Hello my small unicorns!
Today we went and explored the rainforest here in Uganda. We went to an area where there is a tropical rain forest. The journey offered very beautiful views and a landscape of natural beauty and farmland. Once we arrived at Kibale, we saw many small beautiful volcanic lakes. This is apparently described as the "pearl of Africa" and I understand why, because it was so beautiful! This area of the rainforest is the area that has the greatest number of monkeys in Africa and we managed to see the chimpanzees and the rare endangered red colobus monkeys. In the rainforest it was very wet and the trees grew very tight, with high crowns formed as a roof over us. There were many different plants that I didn’t recognize, it was very cool to see such a habitat and it was quite a big difference to the Swedish leaves and pine forest.
Today we went and explored the rainforest here in Uganda. We went to an area where there is a tropical rain forest. The journey offered very beautiful views and a landscape of natural beauty and farmland. Once we arrived at Kibale, we saw many small beautiful volcanic lakes. This is apparently described as the "pearl of Africa" and I understand why, because it was so beautiful! This area of the rainforest is the area that has the greatest number of monkeys in Africa and we managed to see the chimpanzees and the rare endangered red colobus monkeys. In the rainforest it was very wet and the trees grew very tight, with high crowns formed as a roof over us. There were many different plants that I didn’t recognize, it was very cool to see such a habitat and it was quite a big difference to the Swedish leaves and pine forest.
During the day we were served food at a rest area and ate chickpea and spinach soup with peanut butter. It may sound a little bit strange, but it was actually really good and it smelled delicious too. To the soup we got a freshly baked bread. After lunch we continued the journey and went up into a mountain area to try see the endangered mountain gorillas.
These gorillas are endangered because of poaching, but also to deforestation. They live in family groups that hold together over a number of years. Each group consists of about 10 individuals. These mountain gorillas are very peaceful, but it’s not always that you manage to see them up close. Males have a so-called silver back, it means that their back has a silver shade. They are very large and one male can weigh about 180 kilograms and be 180 centimeters long according to the guide.
Just when we were about to go home, we managed to see a group of mountain gorillas in the area where they had seen them the night before. We were very quiet and tried to sneak closer by dodging our way through the compact terrain. When we were about 60 meters away, we stopped and could see both females, males, and their kids. It was an amazing experience and I got such an adrenaline rush from the whole experience. It makes me very sad to know that there are idiots out there who can’t leave these animals alone without the need to disrupt and kill these innocent individuals. The man who guided the group told us how they usually watch over the mountain gorillas at night to protect them. It’s very good that it exist such people, because otherwise perhaps no mountain gorillas would exist anymore.
// Emma
Just when we were about to go home, we managed to see a group of mountain gorillas in the area where they had seen them the night before. We were very quiet and tried to sneak closer by dodging our way through the compact terrain. When we were about 60 meters away, we stopped and could see both females, males, and their kids. It was an amazing experience and I got such an adrenaline rush from the whole experience. It makes me very sad to know that there are idiots out there who can’t leave these animals alone without the need to disrupt and kill these innocent individuals. The man who guided the group told us how they usually watch over the mountain gorillas at night to protect them. It’s very good that it exist such people, because otherwise perhaps no mountain gorillas would exist anymore.
// Emma