Julie's Journal

Day 8

This morning, we got up early at 4:30 a.m. (naturally I was awake already to go look for gorillas. We had no idea what to expect or how long this might take, so we stuffed our backpacks with first aid and snake bite kits, cameras and film, (both still and video), Fig Newtons, a flashlight, animal identification book ... everything but the kitchen sink (probably only because there was none).

On the way to search for gorillas, I saw one of my most memorable images yet. In front of our careening Land Rover, on a road barely big enough for the width of the car, was the largest elephant rear-end I have ever seen. That's all you could see. It was running ahead of us on the road, and for a split second it seemed to be an absurd scene from a movie. But this is Africa! gorilla observation

By the time we picked up the trackers and drove the distance to the starting point, it was well past 6:00 a.m.

As we disappeared into the jungle, trying to be as quiet as possible with clunky boots and lots of gear, I was ecstatic. We were walking through primeval forest and animals were all around us - albeit most were silent and invisible to our searching eyes. We were the noisy intruders. We came upon an elephant and were told to retreat with the little shoo-shoo hand signal the natives used to warn us. The Pygmy trackers were friendly and expert-every so often they would look at us with an expression of exasperation at our clumsiness when we tripped over a root or stepped too heavily. They moved through the forest as animals do-seeing and hearing everything while disrupting nothing. After hiking for about two hours, it became evident that our group was too large-and too noisy, we would see no gorillas. We changed the lead tracking team for luck and searched for another two hours, but the gorillas were afraid of people - and for good reason. Poaching is rampant in some areas, even in national parks. Gorilla meat is a favorite to eat and sells for a high price. Here because of the tourists and the amount of research, the situation is better than most places. It means there is opportunity for jobs because of gorillas, live gorillas. Exhausted from carrying all the stuff we brought, both necessary and otherwise, we all headed back to the Range Rover, then back to camp for a quick stop. More filming with elephants was in order.

That evening, Lisa, the director of the WWF and head of all the projects in these national parks, Doli educational center stopped by to say hello. A WWF project is in the process of acclimating a group of wild gorillas to the presence of humans. The hope is that this will bring more tourists to the area. Tourism is an important industry that brings in money and jobs, while not affecting the forests as much as logging or farming. Doli Lodge is a wonderful place with many activities involving and employing many locals. The lodging is clean and free of flying, creeping and crawling things. The staff was extremely warm and friendly and responded to our every need.

As we discussed what we still had to accomplish: footage of gorillas, calling Bomassa again to find out the situation with the elusive permits, getting some pick up shots and finishing what stand-ups we could without Tina -- we decided to split up tomorrow. Jim and I would take care of calling, and getting the shots we needed. Pete would go by himself with August and a tracker to an observation tower where we had seen gorilla footprints. They would just try to wait it out hoping to see gorillas. It was the best chance we had, so Pete prepared for another early day.

SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database
www.seaworld.org / www.buschgardens.org