A Gorilla Safari Ranks High On The List

After two hours of trekking through the jungle they found the gorilla family and watched as the playful babies cavorted only about a metre away from them while the adults, including the huge silverback, hung back and growled if they got too close.

But the silverback eventually warmed to the human visitors and in the final minutes of the hour allotted to visit, he was chewing on bamboo shoots only a few feet away.

Nate and Anna were awestruck by the unforgettable privilege to come so close to these rare mountain gorillas...

But she wasn't about to give up and once they had reached the place where the gorillas had spent the night she knew they were close. And then suddenly dark shapes appeared in the forest in front of them.

It was the whole gorilla family, sitting peacefully together. One of the females got up and walked directly towards Miranda, only stopping to sit down and eat when she was about two metres away...

Larry booked his gorilla safari trek permits through Mahrit at the Global Interlink travel agent in Kampala who he highly recommends.

It is possible to book your own gorilla safari permits through the Uganda Wildlife Authority offices but then you have to organise your own transport to Bwindi which can be a challenge. Bwindi National Park is a 10 hour drive from Kampala...

They managed to get within 5 metres of the huge silverback gorilla who studiously ignored them while feeding.

The best thing they saw was a mother and her baby playing in the grass but Ross got too close for the mother's comfort to take pictures and she charged.

The guide warned them to stay still and not run (never run if a gorilla charges towards you because it will take that as an invitation to complete the charge) and the concerned mother gorilla stopped short...

The silverback was in a tree when they found the group and he climbed down and disappeared into the bush.

A baby gorilla was very curious and came closer to pose and show off its tree climbing skills before its mother scooped it up and moved further away for safety...

But she maybe got too close. It had just started raining and to escape the downpour Hannah stood under a tree while watching the gorilla family playing.

Suddenly the downpour strengthened unnaturally and on instinctively looking up Hannah realised that she was being peed on by a gorilla in the tree...

The silverback of this group is called Mwamira and they managed to see him in all his muscular glory. The rest of the family including three baby gorillas romping in the trees were all in attendance too. Kaila went on this gorilla trip on her birthday and it's one she will never forget...

Permits are expensive, but Simon reports that this money goes towards not only the protection and conservation of the animals and their environment, but also to further improve and maintain living conditions and healthcare for the people living there. It seems there is a steady rise in the number of newly born gorillas and that if anything, the community seems to be working together to keep the area free from poachers.

Simon was blown away by the sheer magnitude of a silverback getting up to discipline a group of young gorillas whose playing got a little too wild, to think that something of that size and might has so many traits similar to that of us humans. Rachel tried to double her own size by latching on to whoever of their group was closest, so as to not to feel as small as we are in comparison with these giants. They say that the trip was well worth it and one that they would undertake again at the drop of a hat…

For Ryan this meant that he had his first sighting in under two hours of the start of his gorilla safari. He saw the silverback taking a nap, some of the juveniles having mock fights and twins that were newly born, even though he couldn't tell why those two were twins and the rest weren't...

It was feeding time and the whole family was snacking on branches of bamboo and eucalyptus except the silverback who decided to mate with one of his harem of females.

Matt also saw a one month old baby suckle from his mother and examine his hands and feet with focused interest just like a human infant would...

The vegetation is also pretty thick and Markim complains about being stung by super sized stinging nettles on the two and a half hour hike but all the effort is worth it when the gorillas finally come into view...

Three armed guards also accompanied Stuart's group from the start of their trek.

Stuart watched the gorillas eat, sleep, groom, mate, play, which included falling out of trees and one particularly funny individual who had wind...

Because of the rain the gorillas were still in their overnight nests of vegetation when they found them.

There was a female gorilla sheltering a tiny baby from the rain and looking very displeased with the bad weather. She kept raising her head to look at Graham and Rachel who were about 2 metres away from her enjoying this amazing experience.

Charles the silverback suddenly got up from his nest, beat his chest and started feeding on the surrounding vegetation followed closely by the rest of his family. The last image after the allotted hour was of a tiny baby with brown eyes watching them from under its mothers arm...

The rest of the family was also strikingly human as they went about their daily business.

There are eight habituated gorilla groups in the Virungu mountains that it's possible to visit on a gorilla safari but in an ironic twist it's this very tolerance to humans that makes them particularly vulnerable to poaching...

She says the highlights of her trip were the gorilla trek and the chimps on Ngamba Island, but adds that Lake Nakuru (Kenya) was a good experience.

Anna warns that people intending to go on an overland safari should be aware of their adaptability to the travel conditions, as she saw several people underestimating the trip ("or over-estimating their capabilities. The gorilla trek is quite hard for example.")

Most of the roads in the Congo are dirt and badly potholed so it turned into a three hour very bumpy ride before they got to the Virungu National park.

But it was all worth the effort when they came across the gorilla family which included a couple of silverbacks, three babies and their mothers and aunts. They came to within a few yards of the gorillas and for them it was an experience they will never forget...

Shortly after that they came across a 25 year old silverback called Humba after which the group is named, weighing in at about 210kg.

They were also lucky enough to see seven more of the group including one baby who fell out of a tree while showing off to his own huge embarrassment.

Lucy managed to take over 170 photographs and some excellent video clips on her gorilla safari...

The rule on a gorilla safari is that you are supposed to keep a distance of seven metres but the gorillas don't know that so they often come closer.

Another mother and child gorilla were taking a much too keen interest in the bags that the human group had left piled up in the jungle and one of the guards moved closer to the bags to dissuade her from picking them up.

Rita says that nothing can prepare you for your first sighting of the gorillas through the trees and to watch their eyes and facial expressions is very moving because they are so humanlike...

The town of Kisoro in Uganda was used as the staging post for this gorilla safari because it is so close to the Congo border.

Janice, Jordan and six other travelers were taken by land rover on the two hour road trip to the national park chaperoned by a pickup truck full of heavily armed guards wearing camouflage outfits.

After an hour of fast marching through the forest they came across the gorilla family and Janice moved closer to take a photograph of the silverback.

Suddenly he rose, swinging his massive arms and bellowing at the top of his lungs he came crashing through the undergrowth straight towards her.

She was on the point of running away in abject terror (who wouldn't) when the guide whispered to her with his hand on her back, "Don't run".

With one metre left to go he bellowed one more time, stopped, turned and walked back to his original position to resume eating as if nothing had happened. Janice had survived a silverback charge on her gorilla safari...