For weeks even months before we had mixed feelings - a combination of excitement and nervousness bordering on fear. What on earth had possessed us to go on a safari group trip to Uganda and Rwanda.
We wanted to see the 'Mountain Gorillas' but what exactly that involved and where they were we had no idea.
Getting closer to the date things began to take on their own momentum and the fact that we were actually doing this began to become real.
To quote Shirley Jackson (with a slight alteration) "and then it was upon us" and for the next 12 days we lost ourselves in another world. A world I had only seen on National Geographic and watched films or read about in adventure stories.
On one hand it felt like a school trip - in a group with a leader, following instructions, free from care, every little detail looked after - and on the other it was setting out on the greatest adventure of our lives.
Uganda - a country of amazing natural beauty countered by poverty (bordering on destitution), lack of respect for the law (especially with regard to the roads) and blatant corruption. We travelled in jeeps and stopped often along the way at villages and things of interest. From travelling through the country it is the images of the children (1 2 3 ) that stay with me.
At the end of the first day and having driven about 300Kms in our yellow Toyota jeep with our driver Steffie (Chika) we arrived at the Murchison Falls National Park then on to our 2 nights stay at the Paraa Lodge.
The last day of our trip we visited the Parc National des Volcans. Our guide was Francois and he worked with Dian Fossey for 5 years. It took us about 2 hours of trekking into the mountain to find the Kitwonda gorilla family. When we first came across them I thought my heart would jump out of my body it was beating so fast. They are breathtaking! While watching them just live you realise that they know and that here and now is what it's all about.