Click here to meet the Bitukura family of Mountain Gorillas living in the Ruhija section of Bwindi Forest National Park!

Like the rest of you, I have only met the Bitukura family of gorillas through Inna’s lovely photos and video clips. There are fourteen in the family, including three silverback males and a few babies.

We all got up early to go to the Ruhija Park entrance where Inna and Patrick were briefed, along with six other people in their group. We had to take them in the minibus for about 15 minutes to get to a point closer to where the gorillas had last been seen. Robert, Kerstin and I saw them off – somewhat envious! But having seen a few many years ago with Roger, it was too much to go again at $700 each. (In case you think that’s expensive, it costs $1,600 in Rwanda for exactly the same experience!) The high fee goes towards many things, including protecting the gorillas 24/7 from poachers, habituating families of gorillas, conservation, community development and education, staffing etc. Consequently, it is actually a conservation success story.  The total Mountain Gorilla population (scattered over a relatively small area of forests in Bwindi and the Virunga Volcanoes shared by Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC) has now exceeded 1,000 which is a fourfold increase from their all-time low of approximately 250 in the early 1980’s. At that time, it was expected that they would be extinct by the new millennium.

Patrick and Inna were away for about three hours, which included one hour with the gorillas. It was quite a tough walk, hacking through thick undergrowth on very steep hillsides. What started as a cool grey day became very hot and humid.

While they were off on their once-in-a-lifetime adventure, Kerstin and I went exploring – at a very leisurely pace as we kept stopping to look at little wild flowers, insects and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters. Two adults were busy feeding their young ones. We even found a tiny orchid which Roger thinks we found on Mgahinga 50 years ago. Robert, as usual, spent his time talking to old friends and acquaintances whom he meets all over Uganda, as well as making new friends!

 

On our way back, right by the Park entrance, we saw groups of three different monkeys, one of which, the Blue Monkey, I’ve never seen before! It made up for not seeing the gorillas!

We had a restful afternoon, including taking photos of a few birds in the gardens.

After dinner, Robert and Patrick went into the nearby trading centre to play billiards while we women played cards around the charcoal brazier with the girls running the Gorilla Friends Community Rest Camp.