My friend, Sandy Thomas, is a world traveler, and when she shared with me her last adventure, I asked if she’d be willing to share, since travel is one of my focus areas. An amazing experience!
Being with the gorillas in their natural habitat has always been a dream of mind. Not sure why… perhaps because as a child King Kong was my imaginary playmate. (True, don’t laugh.)
Each time my travel buddies and I looked at excursions to see the mountain gorillas, Uganda and Rwanda were too dangerous. In 2014, Natural Habitat opened a new adventure to the lowland gorillas in The Republic of Congo. Sign me up. Could I make it? Was it too grueling? I am not a spring chick anymore! So, I talked to the female Natural Habitat guide that had been on the staff exploratory trip. “Oh yes it was tough. Walking 5 to 7 miles a day. No guarantees to see them! Prepare to have wet shoes everyday.” Still something inside of me said “you’ve got to do this.” Then there was the cost! An arm, leg and a liver! Still I had to go for it. Only one other traveling friend was up for the trip. We were going!
We flew to Brazzaville to spend the first night and to meet the other five that would make up our group. I could hardly sleep, while visions of gorillas danced in my head! Bright and early the next day, we boarded a small prop engine plane for a two hour flight to the Ndzehi Forrest. Upon landing in a grass field, we were met by our camp team, boarded our land cruiser for a three hour trip down the rut filled dirt “highway” to the camp. I was like a little kid twisting my head every way possible not to miss a bird, a monkey, anything that moved. We were the first “tourists” to go on this trip with Natural Habitat! The Expedition Group!
Once we arrived, we were assigned to our cozy huts, complete with hot showers and flush toilets! Our group of 7 was divided into two smaller groups of 4 and 3. No more than 6 could view the gorillas a day. One hour limit!
There was little sleep that night. Up at 5:30 am, breakfast at 6:00 and off in our two different groups at 6:30. There were two different gorilla families that we were allowed to track.
There were only 5 of us; the local tracker, Rock, our guide, Adam, me, John and Linda. No guns, no protection except the knowledge and experience of living with these animals. I had been on safaris before but this was raw and wild.
As we started I was so overcome with emotion. Tears started streaming down my face. I was finally doing this! I could only think about how thankful I was for this opportunity. We were walking in the thick marentici jungle. Marentici is like kudzu on steroids. There was no talking, only hand signals, watching Rock, looking for signs. A stripped marentici branch, seed pits, fresh dung….. stopping …. listening. I could hear nothing, but Rock could hear a fly sneeze a mile away. We walked for a little over an hour.
Rock stopped and motioned for us to put on our surgical masks, to protect the animals from our germs. Then he motioned for me to come stand beside him. I looked up and there they were in the trees right in front of me. There were no glass windows, no wires, no fences between us. I was standing where they just walked. I couldn’t even take pictures for the first few minutes, I didn’t want to take my eyes off of them.
Two mothers and their babies walked around the corner close to where we were standing. My adrenalin was pumping. I could have stayed there all day and yes I wanted to hold that baby or just go and sit by those glorious animals. The giant silverback looked like he had on gray pajamas. He was massive sitting on a small limb eating marentici marrow. The hour felt like minutes.
People ask me “were you ever afraid?” No never, I felt the closest to nature I have ever been. I felt part of the earth, in it, on it and with it all over me like a warm comforting hug by a very compassionate Mother Earth.
It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. A feeling I will keep safe.
Note: If you have a unique travel experience you’d like to share, please let me know – I’d love to feature it.
Absolutely stunning! Loved that Sandy's imaginary playmate was King Kong. Shows how unique she must truly be! What an adventure – thanks to both of you for sharing this one.
I'm glad you enjoyed the experience. I thought it was quite an experience.
How FANTASTIC to be able to do this. Since this is a trip I will never physically be capable of doing, I felt as if I were along with you on it. Nature and all that is within it can be so wonderful. This is one trip you will be hard pressed to not recall.
Thanks Laurie. I didn't take this trip, but rather my friend, Sandy Thomas did, and I asked her to write something for my blog. It was an incredible experience though, wasn't it. Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks Laurie. I didn't take this trip, but rather my friend, Sandy Thomas did, and I asked her to write something for my blog. It was an incredible experience though, wasn't it. Glad you enjoyed it.