Day 169: Abio Site

The boat trip starts at eight. We visit the gorillas who live here on an island – like animals everywhere that are not really wildered out, they are still used to people and are regularly “fed”. We get to see three individuals and it is simply impressive. They are so peaceful in their appearance. We cannot understand why primates, animals that look so similar to humans, are killed as trophies, for cooking or because of a sexual enhancer! What an experience to be able to look at and observe the gorillas.

It's certainly even better to see wild animals through gorilla tracking – but we'll never have enough money for that anymore :-) And so we're totally happy with our visit here.

We booked the “long” boat trip and wound along on the river for quite a while before finally climbing a hippopotamus path, walking across a tranquil meadow and climbing a hill. What a landscape! What a panorama! Thanks to Benoit, Alban (and Thomas, who is currently in Brazza).

We see a few hippos, which you shouldn't get too close to, and a crocodile and return to camp satisfied after four hours. 

It's hot and humid now and we're excited to see whether the thunderstorm rumbling in the distance will arrive here and cool us down.

The afternoon is spent doing mundane tasks like bookkeeping and photo backup.

And we start thinking about what we actually want to see in Angola. 

In the evening we have the communal kitchen to ourselves and sit there quite comfortably while there is a storm outside. But at some point the rain comes through and the bed calls.