Our final stop after leaving Swaziland was a lesser known park back in Zululand in South Africa called Hluhluwe Umfolozi.  To be honest, at this point in the trip I think a good many of us were starting to suffer from “Africa Fatigue”, where things that got us excited on the first few days wouldn’t even get us to turn our heads.  Another zebra?  Yawn…wake me up if you see a leopard making a kill.   Despite that, this park had quite a few things that kept our attention at peak performance for the entire day.

The terrain here was quite unlike any other game park I’d ever been to.  Most parks are in the “veld”…fields of grass, trees, almost always flat.  This park was so much more!  Hills, ridges, streams running down valleys..lots of interest and a good challenge for photography.  There were fewer places for tourists to stay in the park, but if I ever come back with someone “special”, I’ll definitely be staying at the Hill Top lodge..amazing views, beautiful furnishings, and what looked like a very fun bar.

From an animal spotting perspective, two events really stand out in my memory of this park.  First we spent about two hours stalking and following a large herd of elephants, trying to intercept them around the terrain to get us into perfect photo distance.  We eventually succeeded, but unfortunately the light was at the worst mid-day height.  Still, for a fun experience this couldn’t be beat.  Our most impressive encounter happened on our way out of the park…we ran across several rhino’s, two of which were large males fighting over a female.  We watched the battle for about 45 minutes, with the animals getting increasingly more tired and bloody.  Eventually the loser ran off in defeat, and we bugged out with the evening closing time right on our tail.

 

Cutting thru Swaziland on the way back to J’berg was something I wasn’t expecting at all, but turned out to be one of the highlights of this trip.  Crossing over the border, the difference between the third world conditions of Mozambique and the 2nd world Swaziland was immediately apparent.   The roads were in better condition, the street signs were in good repair, and there were modern irrigated fields of sugar cane, instead of scraggly patches of subsistence farms where one single family would try to grow their own food supply, supplemented by food aid. 

Swaziland is a fairly small country, but it has a remarkably  well developed  parks system.  They’ve done a great job of developing the park infrastructure for a wide range of tourist types; everything from grungy overlander (like us!) to luxury and family friendly places.   Hlane National Park is the overlander one,  so we stopped in for an overnight visit.  This place was fantastic compared to some of the previous campsites we’d stayed in!  Hot showers, electricity for charging our camera batteries, and even a very well put together cultural show in the evening, asking only tips at the end. 

Hlane has their wildlife fenced into two areas.  They’ve got one area that is for game driving where the big cats can wander around freely.  It was at this area that we got our first up close lion sighting of the trip.  We’d previously seen a lion or two way off in the distance, hiding under trees, but this was the first time we’d spotted one up close, and walking around. 

The other half of the park has relocated all of the dangerous cats elsewhere, and guests are allowed to walk with a guide.  The big attraction to this is the opportunity to get up close with rhinos.  We were not disappointed!   We found several groups of animals, one with a small baby that were happy to stand still and be photographed for a while.  Our guide was great at teaching us to read the wind, and sneak up on the animals so they didn’t detect our scent.  As long as they weren’t disturbed by our smell, their eyesight was so poor that we could get right up to them!

 

 Our next stop was another beach town farther south on the Mozambique coastline called Inhambane.  This was another fishing village (are there any other types on the coast?) that was pretty well known for its whale watching opportunities.    Whale watching is one of those  activities that are the bread and butter of many tour companies.  They love it because all they have to do is advertise the stuff that can be seen every once in a while, and if people don’t see the big attraction, you just have to say “Well, that’s nature!”.  Generally there are a few dolphins or other some such ordinary creature that still thrills the tourists enough that none of them complain too much about missing the highlighted attraction. 

This was kinda the way our tour went…we were told that there were whale sharks in the area, which if you are a diver will recognize as one of those holy grail type animals that everyone would be happy to see just once in their lifetime.  I’ve never been lucky enough myself (yet!), but was hopeful from the initial talk that our guide gave us.  Well, I ended up showing up early to the shop to chat about some diving, and the guide there told me that the chances of seeing the whale sharks this time of the year were slim to none..sigh, foiled again!  Anyway, we did end up seeing dolphins (of course!), and a surprising number of humpback whales right off the shore.  I’d seen humpbacks in the Antarctic before, but never this close, and for such a long duration!   We weren’t able to get in the water with them, but I did have a great opportunity to see one of the biggest manta rays I’ve been around.  Our guide spotted him below the surface, and told us to jump in with our snorkel gear.  I was the only one who was interested, and I was down in a heartbeat chasing him with my camera.  Unfortunately, I’m still learning how to shoot underwater, and chasing a fast moving animal on just snorkel gear isn’t the easiest thing to do, but I still managed to get at least one “decent” shot of him.

The next day the rest of the group slept in, and lazed on the beach while I went diving.  The coral was pretty sub-average, but some of the critters were amazing!  I’ve never seen octopus in the daytime before, but I spotted two HUGE ones crawling over the rocks, changing their colors constantly.  Eventually the two of them ran into each other and immediately started flashing their colors.  They extended an arm out, and did some kind of wrestling move, which I’m guessing was a type of courtship ritual.  After a couple of minutes of that, they split off, and I decided I was going to need a cold shower.   Unfortunately I fell victim to the most common of underwater photographer problems…dead batteries just before the most spectacular sight on the trip!   

 

After four days of bouncing over some of the worst roads I’ve seen in the world (I thought nothing could beat Cambodia!), we finally arrived at our coastal destination in the town of Vilankulo.  This was originally a small fishing village, but its proximity to the Bazaruto Archipelago has turned it into quite the backpacker hub.   We arrived at around three in the afternoon, and promptly headed for the nearest beach…unfortunately the hotel that our tour company (Drifters) use was in a pretty lousy location, and it took a while of scrambling past half sunken fishing boats and broken glass before we finally found a small stretch of sand that was clear enough for us to strip off and head for the water.  Once we got into the ocean, it was glorious!  The water temperature was a little cool, but for winter in Africa it was absolutely refreshing.  We splashed around for a while, and keeping in mind that we’d all had our tetanus shots, headed back to the hotel to explore the bar.

While the hotel might not have had the best location, the staff did a fantastic job of maintaining the beautiful landscaping, and the hospitality was superb.   Our group composition  was a bit older than most African overlander groups, and that definitely showed in the evenings.  We enjoyed a few beverages, had some dinner and then headed off to bed at a reasonable hour..definitely not something I’m used to on a trip like this.

The next morning we were up early for one of the highlights of the trip, a dhow trip out to Magaruque Island.   It took about 45 minutes using the motor to get out to the island, where I was surprised to find one of the prettiest beaches I’ve seen in a long time waiting for us.  Our itinerary was pretty simple…do a little snorkeling, some sunbathing, and maybe work my way through a chapter or two in the Wilbur Smith book I was working on.  The snorkeling was pretty decent, although the water temperature made it a little less enticing than the warm sandy beaches.   Lunch was served by the boat crew..they were offering some of the freshest barracuda I think I’ve ever had.  I hadn’t tasted fish that good since one holiday back in Texas when a couple of us went spear-fishing on the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

After another nap in the shade, we headed back to the hotel, this time under sail.  There was something really peaceful and relaxing about just chilling out, listening to the waves gently slap against the wooden hull, and hearing the fabric of the sails snapping in the breeze.

The next morning Ula and I decided to go horseback riding before we headed out for another day of driving.  The riding was beautiful, although the guy we rented the horses from was a bit of a racist prick.  He’d been kicked out of Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, and had resettled with his wife in Mozambique.  He was full of opinions, mostly involving how lazy the locals were, and how they should be grateful for the white people’s generosity.  Unfortunately this was something that we’d encounter several times over the next week or two.  Still, despite his attitude, the beaches were beautiful, and we were able to get in a couple of  great gallops in across the sands.

 

Immediately upon leaving the South African side of the International Transfrontier Peace Park, the landscape changed dramatically.  We’d gotten used to seeing wildlife fairly regularly along the road..mostly impala and other antelope species, but as soon as we crossed over into Mozambique, they were no where to be found.  According to Neil, our guide, during the Mozambique civil war both sides had come to depend on bush meat for sustenance.   In addition, there are quite a few tiny villages still in the Mozambique side of the park, and between the hunting and the human presence, the wildlife just hasn’t returned.

Despite the lack of game, driving thru the back country was definitely interesting.  We were going on roads barely wide enough for our vehicle, with branches coming in the vehicle that would quite easily take out an eye, or even remove your head if you happened to not duck in time!

For the next four nights we ended up camping at very primitive campsites with no facilities.  Showers were basically wet-wipes, and toilets were pretty much pits that we dug in the ground.    We did spend one really remarkable evening with a local family who had built a very primitive campsite for overland trucks.  The head of the family was a friendly gentleman, but it was impossible to guess his age or his wife’s age.  The husband was blind in one eye, and spent much of his time sewing on an old manually operated machine that he had under a thatched hut.  We had a few things for him to repair, and for the most part he did a great job.   We spent the afternoon playing bocci ball with the kids using “monkey-apples” for balls..tons of fun, and lots of laughs when the fruit finally couldn’t handle it anymore and exploded in a sticky mess on someone’s hands. 

Still, despite the dust, noise, discomfort and the lack of ammenities, it was a good couple of days, although I don’t think any of us would have chosen to delay our upcoming beach holidays in order to extend the experience!

 

Our second day game driving covered the northern areas of Kruger park.  Conditions were better today, and I felt more confidient with the new lens.   The intital excitement of being back in Africa was starting to fade, which meant that I could concentrate on good shots instead of just trying to take a snapshot of every animal in sight.   The lighting conditions were significantly improved from the previous day, due to our getting up early to be able to head to the Mozambique border before noon.  The wildlife was pretty decent today, and we even technically spotted a lion feasting on a giraffe that had been killed, but unfortunately it was hidden by way too much brush to have any chance of getting a good photo. 

After we finished our morning drive we headed to Mozambique, via the Giriyondo border post inside Kruger itself.  In theory Kruger is just one section of a larger international “Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park”, but unfortunately Mozambique’s section is pretty poor.   As soon as we crossed the border, the road quality dropped a thousand fold, and we didn’t see any further big animals other than the occassional Impala until nearly 10 days later when we returned back into Swaziland. 

 

Driving thru Kruger Game Park in an overland truck is a bit of an exercise in frustration for the photographer.  Due to the rigors of the truck schedule, and the sheer size, it is not really possible to control the time of your visit, nor do you have the flexibility to move around for the best composition.  In addition, you are competing with the other 14 people on the trip for the limited free space where you can even get a clear view.   Still, despite the obstacles, this was a fairly successful day for photography.  Today was the first chance I’d had to use my new Canon 100-400L in real world conditions, and I think that once I learn the limitations of it, I’ll really enjoy the capabilities it offers. 

Kruger is one of the biggest parks in Africa, if not the biggest, and due to the more developed tourist infrastructure in South Africa, it often feels like an “Disneyland Africa”.   It is very well equiped to handle a large number of visitors, and has some very restrictive policies that ensure that the wildlife is not stressed too much by the sheer quantity of people who come for their African holiday.  Only about 13 percent of the park is even visible from a road, and large vehicles like our truck are limited to the paved roads only, futher limiting the range.  Of course in Africa, game spotting is always a matter of luck, but having our range restricted like this felt like we were artificially handicapped with our options.   I think I’d have enjoyed the park more if I’d been in a smaller vehicle with the options to go exploring at my own leisure…maybe next time.

 

Our final day on the mountain! We’d been told that there were only about two and a half hours of walking today, so we were eager to get an early start. We practically wolfed down our breakfast in our haste to hurry up and get out of there. All we could think about were hot showers, cold beer, clean clothes and proper food! We set out around 8:00 am, practically flying down the path. The forest looked a lot prettier going down than it did coming up, probably due to the early morning sunlight.

The hiking was much easier on the knees today than yesterday; both Imed and I were amazed at how much better we felt. Whether it was the promise of beer, or the lower altitude there was nothing that could have held us back. We finally arrived at the exit gate around 10:00 and received our summit certificates. We continued to the village where the van from the hotel would be waiting for us, and found a tourist souvenir stand operator who wanted to make a deal for my sunglasses. These were fake Oakleys that I’d bought at the Uganda-Kenya border crossing for the equivalent of about $1.20. I didn’t want to rip him off, but he kept insisting that I select something from his shop in trade. I chose a nice Massai knife that I’d seen being sold by other guys for about five bucks. The guy insisted that the knife was worth at least $45.00, so I told him that my sunglasses were worth about $25.00. I think the deal was sealed when his assistant tried on the glasses and I told him that he looked just like Snoop-Dogg. They tried to haggle a little bit more, asking for a t-shirt as well, but we finally agreed on a straight trade. The guy kept coming back grinning at me, giving me the impression that he thought he’d ripped me off pretty good.

We finally got back to the hotel right around noon where the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging by the pool drinking Kilimanjaro beer and soaking up the African warmth. That evening around sunset the clouds parted over the Kili summit just at the perfect time to get one last photo from town showing what we’d accomplished. I knew that the next few weeks were going to have to be pretty incredible to match up to what I’d just finished!

Kilimanjaro summit day! By today, the fifth day of our trek, our guides had gotten the hang of Emid and my trekking speed. Most treking groups seemed to leave the campsite around 11:00 pm for the push to the summit, but since we were moving so quickly we got to sleep till about 12:30 am. When awoke we were served tea and biscuits, and then headed up the mountain.

The view looking down was amazing. The moon was so close to being full that you really couldn’t tell the difference, and it illuminated the trail so well that after about 10 minutes we realized we didn’t need our headlamps and turned them off. The night was completely clear and cloudless and we could see for miles in every direction. South of us we could see the town of Moshi ablaze with illumination from it’s streetlights. Mt. Meru stood maintaining it’s silent vigil to the west, and across the saddle of the mountain to the east we could see the jagged and forboding Mawenzi peak. Ahead and about 4000 feet up was Kibo, the snowcapped peak that was our ultimate destination.

We began climbing up steep scree lined paths. For once our guides had no need to tell us “pole-pole” (Swahilli for slowly) as I don’t think that we could have gone any faster if we’d wanted to. Despite this, we were still moving quicker than most other groups. We passed two large groups at about the 15,500 foot mark, and they looked at us like we were crazy. Around 16,000 feet we began to see the first patches of snow on the ground. The next couple of thousand feet passed in an almost dreamlike state. As we got higher, my thoughts turned more and more random. I kept thinking of friends and family back home, wondering how they were spending the Christmas holiday, and if they appreciated properly their ability to take a hot shower any time they wanted.

Physically, I was feeling fine. I wasn’t experiencing any physical symptoms of altitude sickenss, but I did notice that Allen, our guide was weaving around the trail like a drunken sailor. We checked to see if he was ok, and he mumbled something about being fine so we just kept on going. We’d been warned that the trail would get dramatically steeper near the top, so we were trying to conserve enough energy for the final push to the top. The trail had gotten a little steeper, but we didn’t think that it was the killer slope that we’d been warned about. Suddenly, we arrived on a flat spot where the guides were all grinning at us. We’d reached Stella Point, the place where one is at the rim of the crater looking down into the volcano itself. It was about 5:45 am, and sunrise was about 45 minutes away. Allen the guide said that it would take about that long to get to the highest point, so we headed off for Uhuru peak.

Towards the east the sky was already beginning to show signs of color, encouraging us to move faster. Despite the altitude and the freezing wind we felt a new burst of energy pushing us on. As we walked to the peak we could see the colors of the sunrise reflected in the glaciers all around us. Finally, we saw a wooden sign decorated with Tibetian prayer flags announcing that we were now standing on the highest point on the African continent. We ran to the sign and popped open a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne just as the sun peaked over the horizon. We couldn’t have timed it better! We shared the champagne with our guides wishing each other a Merry Christmas. Next we took turns taking photos of each other, and finished off the bottle. I think that we may have wasted as much as we drank…it was so cold at the top that the champagne was freezing to the glass as we drank it, and trying to pour anything carbonated at that altitude just made it fizz out of control.

Finally we’d had enough and began the long trek down. We quickly realized that coming up had been the easy part, and the descent was steep, slippery and extremely hard on the legs. The three hour descent was fun at first, but by the time we reached our camp our knees and joints were screaming for relief. We took an hour nap and had lunch before heading to our final campsite another long vertical mile beneath us. By the time we got to camp, Emid and I were walking like a couple of decrepit old men, much to the disgust of our guides who had kept encouraging us to move faster. After we had a quick supper we crashed hard around 7:30 and slept like dead men till early the next morning.

Camp El 15351 ft. Asc 3024 ft. 13.86km distance.

Today was the farthest distance for hiking so far. It was cloudy all day yesterday when we were in camp , so it was quite a surprise to see how close we actually were to the mountain. Our guide said that it was his favorite campsite, because it lets you wake up with “Kili as a pillow.” There has been a group of three girls shadowing our group, and today one of them dropped out due to altitude sickness. It’s the first case we’ve seen so far. I feel sorry for her, but I’m glad its not me that got unlucky!

My notes for today are pretty sparse. Looking back I think the altitude really started to affect my mental energy. There is a note in my journal that states that the altitude feels like really good weed. Since this is a PG journal, I can only assume that that was written by someone other than myself!

We arrived in the last camp before the summit at around 4 in the afternoon. We’ll get an early supper, and then try to get some sleep before being woken up around midnight to make the final push. It’s actually the first campsite that we haven’t gotten any rain at, but it is extremely windy. I just hope it’ll be nice in the morning!

Max El: 15247 ft. Total ascent 2056 ft. Camp el: 13080 ft. Distance 10.46k.

I woke up to 34F temperatures inside my tent, and quickly realized that it was colder than that outside when I opened up the tent flap and found there was ice formed on it. Most of the rain from the previous night had frozen, but the sky was clear providing a magnificent view of both Kili and Mt. Meru. I got a few good pictures, and we had breakfast. Apparently the cook can’t handle the concept of one of us ordering their eggs scrambled, and one ordering fried. Yesterday we both had scrambled, and today we both had fried. It seems easier to eat whatever we’re served than to try to communicate what we really want.

We started walking at about 8:25 am and headed straight toward Kili. The mountain really seemed to make its presence felt as it loomed larger and larger. It really doesn’t seem possible that we’ll be on top of it in less than 48 hours! After a couple of hours, the fog rolled in right on time. A little bit later, and the word for the day was “bleak”. The vegetation had nearly disappeared, leaving nothing much to look at except for lots of exposed lava formations. At the 15,000 foot mark we began to see snow on the ground for the fist time. Lunch was a bit chilly, but I was fine in just my rain jacket. There were a bunch of little mouse/gerbil creatures the kept poking their heads out of the rock hoping for a bit of food left over from our lunch packs. They were incredibly skittish, and it took quite a few bribes of cupcake before they’d come out into the open for even a couple of seconds.

After lunch we descended down a steep wet rocky river and began to circle the mountain toward the face that we’d make our ascent from. The vegetation started to return as we descended, and after another couple of hours we reached the campsite. Right on schedule, it started raining just as we got to camp. It wasn’t as intense as yesterday, but it did have a good bit of pea sized hail in it.

Today we camped with one of the most spoiled groups I’ve ever seen! They’ve actually gotten their porters to carry up portable toilets all the way up the mountain. They’ve got canvas sides, western seats, and fluffy toilet paper. We’re told that these guys paid about $7000.00 each for their trek, and Imed and I are thinking that if they have that much money, they can afford a little charity toward us poor basic climbers!

5.62km (3.49mi) distance. Total ascent 778m (2550ft). Camp Elevation 3845m (12620 ft)

Last night was pretty chilly, dropping down to 42 degrees Fahrenheit. The skies cleared overnight leaving a sky full of the typically amazing African stars. In the morning, the summit was clearly visible from camp, looking as if it was daring us puny people to climb up to the top. Breakfast was at 7:30, consisting of eggs, fruit, porridge, sausage and toast. We left camp at about 8:00 for a short but intense day. I’m writing this at 12:30 in the afternoon, and we’re already in camp. There was lots of steep uphill climbing before lunch, and then an easy stretch of mostly horizontal trails after.

We’ve completely left the rain forest and the temperatures have been dropping. it’s still very pleasant while we are moving, but stopping for a rest quickly leads to a chill. We’re traveling thru what the guides call the moorlands. It’s short, scrubby brush reminding me a lot of the mountains of New Mexico, without the cactus. There are lots of caves on the neighboring ridges that at one time it was possible to camp in, but the park rangers now forbid that kind of activity. At our campsite where we are to spend the night the hills across the valley from us remind me of photos I’ve seen of the Inca trail leading to Machu Picchu in Peru. I can’t wait till next year to see that for real! Other highlights include great views of Mt. Meru before the clouds rolled in, and some very pretty new variety of impatient type flowers, including one that was shaped exactly like a saxophone.

Physically, I’m feeling quite good. I’ve got my usual hiking case of the sniffles which I’m sure is due to an allergy to some kind of pollen in the area. I’ve noticed that I tend to do this anytime I’m in the outdoors. It’s annoying, but it sure won’t stop me from doing stuff like this! Going uphill is much tougher today than it was yesterday. I’m feeling the first Diamox tingles in my fingertips…it’s a weird sensation that I’ve never had before.

Camp is a flat rocky area that I think would make someone from the Scottish highlands feel right at home. We got into our tents just before the skies opened up with a pretty big downpour that lasted for about two and a half hours. I really felt sorry for those hikers who got stuck hiking thru the rain. Some of the rocks near our campsite look like they’ll get pretty slippery when moist!

4.5 hours walking. 10.91km (6.78 miles) Final elevation 3016m (9896 ft) total gain 1122m (4689 feet).

Day one has been surprisingly easy. I’d expected (and would have been happy) to have gone another two or three hours. My climbing partner is a good guy named Imed, a model agent from New York City. He’s a few years older than I am, but we’re both in better than average shape for this mountain. We kept up a fairly fast pace despite being told by the porters and guides to slow down constantly. The Swahili word for slowly is pole, pronounced “POL-ee”, and we’re hearing it all together too much. I’ve been told that the people who have the worst time adjusting to the altitude are those who try to take the mountain too quickly, but I don’t think we’re going nearly fast enough to worry about that particular scenario.

We did slow down naturally as the altitude increased, so there seems to be a built in speed regulator to this mountain…as the oxygen decreases so does your speed! I’m feeling pretty good about this elevation though. At the South Pole, we’re nearly always at least a good thousand feet higher than we are today.

One thing that I haven’t gotten used to is the fact that we’ve got people to do just about everything for us. Besides our porters and guides, we’ve got an entire camp crew doing everything for us, from erecting and taking down our tents to having hot water waiting for us when we arrive in camp so we can have a cup of tea. I’m quite used to doing my share of camp chores and am feeling a bit decadent being waited on like this.

Today’s hike was beautiful. The first 10 kilometers went thru heavy rain forest. It was very humid with the occasional rain shower, but nothing too bad. The temperature was really pleasant, perfect short and t-shirt weather. I’m a bit concerned about a spot on my right ankle that could become a blister, but tightening up my laces seems to have solved the problem for now. I am glad that I brought my Tevas to wear in camp though.

The summit has been clouded over except for about a minutes visibility on the drive from our hotel to the trail head, and then again in camp itself. Looking up at it, it doesn’t seem another 10,000 feet above us!

So in keeping with the primate theme of the week, my next stop was at a chimpanzee sanctuary on an island in the middle of Lake Victoria. Originally I wasn’t planning on visiting, but my original plan of visiting the Queen Elizabeth II game park fell thru due to a nasty case of anthrax that had apparently wiped out a good bit of the animal population. Getting to the sanctuary was an adventure in itself. The highway that we took to get to the shore of the lake passed directly over the equator, and of course the locals made sure to take advantage of this! There was the usual overpriced tourist kitsch, and a guy who had a couple of buckets that he would slowly drain out water on each side of the equator. While draining, the water in one bucket would spin slowly clockwise, and in the opposite bucket (supposedly equidistant across the equator) it would spin anti-clockwise. He even put floating bits of paper in the water to show that it wasn’t spinning before he opened the drain and let the rotation begin. Now, I’ve been around long enough to know a little bit of science, and there is absolutely no way that the amount of coriolis force a few meters away from the equator could be detected with even the most sensitive of instruments, much less a plastic washtub and a few paper flowers! Besides, according to my GPS, we were at least 30 meters (with a 10 meter margin of error) away from the actual equator, which meant that the guy giving the demonstration was on the same side of the equator both times! When I got back to the states, I did a bit of research and found this web site It was still well worth the stop, just for the opportunity to grab a photo of me straddling the equator. Anyway, from the lake shore it was about a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Victoria to get to the island. We were about half way across when we started approaching what looked like a dark raincloud stretching all the way from the lake surface up to a couple of hundred feet. As soon as we hit the cloud, we realized that it was a solid mass of lake flies and there was no way to avoid them. We just basically curled up and tried to keep our eyes closed and our breathing filtered thru our t-shirts. The boat driver was apparently quite used to this reaction from the white folks, and just laughed at us as he drove thru the swarm. We finally got to to Ngamba island, we listened to a presentation from the rangers where he told us about the problems chimpanzees face both in the wild, and in captivity. All the animals in the 100 acre sanctuary had been rescued from either zoos or private homes, and due to their habitation with humans couldn’t be returned to the wild. Instead, they had about 90% of the island set aside as wild jungle, separated by an electric fence from the 10% that the humans are allowed on. We followed the rangers as they tossed buckets of fruit and veggies over the fence toward the forest. It didn’t take long before we heard the first animals running towards us, hooting as they raced for the food. Watching these animals was a lot of fun….it didn’t feel like watching the gorillas in the wild, but it also wasn’t anything like watching chimps in a zoo either. It was great to see them in a natural habitat, but I still want to go see wild chimps someday. The other good thing about the sanctuary was that there were LOTS of other monkeys running wild, and I finally got to see a crested crane (the bird on Uganda’s flag) up close.

Gorilla day today! We wake up early (not so bad due to a favorable 1 hour time change from Uganda) and get driven to Volcanoes National park headquarters. Thank god they’ve got free coffee available! We’ve been told by other trekkers that have gone already to try to get assigned to the "Susa" group of gorillas because there are the largest number of animals in this particular group. We’ve been told that they are usually quite a long hike away, but I’m looking forward to the exercise. We end up assigned to the group we wanted and have five other people assigned to our existing group of three. The group seems decent, but two particular people stand out….a Scottish girl who keeps squealing with excitement and saying things like "I’m so excited I’m going to pee myself!", and a 30ish American woman who’s a school teacher from New York.

We have about an hour drive from park HQ to the parking lot where we’ll begin our trek. We’re all issued walking sticks that can double as shovels in case any tummies are acting a bit off. The day is cloudy at first, and it looks quite misty at the top of the hill that we’re about to climb. We begin walking through terraced fields with crops of maize and potatoes, with an occassional villager or goat out to break the silence with a friendly "bon jour", or an anxious bleating. We trek not more than about a kilometer horizontally, but climb about 1500 feet to a total elevation of 9500 feet. At the top of the valley, the forest itself begins and we’re walking and crawling thru dense vegatation of all sorts of plants that we don’t have back home. The only completely familiar plant is bamboo, which our guide explains is a favorite food of the gorillas. The guide pauses frequently to listen to reports over his hand held radio from the trackers who stay with the gorillas all day long. He also points out several types of vegatation that the gorillas eat, and we all try a bit. It’s pretty nice, except for one really bitter plant that seems to leave a numb sensation on my tongue and lips where it touched them. We’re accompanied by two guides and two armed guards who follow at a discrete enough distance that we hardly notice their presence. It’s a pleasant enough day with enough cloud cover to ensure it doesn’t get too hot, but not enough to produce any percipitation other than the ocassional drop or two. We walk mostly in silence, listening to the sounds of the rainforest around us. Much sooner than we expect, we hear the reports over the radio that the gorillas are only about five minutes away from our current position!

We all prepare our cameras and other essentials. An excited hush falls over the group as we start to move in closer. We can actually hear and smell the gorillas before we actually see them. They have a pungent smell, and make soft hooting noises to each other. I’m walking towards the rear of the line of people fiddling with the settings on my camera when I hear the first excited gasps from the walkers heading up our group. I crawled out of the bush and blinked a time or two as my eyes adjusted to the fact that I’m standing in a brightly lit clearing in the jungle. Spread all through the area were about 23 gorillas mostly napping, but a few of the younger juveniles were planing quitely, watched over by a huge silverback. As our guides watched us carefully to ensure that we didn’t get too close, we spread out around the clearing, all of us looking for the best vantage point. Soon I notice that the gorilla dozing closest to me is missing his left foot. I ask the guide about this, and tells me that it was lost to poachers when he was an infant. I want to ask more and get the full story but we’re interrupted by the arrival of a female with two infant gorillas on her back. The guide says that they are twins who were born only a couple of weeks ago. The arrival of this trio seems to indicate a change in activity, as the troup woke up and began eating. They seemed to be searching for particularlly succulent bits of vegatation, and we ended up having to follow them as they foraged for the best bits of plants. Watching them move effortlessly thru the dense jungle seemed almost supernatural. I can’t fathom how a 300 lb. creature can move with such ease thru areas that our guide couldn’t get thru without hacking a path with his machete. Sometimes we’d get too close for the gorilla’s comfort, and they’d get more agressive towards us, charging one or another members of our group. The charging would usually start with warning grunts followed by a rush in our direction. As long as the guides weren’t worried, I wasn’t either but everytime a charge happened it still managed to get the adrenaline flowing. The Scottish girl announced that she was about to have a heart attack because she was so scared. Our allotted hour passed way too quickly and the guides indicated that it was time to leave. On the way our there was one last surprise in store for us as we found a baby gorilla by itself hiding in the brush near us. After snapping our last photos we headed down the mountain back to park HQ where we received trekking certificates, and then went back to town for dinner and cold beers.