The name itself reads like something out of Where the Wild Things Are – or a place where one would expect to find a Gingerbread house and a witch. I am referring to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – where I am headed this evening for a mountain gorilla trek. I will be leaving New York at 21h00 and won’t be in Entebbe until tomorrow night at 22h00. Once I’m there, I hope the Ugandan mountain gorillas can point me to the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot in the Bwindi. Otherwise, you will see a flyingnorthblog blackout for about a week.
The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a large primeval forest in the Virunga Volcanoes mountain range located in south-western Uganda. It is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, where half the world’s population of highly endangered Mountain Gorillas [approximately 340] live in its jungles in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This group is known as the Bwindi gorilla population.
The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is 128 square miles [331 square kilometers] of jungle forests and is accessible only on foot. The forest is one of the richest ecosystems in Africa, and provides habitat for some 120 species of mammals, 348 species of birds, 220 species of butterflies, 27 species of frogs, chameleons, geckos and many endangered species.
I wonder if Jane Goodall taught the Tanzanian chimps how to sign the words “free Wi-Fi” and if that skill made it to any of the mountain gorilla population next door in Uganda?
If the gorillas don’t take me in as one of their own, I’ll let you know.
