Rwanda's number one tourist attraction is Mountain Gorilla tracking. For weeks now, Patricia has been urging me to amortize my resident visa (foreign residents pay only $250 for a permit, all other foreigners pay $500) and get a permit before the tourist season starts and go see the gorillas. It's not that I didn't want to see the gorillas but the logistics seemed tricky since children can't go and I really wanted to do the whole journey as a day trip. This week, we found out that there were still permits left so I went down to ORTPN and bought two! We then contacted Jacques to drive us, arranged for a sleepover for Nava and adult backup for Saadya who stayed in the house on his own (well, you're never really on your own with house staff around) and off we went on our last big Rwanda adventure to the Virunga Mountains to see Gorilla.
We arrived in Ruhengeri (still can't bring myself to call it Musanze) just after dark and a little shaken by the last bit of driving. Driving in the dark in Rwanda is really treacherous and we just narrowly missed hitting a crazy bicycle rider who was flying down a mountain into the oncoming traffic lane just clipping the car's sideview mirror. We stayed at Muhabura again (I've heard Dian Fossey stayed there) and after checking in we calmed ourselves down with wonderful brochette and beer.
Check in at the Kinigi Center for the tracking was 7:00am. We arrived bright and early though not necessarily chipper after yet another restless somewhat sleepless night in Rwanda. The day looked as though it would be sunny, clear and hot. Groups of eight were formed and we were introduced to our Guide/Tracker, a man named Francis who told us about our Group called Hirwa.
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| Francis who could talk like a gorilla and knew everything about the members of Hirwa |
The Gorilla groups or families are habituated to humans and are visited daily by the park rangers, trackers and tourists. There are 7 groups visited by the tourists and others that are visited only by rangers or researchers. Hirwa lives on Mount Sabyinyo a very majestic volcano. Francis told us about how we should behave around the gorillas and the rules of tracking:
- Stay a distance of 22 feet from the gorillas (we ended up breaking that rule)
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| The boots to the gorilla is 22 feet, the distance we were supposed to be from the gorillas |
- Viewing time is one hour (we were with the gorillas for more than an hour)
- Before we get to the gorillas we will set up a base camp and leave our backpacks since the packs may confuse the gorillas into thinking we have babies on our backs
- Try not to make rapid movements that frighten the gorillas (OK, but what do you think we all did when the big silverback made rapid movements that frightened us and seemed ready to walk right over us?)
Francis also let us know that yesterday the Hirwa group was found just inside the park boundaries and that the visitors had an easy hour of observation as the group did not move for the entire time. This description did not sound like much of a mountain jungle adventure but we were ready for action. We drove up to the trailhead feeling grateful for Jacque's driving and his four wheel drive. From the trailhead we hiked up to the park boundary and then in at the point where trackers last saw the Hirwa. After an hour, the trackers who had gone ahead let Francis know that we should leave our packs and move forward to see the gorillas. Francis led the way making gorilla sounds and shortly thereafter we spotted the silverback in the bamboo.
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| Silverback in the bamboo |
A couple of 4 year old gorillas were playing nearby and a mama gorilla was wandering in the area as well. After we had observed the gorillas for about 10 minutes the silverback decided it was time to get up and go and all the gorillas quickly took off up the mountain through the thick brush and bamboo.
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| Gorillas heading up the mountain |
At first I thought that was the end of our gorilla viewing but Francis and the other trackers led the way up and up and up and up and across the volcano using machetes to bushwhack through the jungle. Along the way it started to rain (our raincoats were in the backpacks at our base camp) so now we were slipping and sliding through the jungle in search of the mountain gorilla. Our simple walk in the park turned into a strenuous climb up a treacherous volcanic mountainside. Patricia and I were lucky to be fit and altitude acclimated; our fellow travelers were most definitely not but they managed to make their way often with the help of porters or trackers.
After two hours of finding plenty of gorilla sign (stinky poops and discarded half eaten bamboo shoots) we came down into a gorge and were rewarded with an extended period of viewing of 8 of the Hwira group gorillas including the silverback.
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| Munching some bamboo shoot |
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| Gorilla hanging on a tree in the MIST! |
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| The upper right is a glimpse of the baby that was hanging onto this mama |
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| Grooming |
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| The silverback |
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| The silverback |
The photos barely do justice to the scenery and the proximity of the gorillas. Patricia wanted to take one home because they do look big and cuddly. For me, there was one startling moment when the silverback walked through our group and almost on my foot after he was startled by a gun going off nearby (probably to scare off buffalo). As he trampled through with his incredible bulk he seemed a frightening figure, but in truth these are beautiful but big and peaceful vegetarians living on the sides of the volcanoes in the land of 1000 hills and I feel pretty lucky to have visited them (THANKS Patricia!).
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