The stars

The stars of the wild chapter of the trip, by expense, effort and accumulation of good fortune, cannot be other than the mountain gorillas. We had the privilege and the big luck of getting permits at the very last minute to track the Rushegura group, and indeed we tracked them. Kicking the ground with my shin has left my leg looking like an impressionist painting and we got mud and water up to our ears, but seeing those creatures behaving with such familiarity in front of us was something simply incredible and worthy of any vicissitudes.

Mouths watered seeing the little one crawl on Silver Back’s back. The female that feeds the babies performed a meticulous nail cleaning under our sight. The games of the youngsters while the older made a lazy digestion laying on the ground were a real joy. The exhibition of power of the big boss left us petrified, although the guides translated the movement for us as a signal to the rest of the group that everything was ok – more than one got their heart jumping for a while thanks to the call to calm. The melting point was when the favorite female extended her arm towards the big guy, with a movement that could very well have been a caress, to let him know that she was also leaving with the rest of the group, and it was time that he moved his lazy ass. Shortly afterwards, the yet-to-be-named little one  played with the branches until mum passed by to follow the group in the migration. At that moment he just hopped on her back with a grace that we bipedal primates are incapable of hanging from a branch. We wanted more, but we accepted what we got knowing that invading their privacy once a day is already at the border of what such a susceptible creature can stand, and conscious of the GREAT fortune that we had had in contemplating those scenes.

That same afternoon we followed the Waterfalls trail to get another of those memorable “falling elephants and hippos” kind of rain (four days later my boots are still wet). The day was exhausting and simply unforgettable. It was very nice to share the sunset chatting with part of the gorilla-troop. A few hours of slippery trek under the rain don’t allow to get to know people at all, but sharing moments of that intensity somehow opens the paths for communication, gives something important in common, and makes it very easy to feel affectionate for whom just hours before where absolute strangers (and I owe very good friends to that!). Later that evening, the guard to whom we had invited for dinner and a beer as thank you for giving us the opportunity to track the group, offered us (good trap) a delicious dinner with African plates made out of fresh local produces. Yummy!! And what a nice guy. I am sure his new tourism enterprise is going to be a hit in less than a couple of years. Maybe I should have asked him if he accepts business partners; I could even find a stable source of income after all!

Taking a breath

Last week has been just crazy with wildlife, rain and mud. We somehow managed to move around in a country in which the definition of highway dangerously merges with that of muddy path full of holes, we camped under sun and rain, and we got so wet that we didn’t get really dry until we got out of the Impenetrable Bwindi and back to the “civilization”. If I try to make a summary of all the things I’ve seen I am pretty sure I’ll leave something out. Depending on the moment one thing or another comes to my mind: animals, people – locals and as strangers as myself -  landscapes, means (and ways) of transport…

Camping among hippos and warthogs was something. At the beginning it was difficult to catch some sleep, but I think it was more the sleeping on the floor thing and the loud wind than the company. Seeing the King of the Wild walking around the savannah, stopping here and there to mate with his travel partner was… surprising; one never thought of Simba having such little resistance, if you know what I mean. The elephants, which from the distance and in the shade of a terrace made that simple breakfast a feast, and in the close distance from the boat, accompanied buffalos, hippopotamus and crocs making that one a memorable afternoon,  allowed us to see them one last time, just before we run out of light, right at the border of the road, as if we weren’t the species that almost finished them up. The hippos – yes, I need to name them again – playing the soundtrack of our trip, dropping by our neighborhood, swimming in the river that separated us from Congo or in the channel through which we enjoyed the boat ride. What a beautiful animal! The chimps that, comfy high up in the tree, didn’t ask for much of a walk for us to see them, but made us twist our necks. The antelopes, the gorgeous bushbacks and the others, more reddish, all around the savannah, alert when the lioness was near by, magnificent postcard under the tree next to our tents. About the stars of the week I better talk in another post since this one is already over the attention span of some .

I have been resting these days in the lovely Byoona Amagara, in Lake Bunyonyi, enjoying the views, the good food and the library (almost three books in two days!). Now I am looking for a quieter and, hopefully, more involved chapter of the trip. In the few days I am going to spend wherever I stop I doubt I am going to be really useful to anyone, but I hope to get to know some of the projects that are running far from the high spheres that I always hear associated with the same corrupted word…