CANADIAN MAN DIES ATTEMPTING TO FULFILL A LIFETIME DREAM OF SEEING THE GORILLAS
(Posted 26th May 2015)
(Bweza – the silverback of the gorilla group of the same name)
A 75 year old Canadian man – his name known but respectfully withheld – reportedly collapsed and subsequently died yesterday while enroute to tracking Uganda’s prized mountain gorillas after spending a night in Kisoro, the main town in the border triangle between Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. The tour group he was part of was heading to the Bweza gorilla family which is located in the Rushaga part of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.
Neither the Uganda Wildlife Authority nor Ugandan safari operators do set an upper age limit for tracking gorillas. All relevant information handed out to tourists, from the moment the tour is being planned and again once guests arrive in Uganda, explains that anyone tracking must be in good health to avoid any cross contamination with human diseases like the flu and must be in reasonably good physical shape as some sections of Bwindi are by common consensus strenuous to navigate.
Incidents of this kind in Uganda have thankfully been extremely rare in the past.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority, according to information received, and the Ugandan tourism fraternity, have already expressed condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and this correspondent also joins them in offering sincere condolences.
