Preface: Silverhair Seeks Silverback
Third Time's The Charm
11.26.2021 - 11.26.2021 72 °F
View Morocco + Uganda + Rwanda on paulej4's travel map.
My preferred life is lived atop a perpetually cresting wave, my surfboard a lie-flat seat aboard an international flight with Beryl at my side if the destination boasts five or six stars, alone if four or fewer. If no faraway place lurks on my calendar within a few months, it leaves a hole not only there but in my heart as well.
With a couple of notable exceptions, however, for 18 months I’ve primarily lived below deck under luffing sails, mostly going nowhere. I know I am luckier than 99.9% of humans on this planet—I give thanks for that every day—but I’ve been travel bored since COVID crashed the party of our lives. This ride, twice COVIDelayed, comes after what seemed an interminable wait. But the back of boredom is about to be broken.
On this day after Thanksgiving, this escape is high on my list of things about which thanks are given. I regret that Beryl is not coming along.
It's a simple, if long, day: a morning car from Vero Beach to Orlando, an early afternoon United flight to Washington, D.C., a five hour layover and, at last, an evening overnight flight on Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca, Morocco. I write this awaiting that flight while enjoying the hospitality of the Turkish Airlines Lounge. If you are thinking of connecting at Washington Dulles International Airport from a United flight to Royal Air Maroc, my advice would be to not do it. Enough said.
On this journey I will set foot in three countries where my feet have not before touched ground: Morocco, Uganda and Rwanda, all now inaugurated to my ‘American Samoa to Zimbabwe’ “been-to” list. This will bring my total number of countries visited to what I think is 127. Different sources count countries in profoundly different ways. One source says there are 248 countries and territories while another source says there are only 194 actual countries. (There are 193 ‘member states’ in the United Nations.)
In some ways, I actually regret adding these most recent three.
Morocco restricts the right to peaceful expression, association and assembly, legislates prison for same-sex or pre-marital sex and up to 15 years in prison for proselytizing any religion other than Islam. These are things that we Americans tend to reject.
Uganda was home to mass-murderer-dictator Idi Amin and reportedly still tolerates child labor, forced labor and once passed a law that included imprisonment for people who were HIV-positive. (The law was later held to have been passed without a quorum so it failed to take effect) These are things that we Americans tend to renounce.
Rwanda was the site of a 1994 horrific genocide when between 500,000 and 1,000,000 were murdered in just under 100 days and where the constitution provides that “only civil monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is recognized.” These are things that we Americans tend to repudiate.
Then why go? Uganda and Rwanda: Because I want to commune with mountain gorillas. Simply put this silverhair wants be experience silverbacks. Morocco: Because it is on the way and I selfishly want to experience at least one night in a tent under the absolute darkness of the Sahara Desert sky. And, of course, these are three countries to which I have never been so... And, these are activities that can today only be experienced in geographically or politically hostile locales.
I humbly accept well deserved criticism from those who wish to place it on offer. Riding the crest of waves is, in the minds of many, indefensibly silly, a waste of resources which could be put to better use, environmentally irresponsible by way of an indefensible carbon footprint and an invitation to sharks who might like a bite. But I go anyway.
But I whimsically ask: Why did it take me this long to seek out gorillas in the wild? I am a 1970 graduate of Pittsburg State University (in Kansas) which is the only institution of higher education that claims the gorilla as its mascot. (The school logo is the red and gold face of “Gus” gorilla.) On the “Oval” (other schools call it a quad but ours was and is oval shaped), there was and is a stylized modern gorilla sculpture.
Now, years after I am gone and which I have never seen, a beautiful lifelike gorilla sculpture is located in “Gorilla Village” behind the PSU football stadium. Closer to home, upon my desk sits a beautiful abstract statue of a gorilla created by internationally acclaimed sculptor Dale Eldred. (I was lucky to find it for sale in an estate and even luckier to be able to purchase it before someone else snapped it up.) So, after all that adventure and travel and having actually been a "gorilla" in college, you would think I would have gone to see a gorilla in the wild. But no. Until now.
I’ve traveled to all seven continents, all 50 states and three (of five) U.S. territories. I’ve crossed the Equator, the Arctic Circle, the Antarctic Circle, the Tropic of Capricorn, the Tropic of Cancer and the International Date Line. I've flown as high as 60,000 feet (on the Concorde) and as low as 10 feet on an ultralight in Cabo, in New Zealand both leap from an airplane and bunji jumped off a bridge, slept at 11,150 feet above sea level (Cusco, Peru) and dove to 110 feet below the surface of the Caribbean Sea (Cozumel’s Palancar Reef). I’ve an extensive--some would say exhaustive--background of travel and, while I am still able, am not finished.
I’ve had occasion to swim with dolphins, stingrays, whale sharks and blacktip sharks. I’ve seen and photographed--in their natural habitat of jungle, savannah or ice floe--elephant, rhino, hippopotamus, lion, tiger, polar bear, jaguar, cheetah, leopard, giraffe, penguin, walrus, killer whale, grey whale, crocodile, alligator, cayman and more. I’ve a passion for seeing great and sometimes threatening creatures on their home ground—or in their home lake, river or ocean waters. And, via these blogs, I have an opportunity to share these adventures with interested parties who may not be able nor desire to partake personally. I love to write and by writing I am forced to pay better attention to where I am, why it is interesting, who lives there and how history shaped the place.
But as yet, now lamenting, I’ve neither seen nor communed with gorillas outside of the Omaha Zoo (where one once charged B and me scaring the Berkshire Hathaway right out of us). Ten days from now, if luck is on my side, that will no longer be the case. I am off, via Morocco, to Uganda and then Rwanda with plans for five individual treks to visit gorilla families in the wild…where it is estimated that half of the remaining 700 individuals of this majestic and special species of mountain gorilla survive.
As a bonus, because of a flight cancelation, my return home has been re-routed through Brussels where my son Cianán calls a flat on Rue du Beau home. We will get a chance to meet for lunch in the middle of my eleven hour layover there. He, shown here having recently beaten me to the desert, will pick up the check.
My habit has been to post travel blog entries once daily. That may not be possible due to the remote locations and spotty wifi of some of the camps and lodges (Virunga, Mt. Gahinga, Clouds Mountain and Bwindi) where I will be housed or tented. In the lands of this adventure, cellular service and internet can be iffy. The rainy season will have recently ended; the average temperatures range from 66 to 93 degrees farenheit. I will be eight hours ahead of you on the clock and up to 10,000 feet higher in altitude--and maybe a similar amount of attitude as well.
Daily blog entries for "Gorillas in My Midst" are planned to be posted at https://Paul2Silverbacks.travellerspoint.com. I am honored to share my experience. If a daily interruption via your inbox is cumbersome, please unsubscribe and if that fails, email me at paul@russraff.com and I will delete your address from the subscriber list.
It would also be my great privilege to read your comments about what you see here as we go, answer questions you might care to pose and otherwise enjoy your feedback. You will notice a 'comments' box at the end of each entry where you may facilitate that process.
I am excited about this journey and hope that, by following along, you will both see and experience a part of the world you might otherwise miss. Next stop, Casablanca.
