"You
are most welcome!"
Americans
for UNFPA East African Leadership Safari August 2005
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It was a long way back down...
...and were very tired when we got to the edge of the park. Here we are with our guide, from left to right, in the front there's me, Felice, John, Kendall and Caroline, and in the back there's Peggy and Crystal.
I had carried my photographic gear, including my tripod, 3000 feet or more up to the 10,500 elevation where we saw the gorillas. It was a steep, steep, steep climb. This is the gear I carried - about 25 pounds.
Of all that stuff, I used the camera and two lenses and I could have carried those things in my pockets. But I don't regret the effort. Worse would have been to have found the gorillas and not had the right equipment for the conditions.
Going down was as steep as going up...
While we were with the gorillas no one in our thought of 'having their photograph taken with the gorillas'.
I think this was because we felt a reverence in their presence. We were looking five million years into our own past and felt a bond across the gulf of time.
We were aware of the fragile thread that allows the gorillas to still live today, and we knew how easily that thread could be broken and they would be no more.
So we didn't think of having our pictures taken with a gorilla in the background.
You can help preserve the gorillas and their habitat. Dian Fossey's site is a start. Her camp, and her grave, are close to where we trekked.
Gorillas in the Mist is her story.
Gorillas: 4 of 4 pages
(c)
James Cowan
2005