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Guest Contributor: HPM Adventure Flag (Human Handler - Deanna Springall) Read Time: 5 mins  Hi everyone, I’m the HPM flag and I just returned from an amazing trek through parts of Uganda and Rwanda. In honor of the countries I visited, my temporary name - instead of the boring English word “flag” – is Ebendera (in Luganda, one of the Ugandan languages) or Ibendera (in Kinyarwanda language, one of the Rwandan languages). I’ll answer to either one!
In Uganda, we started off with a short stroll through the Entebbe Botanical Gardens, where several of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies were filmed in the 1950s. Some pathways were constructed especially for the movies.  We then headed over to the Kibale National Forest for a chimp trek, which was more challenging than you might expect. We started out on a jungle trail, but the chimps decided to scamper all over the place so the guides had to use machetes to hack a path through the jungle. No trail at all – just spongy jungle floor and lots of branches, vines and roots to dodge. Did you know that chimpanzees share 98% of their DNA with humans? One chimp got tired and decided to relax on a tree trunk in his Playboy pose.
Next was the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, which straddles the border between Kibale Forest National Park and the local farms. Theis protected area is part of the Eastern Rift valley, so there are nearly three dozen volcanic craters which have filled in and become lovely lakes. We took a couple of afternoon strolls there as well. 
On we went to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park – so named due to the extremely dense forest – for two silverback gorilla treks. The gorillas are habituated to humans but, since they are wild, human interaction is limited to one hour daily. Gorillas live in families and move constantly, so each morning trackers go out early to find the various families. Then, we are divided into small groups and each group hiked to a different location to observe a different family. On the first trek, we only hiked a short distance because the gorillas were in snooze mode, which gave us many good photo ops.
The next day, our second trek took an hour or so to get to another family. This time, the babies and juveniles were running, playing and climbing. We weren’t supposed to get closer than 15 feet, but the gorillas don’t abide by such rules and often walked or ran right by us – one even grabbed someone’s leg.  We then headed to Rwanda and the Volcanoes National Park for additional primate trekking. On our third gorilla trek, we were in an even denser forest, which was a long, slow slog. But, we witnessed one family cross into another family’s territory. The dominant silverback for one family beat his chest and grunted just so everyone would know he was in charge, but otherwise all intermingled peacefully. The male silverbacks were massive - 5’5” to 6’ tall and 300 to 500 pounds!
Our last primate trek was an hour or so in a fairly open forest to see golden monkeys – a lively and rambunctious bunch who had the cutest furry cheeks.  We also got a chance to visit Karisoke, the site of Dian Fossey’s camp where she conducted decades of groundbreaking research into gorillas. After her murder by poachers in 1985, she was buried at her camp next to Digit, her favorite gorilla. This was, by far, the most difficult climb of the trip – it probably took two hours to get up steep hills, over big rocks and through sloppy, deep mud. Look at those boots!
Each young gorilla is given a name and, in Rwanda, a naming ceremony is held in a park with a huge wicker sculpture of a gorilla family.  Coincidentally, world famous ultrarunner Harvey Lewis was in Rwanda about the same time (on his way to Australia for the Dead Cow backyard ultra) and did some of the same hikes we did. We even had the same guide - Mr. D - that Harvey had for gorilla trekking, so we must have just missed him by a day or two. Since I’m a flag, I didn’t engage in human-powered movement, but my porter certainly did! Since she is a little camera-shy and enjoyed bringing some of our amazing trekking guides in to the spotlight for this recap of our adventures! Sincerely, Ebendera  Journal - The African Adventures of the HPM FlagComments are closed.
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