Day 3, Gorilla Forest Camp
March 13, 2009, Friday
Today was the reason we go on safari in Africa, to photograph the animals. Our wake up call and tea arrived before sun up. As we had done on so many safaris before, we were trying to figure out just what kind of an environment challenge we would be up against. We did not know what kind of jungle or weather we might encounter. We did decide that we did not need a jacket because it was so warm there. We did decide on long pants. I wore my rain proof pants with a long sleeved kaki safari shirt, leather safari shoes, kaki socks pulled up over my pants (to keep the ants out), and ball hat. Steve did wear a long sleeved shirt with his vest and a hat. Our carry bag had a towel, extra batteries, digital cards, glasses, sunglasses, and Lense On!
(So, pray tell, what is a Lense On! ??) For the past five years I’ve been working on this product to stablize the camera and lense in difficult shooting situations that screwing the camera onto a monopod or tripod would not work, even with a quick release. Even the best cameras with an image stabilized lense will do only so much hand held. Lense On! is my own registered and patented invention that is a mounted bag on a platform that can attach to a monopod or tripod. Our cameras rest on the Lense On! that is mounted onto a monopod. When we need to change positions, we just take it off and reposition. The set up and take down are in seconds with the ability to take a full 360 degrees of shots. I am working with my manufacturers to launch Lense On! this summer to be in full sales production.)
The Lense On! and monopod set up fit easily into the carry bag. The camera and lense are all ready to go in a camera bag. I’ll give you a list of our camera equipment later.
We had a full breakfast, and left for the meeting area down the road for the gorilla trek orientation. We were ushered into a open, round stone building with a small video tv showing footage of the local gorillas. This first meeting with the tourists can be quite entertaining. Somehow, people never get around to buying themselves a camera until the day they go on vacation! What ever they buy, they don’t know how to use the camera. They sit there before the encounter with the camera book in hand trying to figure out how to adjust the settings. Some even forget their books! Please never do this. Give yourself plenty of time to read the camera book, take many photos with it, and load them onto your computer. Forget the film cameras, use only digital. So, I sat there watching them struggle with their cameras. I used to volunteer to help them out, but I got way too distracted with their problems. Besides, I had three cameras to worry about that day anyway!
The assembled tourists were divided into two groups, because there were now only two groups of habituated gorillas still in the park. Two of the four groups had left for vacation in the Congo! The group were were seeing today had actually been chased out of the park by other wild gorillas. Unfortunately, they had moved into an eucalyptus forest near a farming village. We piled back into our truck, and Bennie followed the lead vehicle carrying the porters and walking sticks. About an 90 minutes later, we arrived at our stop. Our three porters met us, gave us our walking sticks and water, and took our bags. Our head guide got everyone together and explained that we were walking over to an area outside the park where the gorillas were. He hoped everyone was in good shape for the hike into forest. I looked around and wondered too. We headed up a gravel road in a pretty steep grade at altitude. It was unfortunately in the middle of the morning and already getting hot. The incline, heat, and the fast paced hike made all of us breathe harder. We made several stops to rest and drink water. It did not take us long to get to the gorillas. Park rangers stay with them 24/7 to protect them, but unfortunately that doesn’t always work out. They had no idea why this eucalyptus forest was on their diet request, but the gorillas were feasting on the bark of these trees. It sure isn’t on my dinner menu.
The forest was thick and the rangers worked very hard for everyone to get a good shot by pulling away branches, grass, leaves, and moving to a better view. Steve, Nicole, and I had our Lense On! working. Light and dense forest was a big problem. Anytime you are with gorillas, you are on the clock for just one hour of visitation. You hope for ‘the shot,’ but that isn’t always the case. As we were photographing the gorilla group striping off the bark, the silverback, the dominate male of the group, bolted from the forest. The rangers grouped up everyone for protection. Time was up anyway. The male gorillas had gone behind us and had gone down the mountain to attack a village banana grove.
Even the park rangers with guns couldn’t keep up with them. I asked if there were problems with the villagers attacking the gorillas and killing them. He shrugged his shoulders and looked down. Yes, definitely. We withdrew down the road to a sort of shady area for our box lunches. In Africa, a box lunch means, ‘No Lunch!’ We just looked at what was in there, and did not eat a thing. Believe me, I fed everything to the ants. That was the end of the photo op for the day. Back to our truck, the long trip back, and our camp. We could have actually driven to the gorillas! I had no idea if we got anything worth saving. Definitely no Africa Geographic photos. I don’t think they would be interested in a group of gorillas eating bark.
When we returned, we were famished. It took a while to get the camp’s attention, but we were able to eat something acceptable. TIA Meanwhile, Nicole was taking a different malaria pill than we were. We take doxycycline and she took malerone. We had tried to take her type of medication before and had the same results, absolute nausea. Nicole went to bed, and we retired to our lodge/tent. I downloaded everyone’s cards, checked my computer for the load, reformatted the cards for tomorrow, and checked all the cameras. No rain, that’s good. While everyone was napping, old shirley girl was working. Did I tell you, safari is WORK! All we need is a drill master! I managed a small nap before I got my daily shower. Actually, I could have just skipped the whole evening and stayed asleep. Nicole was so sick and couldn’t even stay for dinner. We sent food to her, but she didn’t eat much. Steve and I listened to our local singer. This is another world. We didn’t stay up late. I checked on Nicole. She would go trekking tomorrow. I made sure she was ok with gear for the next day. Back at our tent, Steve had a beer for him and a drink for me. We geared up for tomorrow. Close the door to the bathroom, the flying bugs are landing! Contact me at info@outrageousred.com. Join my Fanpage, Outrageous Red, on Facebook!
Tags: Africa, gorillas, jungle, safari