Serengeti, Crater & Gorillas

we were anxious to get to the Sanctuary Gorilla Camp at Bwindi anyway. We weren’t disappointed. The 94 steps from the road to the camp were designed to get us in shape for the treks to come in search of the mountain gorillas. As usual the staff and accommodations were first rate but I do have to single out Elii. He is the epitome of Sanctuary staff. He was always there when we needed something from bringing us a cheese and fruit platter because we had missed lunch, which we mistakenly left on our deck and was promptly finished off by the local monkeys, to figuring out why Jan’s phone wouldn’t connect to the internet. He knew what we ate for breakfast and what wines we wanted with dinner. Then there were the gorillas. The trekking groups are limited to 8 and once the gorillas are found we are limited to one hour of picture taking etc. It took our group a little over an hour of climbing and slogging through the mud to find our “family”. There were 4 babies, one teenager, 2 females and a very large silverback. The experience was amazing we just about wore out our cameras and all but the silverback were more than willing to entertain us. The silverback, pretty much, was just laying in some bushes nearby until he decided he had had enough, he rose up, stared at us for a few nervous moments and sauntered off into the brush just feet from where we were standing. I don’t think anyone in our group was breathing. I had a bit of a life changing experience….Jan was videoing some babies climbing in a tree nearby and I was standing just behind her watching when the teenager (about the size of a chimpanzee) came running up to me and threw his “arms” around my leg and had my entire knee in his mouth. The ranger who was accompanying us ran over and chased him away and told me “he wasn’t biting you, he was just playing”….you could’ve fooled me. The entire days experience will be talked about for years to come. The following day Jan and I joined a young lady from the local village for a walking tour to visit a pygmy group that had lived in the mountains with the gorillas until it was turned into a National Park. The government relocated them and they seem content with their new environment. We also visited a medicine man who explained how all the leaves and berries were used for medicines. We visited the local hospital, a primary school filled with the most beautiful children and a woman’s craft shop and a man who makes gin out of bananas (not great). A wonderful day.!!

The weather in Tanzania was much more tolerable than expected, and the safaris got even better! Both Sanctuary properties were wonderful. The food was delicious, the staff was attentive and amazing, and the locations were superior. Except for the elusive cheetah, there was nothing that we missed.

In the Serengeti not only did we find much of the North-South migration, but we caught 2 major river crossings and one crocodile take-down…although I learned that you should definitely be careful of what you wish for, as that was hard to see. But what an amazing experience all around. We were very sad to leave. And by the way, our guide, Filbert, was also a photographer, and he helped me get some extraordinary photos using my cell phone with his binoculars.

The weather in Tanzania was much more tolerable than expected, and the safaris got even better! Both Sanctuary properties were wonderful. The food was delicious, the staff was attentive and amazing, and the locations were superior. Except for the elusive cheetah, there was nothing that we missed. The number of animals in the crater was simply amazing, and even our guide was surprised when driving down to the airstrip we were confronted with 3 large lions… sooooo cool!