A rustle of leaves broke the silence. A hairy black hand swung on a branch and a pair of sharp eyes peered at us through the thicket. “There it is!” someone whispered. As we squirmed and turned noisily, she cracked the branch, and disappeared. The hand was Malaika’s. She is a juvenile female mountain gorilla in Bwindi National Park in south-western Uganda. I had spent the last one-and-a-half hours scrambling over wet boulders and bramble, through dense forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of these endangered creatures. Now, I’m less than five feet away from one.
The Nitty Gritty
Gorilla trekking requires a huge commitment of time, energy and effort. But few go back without a magical experience. Four gorilla groups are available daily for tourists in Bwindi. The Mubare Group (five gorillas), the Habinyanja group (18), the Rushegura group (10) and the Nkuringo group (19). Tracking these groups could take anywhere between two and eight hours. And after they are spotted, you can spend one hour with them. Special trackers locate the animals before the trek begins.
(This story appears in the 19 February, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)