Gorillas in the Mountains of Uganda and Rafting the Nile!

Well, the bus ride from Nairobi to Kampala is supposed to be about 10 hours, it takes us more like 15 hours or something because the bus breaks down somewhere outside Lake Nakuru at 1:30am for about 3 hours and nobody really knows what's going on. So, finally around 1pm we get into Kampala and head off to backpacker's hostel. Ahh, a hot shower, how nice! We meet Colin and Amzed form Vancouver BC and they tell us about their amazing gorilla trek. We set out to find the Wildlife Authority office and take scooters there and get ripped off and these guys hound us even back at our hostel, oh well. With our permits in hand for the 14th, instead of the 13th ( our supposed set up from our safari company never panned out, not such a big surprise) and with our extra days we decide to raft the Nile. So, we head out the next day early for a truly amazing experience. These were 3-5+ rapids. My favorite was the Retrospect and we even swam a lot down the river, how awesome, oh, and did I tell you there are crocodiles in that river? Yeah, neither did our guide until later. But, it's really not that bad of a threat. After a great lunch on their own private island with a thatched dining area we head out to relax and then attempt the 'Bad Place,' a class 5 at the end of a class 6 rapid. Holy shitola! We watched the first group go down and I thought what the hell am I doing here? Plus, our group only had 4 people including our guide, our friends Andy and Emily, from London and so we flipped much easier and you were going to flip no matter what. But, this you go up over a huge wave and then back down and just when you think you are going to make it, it sucks you back down into the bad place and then tosses you up and over and I thought I would never ever come up. I actually could not breathe and the surface was just not coming anytime soon. FInally some air and then sucked back down and swallowing a lot of water now because I fooled myself and tried to breathe. I'm looking for the rescue kayaker and see no one and just keep getting tossed around. Finally I see one rescuing Emily and he tells me just to wait. What? Yeah right as I'm getting tossed all over the place? I don't think so buddy, so I swim to him and grab onto the back and we all head to shore. Dan ended up getting swept quite a ways down further tehn the rest of us, so it took him a bit longer to be rescued. But, in the end it was a thrill ride to say the least. WE all had incredibly sore necks the next day or the next several days I should say.

The next day was spent doing errands and then up bright and early for our 7am bus ride to Botogoda, just outside Bwindi National Park. Yeah, right, we don't leave til 9:30am and are a bit nervous when we stop again around 5pm as we are broken down and we think we have to be at teh park by around 7pm before it closes and we are still an hour away. Then as we are heading up into the jungle we hit a thunder and lightening storm which is truly magical, but....the bus has to stop again! And, now the battery has died and the lights don't work. Great! It is about 7:30pm and we are more than an hour away still. Dan tries some negotiations at first, but our conductor is relentless and wants to keep us there for whatever reason. It gets a bit heated as Dan explains to him how we may be out $500.00 and that would be very bad for him. Finally, a friend we made there, a local, tells us he has a friend who can take us for 80.000 shillings to the park (mind you we already spent 15000 on a bus that was supposed to take us just 10km from the park). We try to negotiate this also, but our friend advises us to just eat the loss and get out of here, it would not be good for us to stay there. So, although it is very upsetting, we decide to go ahead and do this. At least it is a normal car. WE finally arrive at the park around 11pm and check into the campsite.

Gorillas: In the morning, we meet Danielle and Josh, from Colorado, on their honeymoon and they join us for our trek to see the Mubare group. Originally, we thought it would be 18 gorillas, but it is only 10. Danielle and Josh did the same group yesterday and tell us they found them very quickly, so that is hopeful. We hike up about an hour or so pretty straight up and then we stop to find out our guides have found them already. So, we head out into the thicker jungle with cameras ready. I can hear one, they say it is the silverback and by the sounds he is sooo big! I get butterflies in my stomach and am so excited, but also scared a bit! I've waited for this moment for so long, it has always been a dream. Then, they have us go around another way and cut back some brush and there he is! He is HUGE!! His head is the size of, of what, maybe like 4 large watermelons, I don't know, it is just huge! He grunts a bit and then disappears. We head into another part of brush and we see a baby! It is just adorable. Then we visit with about 3 other younger gorillas, the silverback and the baby until our hour is up. The silverback falls asleep for awhile just sitting. THen he wakes up and then stretches out and puts his legs up against a tree, crossing his ankles, and just lazying about. It is so fantabulous!! This is definitely a highlight of my trip. With some better luck today as opposed to the previous day, Danielle and Josh offer us a ride back to the town of Botogoda and we head to a tea factory to watch the US get beat by Poland! But, thank God South Korea won, so we still qualify. And, an update, today we beat Mexico! What a game. Good going guys, now we take on Germany, woohoo!