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Published: November 16th 2009
Me and a Gorilla
This is the only photo of me and a gorilla!So, my Grand Gorilla Adventure turned out to be pretty much a bust! It was 10 minutes of “Gorillas in the Mist” followed by 30 minutes of “Gorillas in the Torrential Downpour”. I didn’t get many good photos at all and not a single photo of me with a gorilla in the background. The more evolved, philosophical, Buddish side of me says “that’s the way it goes”, “who can predict nature?”, “at least I saw 10 good minutes of Rwandan mountain gorillas which is more than most people ever get”. The other 70% of me (it’s a tight contest for control on most days and today it's fairly lopsided) says “what the &^%*#? I paid $500 @%*!&ing dollars for a gorilla permit, got 10 good minutes, then got soaking wet and muddy!”
Let me start from the beginning…
On Saturday, my guide and driver Joseph showed up at 11:30am, slightly early for the agreed upon meeting time. I was ready and a bit concerned if anyone would show up since I had arranged everything via the internet, including wiring two payments to a bank in Uganda. He seemed very nice, we loaded the car, and off we went. It
was a pretty drive up to Volcanoes National Park and Joseph stopped whenever I wanted to take photos. Almost every square inch of Rwanda is cultivated and much of the farming is terraced so the scenery is spectacular. We got to the Kinigi Guest House at 2:15pm and I got checked in with no problem. I was on my own until the next morning at 6:55am when we had to leave for the Park Headquarters just two minutes down the road.
The Kinigi Guest House is run by ASOFERWA, a non-profit women’s organization established in August of 1994 to address the needs of those left vulnerable after the genocide, many of whom were women and children: widows, orphans, young mothers (through rape), victims of AIDS (through rape), and others traumatized by the violence. The organization first provided shelter for widows with the understanding that the widows would care for the orphans through the construction of Peace Villages, cluster of 100-150 hours and 600 to 1,200 residents. They also helped establish income-generating schemes to benefit the residents and the surrounding communities. Their work has expanded and, aided by foreign donations and investment, ASOFERWA established schools and medical facilities, a literacy
Scenery on the way to the park boundary wall
Mt. Visoke (3,711 meters high) can be seen in this photo with its peak obscured with clouds training center, dairy farms, and tanneries. The organization is still active and I was happy to support them by staying at the guest house.
I went for a walk that was much shorter then planned for two reasons. As I walked I acquired quite the entourage of children who wanted to know my name, how old I was, where I was from, how I was doing, and finally if I would give them money, bon-bons, or a pen and if not that, would I take a photo of them? As each new kid joined the group, the process started all over again. It got very tiring after just 20 minutes so I headed back to the hotel. It was also starting to cloud up and it looked like it could rain any minute which it did a short while later. There was a tremendous downpour that lasted over an hour so I sat just inside my door and watched the rain.
Once it cleared up, I decided to venture outside again and try a different route, there was no one in sight so I thought I was OK, but about two minutes later I heard “Muzungu!” (“Foreigner”) and
Sabyino Volcano
This inactive volcano is 3,634 meters high
Photo taken early Sunday AM when the skies were clear! kids came flying out of every house, from around every corner, and under each bush so I was surrounded again. I talked to them for about 10 minutes and then, once again, headed back to the hotel. The kids will not enter the grounds, although they stand just one inch outside of them and dance, sing, and yell “Hey American”. As I was entering the grounds, two women were heading out so I warned then of the upcoming onslaught. They laughed and invited me to join them so the three of us ventured off with a trail of followers. It turns out that they work for an organization that had worked with my organization and we had a very nice talk and a less enjoyable 30 minute walk with an ever growing mass of followers. We went back to the hotel and agreed to meet for dinner later. They had seen the gorillas that morning so I heard all about it and, later, saw their photos which were really, really good.
My alarm was set for 5:30am and I was up earlier than that after not sleeping well at all, mostly in anticipation of the gorilla trek and partly
Group Thirteen
Group Thirteen lives in the saddle area between Mt. Visoke and Mt. Sabyino
Photo taken with no zoom - this is how close we were! in fear that my alarm would not go off. I got up and showered and went to get breakfast. My new friends from yesterday were there and we had another nice talk and exchanged cards. Then the fun began…
When I went to meet Joseph at 6:45am, I was a guy in a truck pushing his van trying to get it started. That didn’t work, although they kept trying until the truck crumpled the license plate and cracked the front panel. Next, three guys tried to push the van fast enough to pop the clutch, but that didn’t work. My friends offered me a ride to the park and I asked Joseph, but he said we had plenty of time so I declined. By this time, it was 6:57am and at least six 4x4s passed the hotel on the way to the park. I asked Joseph again and he said we could walk. It’s an easy walk, but at 6:57am, we had to run which wasn’t quite as easy. The guide has to check you in and then get you assigned to a group. There was lots of discussion and pointing and it seemed fairly unorganized. There was a
huge group and they had already taken most of the slots so the singles and pairs had to get put in where there were openings. This was taking a while and Joseph was worried about the van so he left me with another guide who said he’d take care of me. He had two people and finally the three of us joined up with a group of five people to reach the total of eight. We then had a brief orientation to gorilla trekking and gorilla family groups before we set off to the departure point for the trek. Joseph was back at this point with the van running in the parking lot. He said the battery had died because it was so cold overnight and he couldn’t turn the van off until the battery was recharged.
I was assigned to see Group Thirteen which was my first choice so I was happy! Here’s the composition of Group Thirteen: one silverback, eight adult females, 10 infants! The lone male is in charge and quite fertile! He's was a wild gorilla, i.e. unhabitutaed, when he decided to take over Group Thirteen. He challenged the previous silverback and won the contest
and therefore became the silverback in charge. The former dominant silverback left the group.
I’m not sure why each group of trekkers had to take a separate vehicle, but the three cars (two heavy duty 4x4s and our van) took off down the road. It was a good road for a while, then a not so good road, and then not really what you’d call a road at all. It was 30 minutes of “African Massage” as we bounced and jolted along. We finally got to the meeting spot after almost getting stuck in the mud twice. I was surprised the van made it! There were porters at the trail head and you could hire them to carry your bag for $5. There was also a park ranger with a gun and a machete - his job was to scare off any wild buffalo we happened across.
Along the road, there were tons of kids (I must have passed at least 150) of all ages, but mostly toddlers through about 10 years old. They stand and wave to you with the older kids shouting “Hello, how are you?” They are now teaching English in all of the schools
Gorillas
There's a good view of the silverback in this photo (largest gorilla in the center) so many of the older kids speak a bit. They do not know how to answer the question “How are you?” and seem puzzled when this was my reply. The kids are all very cute and they were playing in the dirt and mud so many were pretty dirty. All the girls wear skirts and some of the little ones were super cute in their little dresses, some of which were dragging on the ground. It’s heartwarming to be greeted so exuberantly, but part of me also thought that they need a family planning clinic nearby!
We started towards the park boundary up a path through farmers’ fields, passing sheep and cows along the way. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was sunny and warm. I almost left my rain coat at the car, but decided at the last minute to bring it along in case it got colder inside the forest. We walked uphill for half an hour to reach the park boundary wall, stopping a few times to rest and take photos. There, we were told to put on our rain gear to protect us against branches and the many stinging nettles along the path. We
Baby gorilla
How cute is this baby??? entered the park and climbed through uphill for another 45 minutes or so through bamboo and trees along a narrow path. About 30 minutes in, we started to see fresh broken bamboo stalks which mean that gorillas have been there recently. A few minutes later, we found a very large, fresh pile of gorilla poop (the guide could tell it was from an adult female) which caused great excitement as it meant we were getting closer. Not too long after that, we reached the spot where we had to leave our bags and rain gear behind as we were very close to the gorillas...
The guide went first and started making gorilla grunting noises to announce our presence. We climbed through some pretty thick bamboo for just a minute or two when suddenly, there they were! At least 10 gorillas, including the lone silverback, sitting in a clearing! We were probably about 15 feet away from the closest gorilla and 20-some feet away from the silverback. A few of them glanced our way, but no one really paid any attention to us. It took a few moments for people to pull out cameras because it just seemed so unreal
to be so close to a group of mountain gorillas! We started taking photos and were a bit noisier because the silverback got restless and started to move the group back a bit. At first, he gave the order and none of the females obeyed him. He tried giving the same order louder and still they ignored him. Finally, he did some chest beating and threw a branch and the females started to get up to follow. There were several adult females present and quite a few infants (which is what they call gorillas up to five years old). The infants were playing with each other and one very young one was climbing all over his/her Mom. It was pretty cool and almost didn;t seem real! As we watched, it started to sprinkle so the guide sent one of the trackers back to get our rain gear. As he got back, it started to rain harder and then it started to pour. The gorillas moved off with the driving rain and we lost sight of them. One of the trackers found then by circling around another trail so we went that way. We found the silverback and three females, one
with her baby, hunkered down in the rain. Their fur is waterproof, but they still seek shelter when it rains. These were the only gorillas we could find and it was absolutely pouring at this point. We watched for maybe 10 minutes while the gorillas barely moved (the silverback was a still as a statue with his back to us). The guide asked who wanted to go back and it was 7-1 with me being the lone holdout. You get just one hour from the first gorilla sighting so I figured we might as well get our full time, even if it was just looking at huddled gorillas in the pouring rain. Since the vote was nearly unanimous, we headed back down the trail.
By this time, it was really muddy and slippery and you had to be very careful. We had walking sticks which helped a lot, partly for balance and partly to see how deep a puddle really was. It took about 30 minutes to get out of the park and another 20 minutes to get back to the cars. There were no photo pauses or stops to admire the scenery on the way down! I was pretty muddy coming out of the forest, but mostly dry. The rain in the open field actually washed away much of the mud and leaves and assorted vegetation I picked up in the forest so I was wet, but clean. A big “thumbs up” to LL Bean for their Gore-Tex rain gear! The only thing wet were my feet, but I don’t think the hiking shoes were designed to withstand puddles with at least 3” of water.
We got back to the cars and then went back to the park headquarters to collect our official Gorilla Trekking certificates. After that, we went back to the hotel to dry off. Joseph asked what I wanted to do for the rest of the day, but there really weren’t any options. Although it was only 11:30am at this point, there were very few options since all of the park activities start at 7:00am so you can only do one thing per day. The park closes so you can’t even do a bit of hiking on your own. These facts are not well advertised by the park, mentioned in the guidebook, or noted by my safari company. It was still raining and I didn’t feel like sitting in my room reading a book. Joseph needed to go into town to get something for the car which, at this point, would run, but wouldn’t start without him getting a push from several people so he could pop the clutch. I was quite disappointed from the gorilla trek and didn’t feel like being Muzungu’d to death in the local market so I said I wanted to eat lunch and then head back to Kigali. I have a lot of work to do in the next two days for both my Rwanda project and for my NC projects. This way, I can start first thing tomorrow morning instead of in the afternoon. Also, I was worried what would happen if the car didn't start after another cold night and could not risk getting stuck in the north for another day.
All in all, as I write this from my hotel room in Rwanda, clean and dry, I see that it actually wasn’t so bad. I saw a lot of beautiful scenery on the way to and in and around Volcanoes National Park. I met two interesting people and we had some good conversations. I saw the mountain gorillas, if just briefly, and I may have a few photos and at least two video clips that give a good idea what it was like.
I'm trying to get photos and videos loaded, but I have a slow connection. Keep checking back for more!
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Lorri
non-member comment
Gorillas!
Sorry that the gorilla trek wasn't all that you'd hoped it would be. But the few photos here are good and I really like the video - you can even hear the rain splatting on the leaves. I guess the hit or miss with the passes is the price you have to pay in order for the gorillas to get to live as much of a "natural" life as possible. Seeing them in the natural habitat for even 10 minutes is much better than seeing them stuck in a zoo.