Gorillas in the Mountains of the Moon

Sounds Incredible, doesn't it? Well, it was!

After trekking for 3 hours, over mountains, through impenetrable (well, nearly anyway) rainforest, I arrived face-to-face with a baby gorilla! Sorry to make you jealous but as i only have one day left here i feel less guilty about it now.

The baby gorilla was gorgeous. There were more of them too. In fact, about 15 minutes later, i found myself face-to-face with a 200kg silverback (ie alpha male) gorilla. Not such an "awww, how cute" experience.

I think i should stay away from monkeys - in Murchison Falls we had chimps ambushing our group and here gorills (vegetarians, very peaceful animals) charging at me! actually, he wasn't charging at me apparently but at something behind me - i just happened to be in the way. trust me, the effect is pretty similar. fortunately, we'd been told what to do in such a circumstance - 1. get down, 2. don't make eye contact, 3. back away slowly & 4. don't try to take a photo. i'm afraid they weren't really the first things that came into my head at the time, although (much to Anne-Lise's annoyance) i did remember the last one. so, sorry, i don't have a photo of a charging silverback. but i have more than enough of before, after and the babies to bore you for a while.

after all that excitement we decided to be very lazy and spent 2 days sitting beside a stunningly beautiful lake in the mountains - it's a hard life.

unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. and tomorrow is to be the end of my time in uganda :-(. i will certainly miss it but it will be nice to be back home and to catch up with you again.