{"id":711,"date":"2013-02-21T20:25:37","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T20:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/?p=711"},"modified":"2014-06-16T09:15:43","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T09:15:43","slug":"days-8-9-uganda-gorilla-trekking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/2013\/02\/days-8-9-uganda-gorilla-trekking\/","title":{"rendered":"Days 8 &#038; 9  Uganda &#8211; Gorilla Trekking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/before-the-gorilla-trekb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-715\" title=\"before the gorilla trek\" src=\"http:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/before-the-gorilla-trekb-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"Just before setting off on our gorilla trek\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/before-the-gorilla-trekb-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/before-the-gorilla-trekb.jpg 433w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Another border crossing and we enter Uganda and encounter more stunning scenery as we headed through the hills towards Kisoro. As the Virunga mountains came into view we all knew what that means \u2013 Gorilla trekking!   With only 800 mountain gorilla\u2019s left in the wild, trekking to see them is an amazing experience and a massive highlight for most.    But first we had a day in town, and as Monday is market day,  it is bustling!   Some of us brave the extremely crowded market, with its many varieties of colourful fruit and vegetables,   the market women chatting to each other and calling out to attract customers, and the children playing between the heaving stalls.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CIMG9737b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-714\" title=\"Gorilla trekking in Uganda\" src=\"http:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CIMG9737b-260x300.jpg\" alt=\"Trekking in Uganda looking for Gorilla\" width=\"260\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CIMG9737b-260x300.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CIMG9737b.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><\/a>In the evening we are entertained by children from a nearby orphanage singing, dancing and drumming for us \u2013 they were incredibly good! A joke for the entire trip had been that every day was our driver  Charles\u2019 birthday \u2013 so we surprised him with a card, cake and candle and the children sang him happy birthday \u2013 all of us were in fits of laughter!<\/p>\n<p>Next morning we had an early start with the passengers heading up the mountains in the morning mist to go find the gorillas.  It took about 2 1\/2 hours of rainforest trekking \u2013 but so worth it to see these amazing creatures, and everyone was full of praise for the fantastic trekkers and guides.  An hour spend with the gorillas is an unforgettable experience, I can\u2019t put into words how amazing it is to share some time with the incredible animals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another border crossing and we enter Uganda and encounter more stunning scenery as we headed through the hills towards Kisoro. As the Virunga mountains came into view we all knew what that means \u2013 Gorilla trekking! With only 800 mountain &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/2013\/02\/days-8-9-uganda-gorilla-trekking\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[291,19,205,158,293,161,292,150,294,159],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3rd-feb-2013-east-africa-encounter-on-sparky-leanne","tag-800-mountain-gorillas-left-in-the-wild","tag-african-holiday","tag-border-crossing","tag-gorilla-trekking","tag-it-is-bustling","tag-kisoro","tag-monday-is-market-day","tag-uganda","tag-unforgettable-experience","tag-virunga-mountains"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}