The probability of seeing mountain gorillas on a trek in Bwindi National Park is about 100 per cent. Trackers keep tabs on all the different groups and the gorillas are visited every single day by someone, habituating them to human contact. Seven people and one guide plus a guard form our group of trekkers. Jim and I have trekked to gorillas once before but we are as jazzed as the others and believe me, these people are over the top excited. They can scarcely stand still and when one fellow sneezes he really is worried that the guide will turn him back – don’t want the gorillas to catch a cold. No worries though, all of us sneeze a little while tramping through thick underbrush that the guide is slicing with his machete. The trek is respectable, up one hill and down another until the trackers meet up with us and we ditch our gear and step into the magic of gorillas in the wild.

To be up close to gorillas is to wonder just how close humans are to our cousins from a different branch of the evolutionary tree. Their faces reflect emotion and it is difficult not to anthropomorphize. Why does this black-back, a 12-year old male, look so sad? Is he lonely? Can we talk to him? I know that sounds silly, you had to be there. Our guide David explains the young male cannot hang with the others, it is too much of a challenge for the silverback leader. But by hanging back, a willing female might accept the black-back’s advances. Well, maybe “willing” isn’t the correct term. David shares that females are afraid of the males and come mating time it is chaos and panic for them. Beatings are common and females bear scars and torn ears. What would it be like to watch a group day in and day out and witness all these fascinating interactions? It is easy to imagine how Dian Fossey was seduced by these gentle giants and she gave her life for them. As it so happens in Africa, her story was not all what it seemed. Farley Mowatt wrote a terrific book about Dian Fossey, Woman in the Mist. The Community Library has it – check it out. The story is as tragic as these great apes. Who wouldn’t love them?

The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is not a large forest. Agriculture marches right up to the edge and there are crops inching into the forest. People are poor and families are large. Gorilla trekking is a great help to the community – if you visit there, the Buhoma Community Rest Camp is a welcoming and comfortable place to stay before you trek. Good food, great deck, very warm and friendly staff. We enjoyed chatting with a couple from Los Angeles who’d left their careers and sold their home to travel for a year and then resettle somewhere new. Needless to say, we highly recommended Idaho. Who knows, maybe this couple will show up on our doorstep some day.