Sunday 21st June: Uganda. Bwindi Gorilla Tracking
Tea & cookies were delivered to our rooms at the requested
times. I had mine at 7.30am & John was having a lazy morning,
his being delivered at 8.30. When I went to start Dusty, it again refused to start due to a
flat battery so I enlisted the help of 3 young men who just happened to
be passing, and got a quick push start.
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| Gorilla trekkers returning to camp |
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Each day, there are 3 groups, tracking three
separate families of Gorillas, with a maximum of 8 people per group. When they
finally encounter the Gorillas, they have just 60 minutes with them and
not a minute longer. This area is home to half the worlds Gorilla
population which totals about 660. The other 330 are in Rwanda &
the Congo although they do cross over the mountains from time to time.
People book up to two years in advance. The cost per ticket is currently
$500 each and as each day is full, that equates to $12000 income per
day, which goes towards conservation.
We now continue on our
way to Lake Bunyoni. It was a really difficult drive on very bad roads
and we had to get off the mountain before nightfall, as it’s just too
dangerous on those bad roads. We climbed to the highest point of the
mountain which was almost 8000’.
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| Ugandan village children |
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We reached Bunyoni about 6pm, with a bit of daylight
left and found our little lakeside lodge. The setting is absolutely
beautiful, overlooking the water and we sat and watched the daylight
disappear.
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| Lake Bunyoni |
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Also, we were the only guests in that night. Dinner
was had overlooking the lake accompanied by a few cold beers and off to
bed early.
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