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Published: October 12th 2007
Quick note - we are also composing an entry about arriving in Rwanda and our stay in Kigali which will be slotted in before this one. But there was quite a lot to say, what with genocide memorials and our first impressions of how the country is today. So we are still writing it, and we have skipped ahead to this one so we can post the gorilla pics.
So after a few days in Kigali it was time for us to go and meet the relatives. Albeit distant relatives, and with a bit more hair. Well only just hairier than Adam anyway...
We got the bus up to Ruhengeri which is the town nearest to Parc National des Volcans. The bus ride was beautiful, climbing through yet more of the "thousand hills" that the country is named for. The National Park is an area containing a chain of about 5 volcanoes which straddles the borders between Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. The volcanoes are extinct, but they are still pretty impressive. Two of them tower over Ruhengeri. Probably the weather didn't help, but we found Ruhengeri to be a rather dull, grey and muddy town with
not a lot going on. Most tourists don't stop here - they just go straight up to the park boundary and stay in the expensive lodges in Kinigi one of which has a nine hole Golf course... Only us cheapskate backpackers stay in the town!
We met up with Brian and Anne an watched a bit of Rugger (we met them at Lake Bunyoni in Uganda and had planned to do the gorilla tracking with them). Only thing of note was lunch - no menu in the "restaurant" so you just order a "mixed plate". It had more types of carbs on one plate than I've ever seen - pasta, rice, boiled potatoes, chips and savoury bananas no less. Bread on the side for good measure. We could have climbed Elgon twice afterwards.
Next day we headed up towards the park to the village of Kinigi which has the ORTPN Park offices and serves as the meeting point for the gorilla tracking. The village is set on beautiful green slopes of the volcanoes, with amazing views of the valley below, and the sun had come out. So at least we weren't going to get soaked as well as
mauled by Gorillas.
We decided to go for a walk from our budget accommodation place (Kinigi Guest House) to the posh one (Gorilla's nest). Walking though the village we were accosted by about 30 kids who all wanted to talk / walk with us / have their pictures taken. Very few of them asked for money or anything else which was a refreshing change. They were lovely and we took down several email and postal addresses to send the pics to later.
It was sad to see that despite the fact that about 80 rich tourists pass through here every day (gorilla tracking costs USD500 per person and at the moment there are about 80 places available each day) it was clear that very few of them ever made it out of their four wheel drives and nice hotels. It was also clear that not very much of the huge sums of money brought in by the gorillas was being spent on the local community. That's just my assumption - maybe it was much poorer before and they have actually benefitted - but the whole area seemed very poor. Sadly (and this is as much the fault of
the local people as anyone) there were hardly any initiatives like souvenir / craft stalls etc to get the locals directly involved in the roaring tourist trade being done on their doorstep. Our hostel was run by a local women's charity but that was about it from what we saw. Why aren't the kids painting gorilla postcards? Where are the 'Mzungus in the Mist' T-Shirts? Why don't the gorilla trips include an optional school visit or organised village walk? Why doesn't the school advertise their football matches?
Anyway enough ranting.
The next morning we all met at the National Park Headquarters at 7am. You get divided into tracking groups and assigned a guide and guards. Then you get assigned your Gorilla group and off you go. You need transport to the trailheads, then you start hiking up though the fields towards the volcanoes.
Our assigned group was the Titus Group which is a group of about 13 individuals consisting of a big Silverback (the group's namesake), a slightly younger Male just reaching maturity (i.e. big, hormonal, and just turning silver) and a mixture of females, adolescents, and young. We hiked for about an hour through the fields
before we crossed the park boundary into the forest. They send an advance party of park trackers out earlier so that your guide already has some idea where the Gorillas are, who then keeps radio contact with the trackers until you find the group.
For about 40 mins we climbed up through the forest - initially on some small paths, and later on clambering through the vegetation with some hardcore stinging nettles and spiky things to make it interesting. When we got close we had to leave our bags and approach the clearing slowly.
There are 8 people per tracking group. When you find the Gorillas, you stay in a group close to the guide all the time. You spend an hour with them, just watching. You're not supposed to get too close (at the office it says 7 metres) although it becomes quickly apparent that the Gorillas haven't been to the ORTPN office or read the rule book. The small clearings make it impossible to stay further than 4 or 5 metres away, and that's assuming they don't get frisky. Which they do. Stick together, move slowly, no loud noises, no sudden movements, no running away... It
all sounds reasonable but in practise, but when a VERY large, testosterone fuelled male gorilla with something to prove charges you King Kong style, the rules prove kind of tricky to remember.
The first thing that hits you about them is the sheer size of them, quickly followed by the smell (A bit like Neil after a days boarding - only kidding, sort of musty, kind of like we'd be if we were hairy and lived in a forest and never washed). We initially saw a mother sitting on the forest floor munching on plant roots with her baby nearby - but the baby soon climbed on her back and they wandered through to another clearing to join the rest of the group. We slowly followed them through to another clearing still buzzing from sitting just a few metres away from wild Gorillas, even though they seemed completely oblivious to our presence.
In the second clearing we found the dominant male silverback, Titus, in a very dominant position, on his back in the undergrowth with the females just lazing around him, a big tangle of gorilla limbs.
For most of the time we were there thats all
the big silverback and the females did. The juvenile silverback and the baby were a bit more active... and interactive! While we were stood photographing them in the second clearing we noticed the adolescent silverback sitting in the bushs looking broody and glancing at us every now and again. We were on his patch and he decided to show who was in charge as Titus was too busy lounging around with his harem. He stalked along infront of us for a few metres than charged at us with that characteristic loping run. Hammering the ground with his fists and giving us an all too clear view of his teeth, he stopped a few feet in front of us and illustrated quite clearly how loud he could roar. He then swaggered back to his bush leaving our cowering group, now quivering and occupying a total area of no more than 50 square cm, brushing ourselves down.
We stood watching one of the youngsters wrestling with his older brother for ages. Like an energetic kid: jump around a bit, bounce on brother, brother not paying enough attention, ping bamboo stalk at brother, brother getting annoyed, brother pushes him away, come back
to annoy brother more... It was a shame we only had an hour, but you can't stay with them longer as you risk transmission of contagion either from them to you or you to them.
All the time we were keeping a constant eye on 'Mr Chargy' in the corner. At one point I had to tap Marianne on the shoulder and tug her jacket to get her to move out of the way of one of the female Gorillas that had just come through the vegetation behind us from one of the other clearings. She stopped with a startled jerk of the head, looked around at each of us then shouldered her way through us as if to say 'bloody tourists, always in the way'.
We moved around the clearing to get a better view of the big silverback when Mr Chargy returned for act 2. We were standing in a line, not really the close knit group the guide kept trying to get us to stand in, when the adolescent male decided we were between where he was and where he wanted to go. The guide with rising urgency kept saying "please come closer" "please stand
closer together" when the Gorilla charged again. Adam (in typically herioc fashion) pulled Marianne towards the group, who up until now had been obliviously taking photogaphs of Titus in the other direction. (Marianne swears I was cunningly trying to place her between me and the charging Gorilla, a charge I strenuously deny). With another lumbering, ground pounding run the adolescent came charging at us, but this time without stopping. Passing to one side (i.e. our side), he thundered past giving Marianne a very deliberate slap on the leg as he went. It was about then I soiled myself. Only kidding! But I was beginning to worry that I had competition I couldn't hope to beat...
He then, fortunately for us, decided that after all that running about it was time for a lie down leaving us in relative peace to watch and photograph the other Gorillas.
It has been said many times before, and we will say it again. It is amazing how human the Gorillas are in their mannerisms. Watching the big female eating plant roots was identical to watching someone hungrily eating Chicken wings. When lying on their front, with head propped on hand they look
like someody lying in a park watching the world go by. They have incredibly big, deep, Hazel eyes, and when eye contact is made it almost feels as if they know what or who you are. Its difficult to explain.
Before we knew it our hour with the Gorillas was coming to an end an we slowly made our way back down the volcano to Kinigi buzzing with the kind of Adrenaline you don't feel very often.
Was it worth 500 dollars? We're certainly glad we went to see them. With the politics of the region in constant ebb and flow between good and bad, stability and instability, violence and calm, the Gorillas have an uncertain future when times are good. The price to see the Gorillas has also been on the rise for the last couple of years, pushing it beyond the budget of many travellers.
A cynical view sees it as a cash cow for some stereotypical African government official who has found himself in the cushy position in charge of park management funds. A less cynical view sees the efforts to conserve their habitat and protect their safety paying off. With money made there
going to less popular parks, Gorilla numbers stabilising and possibly even rising, providing employment to the rangers and guides, and the community with the filter down effect of tourists coming to the area and spending money. It certainly isn't having the effect we would have expected on the local community at the park boundary though.
Glad to survive our fantastic experience with the Gorillas, we headed towards Gisenyi on the shores of Lake Kivu for some R & R.
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tamara
non-member comment
I reckon the reason why they looked so much like humans is because they WERE humans paid to dress up and fool stupid tourists who think they're paying hundreds of pounds to see gorillas in the wild.