We awoke the next morning eager to begin our trek to the gorillas through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. This forest comprises one of the world's most diverse ecosystems. One of the reasons for the biological diversity is the fact that this forest lies directly on the equator. Because of this geographic location, these mountains were mostly spared the hardships of the ice age. It is one of the most densely packed forests I have ever seen. (I was pleasantly surprised, when we found porters for our water and sunscreen that one of the porters was a woman. It was remarkable to find that in this particular culture a woman was allowed to hike up mountains with 8 pounds on her back). We finally got set up and began our climb. After reaching the first base we were joined by a tracker who helped machete a path straight to the gorillas. As I set eyes on my first gorilla I had never been so excited in my life. He even came up right in front of us and started posing for photos. We continued on hiking through the forest that remained true to its name till we had seen the whole gorilla family including the gigantic and frankly quite terrifying silver back. I wanted to stay and live with the gorillas but the red ants made it clear that we were only visitors in their forest and we had clearly over stayed our welcome. Covered in red ants and their bites but completely infatuated and in awe at the gorillas we hiked back down the mountains.
The next couple of days we moved camp sites to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We safari-ed day and night on a quest to find the lions which we finally discovered on the morning of our last safari. The vast expanse of untouched land, home of all these animals was enchanting.
We began our treacherous journey back in a daze. We arrived at the guest house completely filthy and exhausted but completely happy.
- Yara Sifri
