You guessed it, another 5am start to the day. We were staying at the Virunga Lodge, about 7,000 feet up. Quite a nice place but without hot water or electricity most of the time. By this time we didn't care. Sleep, eat and see the Gorillas. That was the (reverse) priority.
Here's the deal. The gorillas live in remote jungle high up in the mountains, around 10,000 feet. We traveled to a reception center where we were broken into small groups of 8 and met with our respective guides who briefed us on what to expect. We were assigned a particular, unique, family and we were assured we would see gorillas. By 8am we were trekking up a very steep mountain through farmland, met by cheering kids (crazy Americans!!). After about a mile and a half of breathless climbing we were informed we would be entering the forest where we would see the animals. We were met by trackers who spend there lives up there tracking the daily location of the gorilla families. They looked serious.
We came to a wall that secured the perimeter of the national park that housed the gorillas and proceeded onwards into the forest, excited in anticipation.
We then entered another world of deep jungle. Even though the trackers had a general idea of where to find our particular target family of gorillas, thet were still hacking their way through with machetes. And we were blindly following, tripping and stumbling over hacked down branches. After about 45min of this suddenly everything went quiet. The gorillas were close and we crept forward. The first time you see a gorilla in the wild is an unforgattable sight.
And we got quite close
There was a baby too.
We stayed for an hour in wonder and amazement. While I took a lot of photos, none could reflect the experience of seeing these animals in the wild. The fact that the trek up was so demanding, made the experience even more special. The guide finally pulled us away ( you are only allowed 1 hour) and we trekked back through the jungle and down the mountain to our destination, elated at having witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime event.