Meet the family

Bristol.co.uk
June 19, 2010
 
 
Lured by the promise of coming face to face with mountain gorillas and chimpanzees, Dominic Harris ventured into the heart of the east African country of Uganda. But among its lush forests and rolling savannah plains he found more than just the great apes

As the powerful mass padded gently towards me I straightened as slowly as I could, the crunch of leaves getting louder with each movement of its considerable paws.

The black fur of the juvenile gorilla inched closer to my right leg, and I fervently tried not to look into its eyes, instead bowing my head in the accepted stance of submission.

But from the corner of my gaze I could clearly see it, no more than two feet away. With a gentle expression on its grey face it reached an arm out towards me.

My breath came in short bursts – not of fear, but of desperate anticipation.

"Please, please touch me," I pleaded inwardly.

But the young gorilla, a five-year-old named Kavuyo, was oblivious. Curiosity satisfied he sniffed the air, turned and lurched back to the clearing to the other members of his troop.

I was crushed, but also elated.

I was high in the lushly-carpeted hills of south-west Uganda, in east Africa. After a week in the country we had trekked deep into the rainforest of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park – a rather apt name – in search of the fabled mountain gorillas.

At just 330sq km, Bwindi is one of the most biologically diverse forests in Africa, home to just over half the world's population of mountain gorillas, about 320 individuals living in 15 troops.

Following our guide, David, we had spent hours clambering over toppled trees and pushing back saplings on muddy tracks.

David explained: "We only take a maximum of eight people, to reduce disturbance. If the number of people is big, the gorillas get worried and fearful.

"It also reduces the chance of transmission of diseases from people to gorillas. They can get scabies, coughing and diarrhoea."

The genetic similarity with humans means that one misplaced sneeze could decimate a whole gorilla population.

Suddenly, with no sound or warning, there they were – right in front of us, sitting contentedly in a sun-dappled clearing.

Baby gorillas, no larger than human toddlers, engaged in mock battles with their siblings, under the watchful eyes of the older members of the troop.

A baby gorilla practised beating his fists against his chest, but with the exuberance of youth he hit himself so hard he knocked himself over backwards.

And hidden away in the saplings at the back of the clearing was the troop's leader, the great silverback Makara, surveying his domain in quiet contentment.

For an hour we watched, the gorillas' social interaction so closely mimicking our own. Every so often one would glance at us, and each time their soft eyes held ours it created a profound bond of recognition, a salute between cousins.

At £340 ($500) per permit, that magical moment with the gorillas is not cheap, but the encounter is seen as one of the finest of all African wildlife experiences.

Mountain gorillas may be Uganda's biggest draw, but there is more to this endlessly fertile land.

Forming part of Africa's Great Rift Valley, Uganda is the point where the great savannah plains to the east merge with the dense jungle of the west, and it throbs with wildlife because of it. Nowhere else can visitors find so many primates – 19 in total, from monkeys and chimpanzees to the nocturnal bushbabies and pottos –so close to lions, elephants and zebras.

And for bird-lovers it is a twitching paradise – one of only four African countries with more than 1,000 species.

Yet while Uganda's tourist industry is blossoming in terms of infrastructure and accommodation, it is still relatively unexploited, with only 35,000 tourists visiting last year.

Kampala, Uganda's capital city, is in the south of the country, not far from the shores of Lake Victoria and Jinja, the source of the River Nile.

Rich and poor side by side, Kampala's two million inhabitants ebb and flow in glorious confusion. Businesses thrive along its busy roads – hairdressers cut and braid from wooden stalls next to garish mobile phone kiosks next to ironmongers.

Farmers walk their Ankole cattle, their horns taller than a man, next to people selling dozens of sofas in the muddy roadside or shops with countless front ends of cars piled high for repairs.

Everywhere you turn there are smiling faces, and as we drove north from Kampala children would fall over themselves running out to wave to us.

Though a "tourist trail" is relatively unestablished, the most popular destinations are Uganda's national parks, clustered in the west and south west.

Head north from Bwindi in the far south west and you will come to the Ishasha Plains, where elephant, buffalo, waterbuck and kob share the land with tree-climbing lions, one of the few places in Africa where you can spot this unusual behaviour.

East of Ishasha is Lake Mburo, its waters surrounded by lush forest and herds of impala and zebra, while further north you reach Queen Elizabeth National Park, in the shadow of the Rwenzori Mountains on Uganda's western border.

QENP is the country's most popular game reserve, its 2,000sqkm made up of savannah, swamp, dense forest and volcanic crater lakes.

Visitors can see numerous antelope species, lion, leopard, elephants, buffalo and 10 primate species. Perhaps nowhere is its abundance of wildlife better captured than the Kazinga Channel, a 40km stretch of water linking Lake George and Lake Edward.

Take a boat trip along its shoreline and you will find herds of hippopotamus – the densest concentration in Africa – next to elephants and buffaloes.

Dozens of birds, from African fish eagles to pied kingfishers, line the tree branches, and crocodiles share the mudflats with stork, egret and heron. Fishermen catch tilapia and catfish from the lakes to feed their families in Kazinga village, where 800 people live alongside the wildlife.

Further north still is Murchison Falls National Park, 300km north west of Kampala.

Nestled around the Victoria Nile, the park is the largest protected area in Uganda and teems with wildlife, including, the shoebill, owner of the largest bill on earth. The park itself is named for the spectacular Murchison Falls, where the Nile roars through a gorge just seven metres wide before tumbling 43m to continue its journey to Lake Albert.

However, no trip to Uganda would be complete without tracking chimpanzees.

Two of the best places to search for them are Kibale Forest National Park and Budongo Forest Reserve, both in the west of the country.

Often overlooked in the favour of gorillas, an encounter with chimps – man's closest relative – is very different from sharing a forest with their larger cousins.

Tracking a troop of 70 chimps, we followed their tracks through dark, dense undergrowth, listening for their howl as they swung through the canopy above.

A mature male sat among the trees just yards away, his pink face turned so he could keep a close eye on us.

He prowled off, ignoring us completely, and then we whirled as the rest of his troop descend from the trees, shrieking and howling as they plummeted to the floor, an experience that set the pulse racing.

The males leapt on to the great buttresses of an Ironwood tree, drumming on the roots with their hands and feet in a rarely seen display of dominance, the booming noise echoing through my body and around the forest.

I turned to one of my companions, an Africa expert who had grown up around wildlife in Tanzania, and was unsurprised to see tears welling up in her eyes.

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