Feb 10th and 11th we arrived bright and early at the park headquarters where the groups are organized to trek the gorilla families. Thanks to Paul we were placed with other "trekkers" to see a family that was relatively close, less than 2 hours from the starting point. I say close because some of the gorilla families are over 5 hours away. The gorillas move according to the food supply. I knew I was in good shape when one o f the other participants was on crutches. Our guide, Hope (actually a male) placed the "disabled" individual and myself in front so the rest of the group wouldn't race ahead........for example, Peggy and her porter. There are about two "trackers" assigned to each family and they are up in the jungle with walkie talkies providing our guide with the approximate location of the group we are to visit. So off we go, macheties used to forge a path,. until the gorillas are spotted. We were given instructions not to use the flash on our cameras, not to point, to whisper, to sneeze or cough into our arm to protect the gorillas from our diseases, not to carry our walking sticks and the person with crutches had to leave them behind. I think these photos will speak for themselves:
:
Learning to swing
I thought we had similar profiles except she wasn't perspiring half as much as I was.
At the end of the trek our group gathered back at the park headquarters to receive our "official" certificates with the name of the gorilla family we visited that day.
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