Hanging with a baby gorilla!
Have you ever wanted to go gorilla trekking in Uganda?
Despite working in conservation in Uganda for nearly three years, tracking the gorillas was never top of my wildlife wish list, until now. I still can’t get enough of safari game drives in Queen Elizabeth and birdwatching all corners of Uganda – but I have to say: today’s trek to see the gorillas was very special.
Here are the Muzungu’s reasons why gorilla trekking in Uganda should be on everyone’s travel bucket list!
A gorilla peeks at us through the thick leaves of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Gorilla trekking Uganda
Bwindi is heavenly. The air is pure. The height and age of the majestic trees are awe-inspiring. Before I came to Uganda, the revered mahogany was just something my great aunt’s table was made of (!) and now there they were growing ahead of me in the forest: century-old mahogany trees.
After an early start, and a briefing by our Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) guide David, we trekked uphill through a small tea plantation and a field of bananas.
Briefing from Uganda Wildlife Authority ranger before our Mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi, Uganda. Here we were shown photos to introduce us to the gorilla family members we were hoping to encounter
“But the other hills we can climb them seated” advised David, as we slid down a muddy hillside to the edge of the forest.
It was a typical misty Bwindi morning – it’s not called Bwindi Impenetrable (Rain)forest for nothing! Treks to find the gorillas vary; occasionally the gorillas are seen in the grounds of the lodges around Bwindi. Sometimes you may have to walk three, four or even five hours before you find them.
More mist… climbing through the banana plantation. Mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi, Uganda
Our Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) guides helped us every step of the way. Here we slid down a steep slope and traversed a small stream
The hike through the countryside (one and a half hours in our case) was a big part of the thrill for me: would we turn a corner and find the gorillas right in front of us?
How would the gorillas react when they saw us?
And finally, in a dense section of the forest, clambering through the bushes, we met up with another group of UWA rangers who would show us where the group of 10 or more gorillas from the Habinyanja family were feeding and sleeping.
Every gorilla trek is different. We saw the Silverback, although all we could see of him was a mere glimpse of silver grey fur through the foliage. This photo shows how difficult it can be to get a good photo in the dark forest…
None of the gorillas seemed at all perturbed by our presence, as we shuffled quietly from tree to tree, peering through the dark green of the forest to make out gorilla mothers’ suckling gorilla babies and young adults grooming each other, all just a few metres away from us. Even the Silverback gorilla, the often awesome male leader, slept through our entire visit (grunts notwithstanding).
But it was the smallest, youngest gorilla that stole the show….
Can you spot the baby gorilla? … It hadn’t occurred to me that I’d see a Mountain Gorilla in the trees above my head!
Effortlessly. Hanging out with the baby gorilla. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Gorilla trekking Uganda
There was no chest thumping, we didn’t get charged at and there were no scenes of drama for the humans to witness on this particular morning.
Carefree.
Not to be ignored, the youngest gorilla of the group entertained us to an aerial display, dangling by one arm and pirouetting above us, eye-balling us with those beautiful big dark brown eyes.
He seemed to share our fascination as we watched, transfixed. I’d trek Bwindi all over again, just to relive those few precious moments.
This moment made the whole hike worth it. Hanging out with the baby gorilla. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Gorilla trekking Uganda
Diary of a Muzungu’s (first) gorilla trekking certificate, issued by UWA, the Uganda Wildlife Authority
Next lifetime, I’m coming back as a Mountain Gorilla!
September 2013: With over 7 million views, this Uganda gorilla trekking video has been an internet sensation: showing one tourist having the type of wildlife experience we all dream of. Such moments are few and far between. They certainly can’t be manufactured, nor can these animals be coerced – and it just shows how gentle and inquisitive gorillas truly are.
This wasn’t my first time in Bwindi meeting primates. Coming eye to eye with my totem – the Red-tailed Monkey – is a moment Nagawa (the Muzungu) will never forget!
Nagawa AKA Diary of a Muzungu. My totem is enkima, the red-tailed monkey. This painting is by Taga. I adore his art!
South western Uganda has become famous for gorilla trekking, but there are plenty more activities for tourists nowadays, including canoe trekking across Lake Bunyonyi, hiking the volcanoes of Mgahinga, golden monkey trekking, or hiking across Bwindi. The day-long walk from Buhoma through the thick of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest south to Nkuringo is one of my favourite Ugandan expeditions.
Before you start this adventure, make sure you have comfortable footwear and some high quality insoles for hiking Globo Surf.” I prefer walking boots that support my ankles but many locals love wearing gum boots. They don’t have much grip (but they certainly keep the ants out!)
Have you been gorilla trekking in Uganda? I’d love to read your experiences!
If you’re planning a trip to Uganda, feel free to contact the Muzungu or check out Diary of a Muzungu’s Ultimate Guide to Mountain Gorilla Trekking.
A fiery start to an “amazing” Safari
“I arrived in Uganda with three animals on my wish list: elephants, lions and chimps, and I’ve seen two of them within 24 hours,” my visiting friend Neil says.
The days starts far too early: and as we push through Kampala’s heavy early morning traffic we read that Kampala’s Kasubi Tombs, the main historical site of Uganda’s Buganda tribe, have been raised to the ground. Speculation abounds and there’s a tendency to react first and ask questions later.
Within 48 hours Neil’s been baptised Segawa, brother to Nagawa (yours truly) from the Red-Tailed Monkey clan.
In just a week, Uganda has transformed Neil: “I want to get so close that its breath steams up the camera lens,” Neil says – and that bloody great male baboon nearly does too. The baboons at Kyambura are enormous and don’t run off like they do elsewhere. My colleague Patrick tells me very seriously “a boy on a bicycle carrying ripe bananas cannot even pass by there.”
Our family of Mongooses trot off into the Bush at Mweya, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
The mountains are breathtaking – if you can see them – and this is one of the wonders of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Ten minutes of rain and the landscape is transformed, the barely discernible outlines of hills have metamorphosed into hills and mountains. The night spreads out before us as we scan the floor of the Rift Valley on our evening game drive, elephant-shaped shadows silhouhetted by the sunset behind them.
As we drive on we pass a herd of “Boofalows” as the indefatigable Rashid points out. We sip Amarula around the campfire before falling asleep to the sound of trumpeting elephants (I sometimes wonder whether I’m making this all up!)
I’m really lucky that work takes me out to the bush (Queen Elizabeth National Park) every few weeks and every visit is different.
A number of firsts for me include:
- A black snake, measuring at least 8 feet, that shoots away from our car like a bolt of lightening. (There’s a tendency to call every black snake a Black Mamba – in fact, a Black Mamba is grey)
- Stacey and Cathy have a green snake in their shower! (Ditto. There’s a tendency to call every green snake a Green Mamba. It was in fact most likely a grass snake. Grass snakes are harmless).
- We see two bright green Chameleons, walking very s-l-o-w-l-y along a branch
- We see a Spoonbill on the Kazinga Channel. It’s a weirdly beautiful bird. Twitch!
So for the second time in six months, I’m keeping my head down in Queen Elizabeth National Park, far away from the trouble as angry Baganda, sporting strips of the traditional barkcloth fashioned into bandanas, bracelets and headbands take to the streets of Kampala.
“President angered by Kasubi rumours” the newspaper headlines read. So if ‘truth is the first casualty of war’, I wonder whether the tombs are the first casualty of the elections? If not, by the torching, then by the political capital that one or both sides will endeavour to make of the situation.
How do you catch a house gecko?
The house gecko living in my bathroom is getting fatter and fatter by the day.
One of the house geckos on the skirting board in my bedroom
My nice white walls are peppered with little black droppings. There’s no way Mr Gecko will fit back through the thin gap by the window frame. His greed for mosquito breakfast, mosquito lunch and ‘guess what?’ for dinner has led to a self-imposed life of confinement.
I rarely see more than a flash of his growing gecko body as he darts behind the toilet cistern as soon as I approach – but the evidence of his presence is there, everywhere.
I’m happy to accommodate anyone who likes eating mosquitoes, but am getting a bit tired of his idea of ‘home decoration.’
Enough already!
But how do you catch a gecko?
Well, let’s say: don’t try it after half a bottle of Waragi (local gin)…
House gecko hiding in the corner of my windowframe
Aware that this little house gecko will rapidly grow thanks to our proximity to Namuwongo’s swamp, and its mosquito residents, I decide to try and catch the small gecko in the sitting-room and ‘release it back into the wild’.
“Now Keith, if you had helped me catch the gecko, this would not have happened!” (The gecko would not have run away from us in a panic, leaving his tail stuck to the wall… wiggling at me reproachfully, I might imagine).
It’s just a few hundred Uganda shillings (a few cents or pence) for a sachet of Waragi – making strong liquor very accessible
So there it is I’m afraid: Uganda Waragi ‘UG’ and conservation do not mix.
Uganda Waragi has had a makeover: new label being advertised on a billboard at Kibuye roundabout, Entebbe Road, Kampala
Note to reader: Uganda Waragi and tonic however do mix rather well!
Cholera outbreak in Namuwongo
It’s been raining heavily all day.
The gutter is falling off the front of the house (not that the landlord cares) and Eva has a polo neck jumper on “It’s so COLD!” she says, while I sit here in the same light clothes and sandals I always wear.
Rain here is both a blessing and a curse.
Uganda is a fantastically green and lush country. The two rainy seasons mean that many people (98% of the country are subsistence farmers) can plant and harvest twice a year.
The rain often follows an intensely hot day and is the perfect antidote for the very fine red dust which inevitably gets into everything. People somehow arrive at work spotless, years of practice tiptoeing round puddles.
The roads below Mount Elgon were so muddy, we almost had to abort the hike! Even the 4×4 needed a push!
But the downside to the heavy rain is the havoc so much water can play: soil erosion leading to poor crop yields / increase pressure on forested areas, destruction of roads (few have tarmac), dangerous driving conditions, inability to travel and therefore the knock-on effect on education and successful running of businesses. If it rains, everyone’s very late for work, you can depend on it.
The biggest infrastructure investment this country appears to boast of is the drainage channels than border the country’s roads. Some of them are quite posh! But many of them are de facto garbage tips (no such thing as Municipal Garbage collection here). People wee in them: men stand up and aim from up high, women climb in and crouch. Recently I saw the legs of a dead dog sticking out of a Post Office sack in a channel near my house (well I smelled it before I saw it). The funniest thing was seeing a brand new car tipped at a precarious angle, nose first into the ditch on a narrow (but fast) road.
But today’s worry is the spread of disease: Eva reports that most of Namuwongo is closed. The Council have been ordering food vendors off the streets in an effort to crack down on a Cholera outbreak in the slum / shanty town just below my house on the marshes. Eight people have died from Cholera this week.
The heavy rain has poured down the hill into the shanty town, washing rubbish and sewage with it, no doubt flooding some houses. This area is prone to flooding, having no drainage channels or anywhere for the water to run off. Mosquitoes quickly breed in the stagnant water ready to pass on Malaria the very next day; Cholera thrives in these kinds of conditions.
Entering the slum is like going into a different world, it’s like being on a post-apocalyptic film set, a maze of narrow pathways just feet from the railway track, between houses made of strips of battered wood and rusty old corrugated iron. But it’s full of life, the kids are incredibly curious and fun. They haven’t been exposed to tourists so they’re delighted with a “Bye!” (said at a very high pitch) and a wave; they rarely ask for money (yet – give it a few years …)
Child next to open sewer of Kampala slum
It’s alarming to read that the Council now plans to demolish houses in the slum without pit latrines. As it’s a shanty town I imagine everyone’s there illegally, so what comeback will they have? This could create quite a stir. Read more here about work to improve infrastructure in Namuwongo’s shanty towns.
I forgot to buy our usual bananas for breakfast so gave Simpson money to get himself some chapatis – just hope he didn’t buy them in Nam’ this morning…
Note to mother:
Cholera is passed through water and human contact. I don’t eat street food and we boil and filter all our water (and frankly we don’t s**t in the street either!)
You still on for January visit?!
My ‘new’ new life
A: a mzungu with a dog!
I feel I’ve been out of touch recently, suffice to say things are very definitely on the up, after a difficult couple of months. Delighted to report:
• I have a dog!
• Making headway at work & getting on really well with Patrick and Enid (office staff) and Eva (house girl). 
• Simpson (our gate boy) – who has his very own bullet point because he’s my best Ugandan friend – has started university. I’m so proud of him but I miss hearing his happy voice around the compound during the day. [PICTURED: Simpson studying outside his room]
• The knee held up! I had 50+ people round for a big BBQ and dancing till 4am this Saturday. The great thing about VSOs is they’re all happy to chip in. “Best party I’ve been to in Kampala” Jo said and she knows how to party! Jo was my dance partner at Africa Hash and we love S Club 7. We’re both over 40 and We Have No Shame.
A day in the life … species by species
Adjusting to my new life in Uganda – here’s my daily routine, one species at a time
“Greetings!” as we say in Uganda.
The view over my compound wall. Namuwongo ‘go down’ by railway Kampala
We may not have the same change of seasons here in Uganda as we do in Europe but the insects and other animal species don’t know that! They come and go in phases. If you’ve been reading my blog regularly you’ll have met:
- Mosquitoes and cockroaches – hell, but they do their own relentless thing all the year round!
- Flying ants with enormous wings
- Grasshoppers – or Nsenene – eat them or smoke them?
- Black Jumping Spiders – er… they’re black and they jump! Small and dead comical.
- Black ‘stumpy’ flies. A few millimetres long, they look like their wings have been clipped.
- Ants, o yes. And they’re still here.
- This week I’m noticing “Tim Burton’s” spiders – very thin scraggly long legs and tiny bodies. Proper name Golden Orb Spider.
Come back Ma, it only visited us once!
If you’ve ever wondered what my daily routine in Kampala is like, here we go, species by species:
My love-hate relationship with this beautiful bird was put to the test recently
I’m usually woken up by a Woodland Kingfisher …
In Uganda there are five or ten of every kind of bird… in the UK we have one species of starling and one species of kingfisher; in East Africa there are 15 types of kingfishers and 31 types of starling!
…or the ugly clack clack clack of the Hadada Ibises (Ibi?) – how can such a beautiful bird make such a bleeding racket? (And live in all that s**t come to mention it …?)
Marabou Stork, Mweya, Queen Elizabeth National Park
God forbid it’s an enormous (5ft / 1.5m) Marabou Stork flying overhead. They look so clumsy.
I throw open the curtains and out jumps a startled gecko.
Cock a doodle do… at 9 o’clock? The cockerel lives in the shanty town beyond the compound and likes to remind us VERY LOUDLY of his presence on an hourly basis.
As the day warms up a striking brown and bright blue Agama lizard wakes up and saunters along the top of the hedge. He’s ?? long, a mixture of beige and brown and the most vibrant blue. He’s a handsome fella.
Simpson killed another type of lizard (brown body with pale yellow and red belly). Simpson’s very intelligent but doesn’t know much about wildlife. He’s mad about his cows! (A pastoralist from the West, cows are a symbol of wealth and therefore highly valued). I told him off for killing the lizard. He was cornered on the toilet at the time (!) and he said he thought it was going to bite him. “Next time you come and get me” I said “and I’ll remove it for you.”
dead lizard Uganda – we nearly fell out over this one, I tell you!
As the heat of the day builds, we don’t see much other than the odd (but large and brightly coloured) dragonfly skimming past.
And when the insects get too much, I just have to remind myself that without all this food we wouldn’t have this amazing diversity of birds, one of my passions.
I do sometimes feel the Old Testament is being reenacted in my house!
That reminds me, toads (or frogs?), I often go to the sleep of them croaking very loudly after the rain.
At dusk the insects, birds and geckos reappear again. The geckos come out of their hiding spots, and stand sentry on the outside wall all night next to the security light. There are several in the house too. They TUT TUT at me loudly when I disturb them and I’m sorry that some were unwitting victims of the fumigation. They are my friends (we can forgive the fact I have black gecko droppings decorating my skirting boards!)
