As we were going to visit the gorillas second today, we were offered an optional morning activity - the others stayed in camp while John and I decided on a forest walk, for a couple of hours, with Stephanie looking at the birds and vegetation - we also heard putty nosed monkeys. When we returned we were sitting in the lounge area looking out over the sea of marantaceae in front of the lodge, imbibing a hot chocolate,when the American family came back beaming - they had only been out 3 hours so I guessed they had had a very successful sighting - I wasn't wrong and to prove it they had a lovely picture of the mother gorilla and her baby sitting on a branch.
In consultation with the tracker it was decided that we should go sooner rather than later and before the gorillas had moved on too far. Everyone was mustered and we were off in the vehicle by 10ish - we arrived at the parking place 15 minutes later - I luckily asked about the masks - Stephanie aghast, realised she had forgotten them so while we waited she made a dash back for them. She returned at 10.30 and our trek began.
The gorillas had not unsurprisingly moved from where they were last seen but we got to see where they had made a big communal nest for their morning nap- it must have made a great aerial view. Apparently they never reuse a nest probably because they liberally poo in it! We now had to track them - Danielle was pooped so she and Stephanie followed slowly behind but eventually returned to camp when confronted by another slope.
The rest of us continued at a fast pace following the tracker - it was great fun as we made our way through difficult undergrowth. We made our first sighting of gorillas in a tree at approx 1230 we moved around through really thick, tall marantaceae until we could get a better view - I even got some pictures of the mother and baby who were sitting on a branch. We then made our way through further dense undergrowth to get a closer view. Under instructions from the tracker we stood still just looking at the marantaceae in front of us listening to the gorillas on the other side - then the undergrowth rustled and a young female walked through looking at us as she went. I could see the hands and limbs of gorillas in the foliage and when I sat down I could see a couple eating in a 'den like' structure, at the base of the undergrowth, while nonchalantly peering at us through the foliage. I wonder what they thought these white faced animals with extra white masks on and plagued by sweat bees were -yes, in the rush to get here, the nets had been left behind - so we had the full gorilla viewing experience. The worst bit was when they went into your eyes -but worse for me was wiping myself with an insect repellent wet wipe and forgetting what it was and wiping my eye with it - ooooooeeeee - thank goodness for my water bottle and hanky! After a 20 minute interlude some gorillas ventured into the trees again which was great and made a fitting finale. Finally we left our new best friends at about 1445 after a really fantastic experience -my picture of the today is a gorilla looking at us, looking at them, through the marantaceae!
After yesterday everyone was on a high - including for the first time Nora and Robert -who were now fully requited and relaxed!
Dinner was a very jovial affair - the staff did some traditional dancing and singing and dessert was a birthday cake for me
as I have a birthday tomorrow - our travelling day!