Africa Flight 2015: THE GORILLAS

Tuesday, 27. October, 07h00

It was an experience not to be missed.

It was magic and exceeded my expectations totally.

It was so unbelievable that I struggle to express myself.

I do not know what to say, it was an intense and deep encounter with another living being so totally different and yet so identical.

They walked next to us, they came to us, they were watching us, greeting us and on the other hand totally, I can not say ignored us….because they interacted with us, they were unperturbed by us.

We could have touched them while they sat in front of us or walked past us.

I could see every single hair on their coat, I could smell them and if I say I could feel their body heat I do not exaggerate. Their eyes were glittering and shiny and they were rolling over, walking strong and proud, suckling a baby so close we could hear the slurping, they were mating right in front of us and we saw about 10 Gorillas out of a family of 15.

Amongst them we saw the youngest and his mother and the second boss, we met Juveniles and Gorillas in between.

We were in awe…. There is nothing more to say.

The behaviour of those creatures was amazing coming towards us…greeting us in their language, we were giving a briefing before to learn about Gorilla Language.

When we first heard we laughed.

When they were making noises to us we replied, than we made Gorilla language noises and …they replied.

I could not believe it. We did not laugh anymore.

I was taking my camera to my eyes, the one opposite me copied me, the ranger told me to scratch my eye, he scratched his eye….

We had one hour with the Gorillas, we followed them, our path or a small opening was made by additional special tracker rangers using an Panga or a Machete.

Sometimes the Gorillas came to us, we stood listening, and all of a sudden they broke thru the thick bushes, rolling and playing. And watching us.

It was wonderful and I like to be back with Dietmar.