Mountain Gorilla - Rwanda

I decided to go through my Africa album once again and thought that the Gorillas never got a fair show, so here is a thread about the Gorillas.

Stay tuned for photos

Setting up our camp at a missionary in Rwanda this town sits at the foot hills of the Mountain Gorillas.

Walking around this guy wants his photo taken, for some reason he thinks it will make him famous. I guess he is now famous on Nikonites

The local villagers give us a welcome dance, abit touristy but it has to be done.

This is a friends photo of me just to show my set up, I am wearing a sony action cam stuck on top of my hat. That orange SPOT device is a personal GPS tracking system that updates my position to a website in real time. My 80-400 is wearing a shower cap as its easier to remove then a lens cap.

Our first sighting of the gorillas was of them hidden or running across the track, making it very hard to get a decent shot.

Even though these Gorillas had been hunted by us humans they still trusted us and were very inquisitive.

They were so at peace with us being there that they played and carried on, was amazing to watch the interactions.

We were instructed to keep 7mtrs from the gorillas, but in this dense jungle that was very hard and I found myself at one time slipping on a wet vine and sliding towards a 250kg Silver back fun fun.

This female was happy chewing away on the bark of a stick.

Staring into their eyes was awe inspiring.

The large Silver back resting out of the sun.

When looking at images like this it makes me wonder what they are thinking.

Remember that 7mtr rule, but no one told this baby. Also with this baby it lost one of its hands due to a snare that was left by hunters. They were not targeting gorillas but they still seem to get harmed.

Excellent photos you've got here!:applouse:

Shortly after Tess in previous photo moved away you can nearly see the despair in the babies eyes.

A youngster eating some leaves plucked from the side of the tree.

And some photos from a friends 'Coolpix' of us walking through and out of the jungle.



Thanks for looking and if you get a chance to go to Rwanda definitely go see the gorillas its an hr of your life that you will never forget. Oh and pay the porters the $10USD to carry your bag as they used to be gorilla poachers and are now porters, this is better than poaching such a beautiful animal.

Ah what memories

What amazing photos