[Previous entry: "July 30 - Gorilla Trek 1 (Bwindi, Uganda)"] [Next entry: "Aug 1 - Reflections on Uganda & Bwindi"]

Today we went on our second gorilla trek.

After yesterday's relatively easy experience, we were expecting the same today as well. The day started out interesting. We woke up at 6:30 and turned on the lights, only to have them go out again. Because the generator is solar powered, and it rained a lot yesterday, there was barely any power. Mike went into the bathroom and discovered a "friend." Another very large spider making his home near the shower :) After breakfast, we headed to the park to start our trek. We were lucky, because we got to have Joseph as our guide again - he was really great. Today we were going to see the "M" group (Mubare Group). There are around 12 individuals in this particular group. The trek started out differently - rather than taking a long drive to our start point, we headed out directly from the home base. It was lightly sprinkling, but it didn't feel cold at all.

The beginning of the trek was all up hill, and through a dense jungle...much different than yesterday's trek which had been through several villages. After about 2 hours we finally got to the top of the mountain, only to continue going. This time we walked through REALLY dense jungle, ducking under branches, climbing through holes, and always with thick greenery brushing us (thank goodness for long sleeves and pants!). At some points, we were standing on a foot deep of vines, which was rather dangerous. After three hours, we finally met up with the trackers, and our one hour with the gorilla started. It was wonderful. Today we were able to get much closer to the gorillas, however there were fewer of them. A huge silverback walked very close to Mike!! Unfortunately the time ended quickly, and we had to end the long trek back. We ended up being gone from 8:30 to 2:45...a very long day. We're beat. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the two millipedes we saw on the trek - they were huge - we took a couple pics of them. Also we saw a bunch of weird stick and leaf bugs. Mike even took some pics of gorilla poop...just in case someone MIGHT be interested!