The gorilla trekking experience in Uganda is worth all the money you’ll spend because once you sit a few meters from a four-hundred-pound silverback and his whole family, the world comes alive. Your view of the natural world is changed forever. You’ll then better relate with world creature’s humans have so feared for thousands of years. The experience will stay with you for a lifetime, and that’s not the kind of thing you put a price tag on or buy at your favourite store.
What makes gorilla trekking worth the money is not just seeing the mountain gorillas, but the stretched hiking through the jungle that you have never seen before. The long mind-wandering journeys, smells, seemingly dark trails, and occasional life springs up unexpectedly from the undergrowth.
The ranger whispered in the walkie-talkie and, moments later, asked the gorilla trekking group to place their bags where they were standing and only stay with cameras with shutters in silence. That’s when I noticed that we had company. Three rangers in camouflage uniforms cladding guns appeared to be seated in bushes around the gorilla trekking group.
Because we were earlier informed that there would be a group of rangers that protects the mountain gorilla family when we showed up, I was glad someone is here to watch my backpack and camera gear, and I waved at them with a nod to acknowledge their presence.
The two ranger groups: one with us and another that goes at the break of dawn to find the gorillas and direct our group to their location, making the gorilla trekking in Uganda worth the money. That strategy makes sure everyone who has paid to trek into the jungle finds and sees the mountain gorillas.
Keeping the two groups well-motivated to accommodate us and protecting the creatures from poachers and trail them every day is a costly job. So, the price of the permit for gorilla trekking is entirely worth the money, don’t you think?
Well, my first sight of this intimidating Silverback seated before me teleported me out of human consciousness, and for a moment, he and I existed in the same realm of time and space. One of the young juveniles came closer to inspect my unusual sweaty smell and belonging.
Then, out of the blue, he stands up and does a rapid chest beat vibrating the whole jungle in deep drum sounds. You would think the Jungle tribe was coming down on the gorilla trekking group for trespassing but the ranger the situation.
The hour allotted to us passed by like a cold wind in the summer, and I wanted to stay some more when the ranger gestured for us to pack up and get ready to leave.