I was twelve when I saw for the first time the movie “Gorillas in the Mist” – I remember very clearly how fascinated I was, not by Sigurney Weaver, but by the amazing mammals, and in particular the Silverbacks – the king of the jungle. 24 years later I realized a dream to see these mountain gorillas (less than a 1000 are still roaming this planet) face to face. There I stood – on a steep forest slope in Bwindi Forest in the corner of Uganda, Ruanda and Congo, staring into the eye of a big sliverback, adult males older than 17years. There can be one or more in a family, but only one is the dominant. And I clearly was staring into the boss – just three metres ahead of me! Half an hour earlier our guide Kadi has lead us of the bumpy mountain road and less then five minutes later we already were surrounded by these amazing creaturs. Tracking gorillas is a highly regulated (and expensive) business, with the benefit that only a small group is allowed to get close (in our case nine people). The drawback is that you are only allowed an hour (to limit intereference with their habitat and decrease risk) with them, before its time to head back… but more than enough to enjoy the young ones playing around (wrestling each other, very very similar to humans), the females slurping in endless amounts of grass and the silverback putting and end to the show by taking down a whole (albeit smallish) tree 🙂
