Uganda - The Mountain Gorillas

Being in the country of "eternal spring" can be the dream of many, and if it turns out that this is just one of the aspects that make Uganda a unique country in the world, then perhaps it is worth turning this dream into reality.

Few times in life it can happen to see in a single journey the most fascinating animals of the forest: lions, the rare leopard, herds of elephants and buffaloes, the spotted hyena. However, it is the emotion of meeting the very rare mountain gorilla that transforms this trip into an unforgettable life experience.

"The pearl of Africa" called it former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, one who knew a lot about exotic lands. In fact, in 1962, at the end of British colonial rule, Uganda was considered one of the most prosperous and advanced countries in all of Africa. This nation in the center of the continent, slightly smaller than Italy, looks like a large plateau at over a thousand meters above sea level, dotted with a series of vast lakes, including Vittoria (the largest in Africa and second in the world) from which the White Nile is born, and on the edges by a series of volcanic reliefs including the Virunga and the Ruwenzori, 4-5 thousand meters high, better known with the gentle name of Monti della Luna. 

We are talking about Africa of the great nineteenth-century explorers, in perennial search for the mythical sources of the Nile, where the Italian prince Luigi di Savoia-Aosta, Duke of the Abruzzi also wrote a shining page. Although it is crossed by the Equator, the abundance of water, the high rainfall, the altitude and the mild climate make it a very fertile country, with high production of coffee, cotton, tea, cocoa and tobacco.  

The major tourist attraction is the visit to the mountain gorillas, one of the animal species at greatest risk of extinction. 340 gorillas live in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, divided into thirty families of 10-15 specimens consisting of a dominant male, a massive silver-haired patriarch, and a harem of females with children and young people who constantly move in the thick of the forest in search of fresh food, leaves, sprouts and berries.