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Published: June 12th 2010
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I knew I had booked into the cheapest place in town in Musanze as I was the only Muzungu in the place and the rest of the occupants were tour guides!
I had a day to kill in Musanze so I updated my blogs and arranged a lift to the Gorillas with Amahoro tours, fortunately I was able to join a group which meant I spent US$15 instead of $80.
The next day I was up bright and early 05:30 to be ready for my pick up at 06:00, the LP said we had to get there for 07:00 otherwise you would lose your place and waste US$500 - this turned out to be rubbish as the rangers were still hanging about at 08:00.
By 06:30 I had been waiting at the guest house since 06:00 and was really panicking that I would not be at the ranger post in time. So I asked someone in the tourist rest house if they could take me and he rang a friend and then 2 minutes later it finally turned up. There was a family of Americans in the truck and they had been late as they were picking out
what to wear!!!!!!!! - I was fuming, they tried to start a conversation but I just ignored them - I had to calm down before I said anything to them - I had thought I would miss my trek.
There had been torrential rains the night before and a fair bit of the road on the way up to the ranger post had been washed away overnight. When you arrive the guides organise the 56 people with the permits into groups of 8 and each group gets assigned to a gorilla family. The largest group and furthest away (involving the longest trek) is the Susa group and most people want to join that one - including me. However I had been assigned (with the Americans) the Amahoro group which was one of the friendliest and had the baby that was recently given the name in the naming ceremony so that made up for not seeing susa.
After the bumpiest drive I've ever had we started trekking through the Rainforest, for part of the way we were cutting our way through dense jungle. Throughout the trek there were constant shrieks of pain as we got stung my stingle nettles
that had leaves the size of dinner plates. My first encounter with these was when I used one to clean my hands - ouch. I still have a rash on my knee from where I fell into a bunch of them.
After trekking for around 40 minutes we saw our first gorilla - from this time the clock starts ticking and we only have 1 hour to spend with them otherwise they get stressed. There was female gorilla up a tree and she was munching away on the leaves, but just then I turned around and a female gorilla was behind me within touching distance and she brushed right passed me - very cool.
The guides had to hack through dense foliage to follow the Gorillas and we were all getting stung by this time, it was hard going but worth it. After our hour was up we headed back down the mountain. It was an amazing experience to see these animals close up and one that I won't forget.
The next day I was out of Musanze and on to Gisenyi.
Boring bits Stayed at Tourist Guest House in Musanze for 7000RWF a
night or US$14 - no hot water but I had the best meal of the trip - veggie curry of course.
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Jackie Beare
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Hiya, You sound like your having a whale of a time. This is the best blog ever, those gorilla's - they're so gorgeous!. Take Care Jackie x