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I'm not sure there are words enough to describe just how absolutely mind-blowingly amazing an experience it was to see Mountain Gorillas in the wild last week. Even now thinking about it my chest is tightening as I remember how close I got to these magnificent creatures that really do look like humans dressed up in hairy suits.
We visited the Hirwa group in Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda. Hirwa is the Silverback and his name means Lucky in the local language. It is a relatively new group, formed just a few years ago when this hotty of a gorilla stole himself a harem of lovely gorilla ladies and made them all pregnant within 2 years. The group has now got 12 members including 5 babies, each of which are incredibly fluffy, playful and adorable. It turns out we were incredibly lucky on our trek to visit them too. Much as I would have loved to trek for 8 hours in the rain up a mudslide of a mountain to see the gorillas, instead we walked 15 minutes across a couple of potato fields and by the time we got the to park boundary wall we could hear the
Our trekking group
only 8 people can visit each habituated gorilla group each day.unmistakeable grunts and belches of gorillas feeding just a few metres away in the bamboo forest. It turns out that a group of gorilla Silverbacks took a shine to some of Hirwa's girls the day before and this interaction had led Hirwa to bring his family off the slopes of Mount Sabinyo down to the very edge of the park where we found Hirwa happily munching bamboo and dozing as his family contentedly grazed around him.
We spent the shortest hour ever watching them climb over the park boundary wall and romp through a meadow dotted with eucalyptus trees. Gorillas, it turns out, absolutely love eucalyptus bark and we spent most of our time watching them climb the trunks to rip off the bark and strip the trees with their teeth. They looked so relaxed and happy feeding away and rolling around in the grass, totally ignoring us watching them in awe. It's amazing that they were also only 100m from local farmers cultivating their potato fields. Conservation of the Mountain Gorillas has hopefully come a very long way if man and gorilla can live safely in such proximity.
Rwanda is a ridiculously small country for the population it
contains. It is also ridiculously hilly, they call it the land of 1000 hills and they are definitely not exagerating. Vertical slopes are terraced and planted with maize, beans, cassava and potatoes, banana trees cling to the hillsides and tea plantations spread across the landscape in a never ending patchwork of subsistence farming and small scale cultivation. Looking up at the 5 volcanic peaks that dominate the national park you can see the park boundary from a long way away as the stark line of fields butts up against the thick forest. It is a scary thought to look at those mountains peeking out of the mist and think that such a small area of land is one of the last remaining homes to such spectacular creatures which we as humans have such an affinity with. Even with the army of park guards they have protecting them and the education programs and awareness raising that has been going on successfully for many years I can't see how the gorillas can ever be anything safer than an endangered species. The pressures on the land in this region of the world mean their habitat is always going to be a valuable commodity
to impoverished people and what precious islands of protected land they do have are unlikely to ever expand to allow a significant growth in the gorilla population as far as I can see.
All these thoughts and concerns went out the window though when I was just a metre or two from the playful antics of an 18 month old baby gorilla. Bamboo proved to be an excellent toy as the young gorilla leapt around the thick stalks, swinging and spinning in circles and catapaulting himself off the stalks towards his entranced human audience. The moment that will melt my heart forever though was when he turned towards me and with a playful curiousity reached out his hand to touch me! I was completely awestruck by this action and had no idea how to react. My heart was screaming out to me to reach out back and hold his soft leathery hand but my head was busy processing the images of his huge and very watchful father who had turned towards the scene and was slowly getting to his feet. I kept my hand firmly by my side and flattened myself against a tree trunk as Hirwa strolled purposefully
past me and grunted to his son to move along, and then I allowed myself to breath again!
See it all in a video, I've finally uploaded to
You Tube !
After that magical experience it took all our will power to tear ourselves away from the group and back to the human world. Our hour may have been up but the gorillas still seemed happy to have us around as they followed us back out into the meadows to play in the sunshine and roll down the grass as we wistfully took our last looks and said goodbye.
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Susie
non-member comment
OMG!
Hey u, that's incredible Frankie. I luv reading ur blog, I can hear u reading it to me! Such a fab experience, am so glad to b sharing it wiv u, even if it is from the comfort of my office, in a rainy England!!! Keep on having fun and adventures galore! Continue to shine darling. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx