave our backpacks and load our cameras as the gorillas were through the next bush!

We stepped through some thick bushes and on the other side our hearts jumped at the sight of these magnificent creatures. A group of youngsters wrestled and tumbled on one side, and on the other the dominant male silverback peacefully sat and ate some leaves. They glanced up, acknowledging our presence and returned to eating and playing. Shutters started clicking as our cameras recorded these special moments.

During our exactly 1 hour visitation, we watched something truly magical.

After about 20 minutes, the group moved about 50 feet from where we first saw them and we followed the guide with the panga as he cleared the way for us to continue observing.

At one point, while Janet was watching a youngster playing on a tree, a baby gorilla started running over to play with her! The guide quickly moved us back as we are not allowed contact with the gorillas. We share 97% genetic material with the gorillas, so they are suceptible to catching our colds.

We are told that in another gorilla group, one gorilla playfully curls himself up into a ball, rolls down the hill and bowls tourists over, all in play!

After our visit, we retreated back the way we came, stopping briefly to eat a packed lunch and discuss the incredible experience that we all had. The guide advised that he visits a different group every day so that the gorillas get used to a familiar face with each group that visits.

The last minute decision to visit the gorillas was indeed a good one!!

We returned to our banda to get cleaned up, write a few postcards and enjoy our pictures taken that morning.