aud in the midst

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part one: gorillas in the garden

i got picked up at 5 o'clock saturday morning. going to track gorillas!! woo hoo! let's go. oh, first we have to stop for gas? ok. tank full? woo hoo! let's go! oh, now we have to stop at the office? ok. well, tell ya what, just wake me when we get there.

there are 5 gorilla families open to tourists. 8 visitors per group for one hour of viewing. they know the locations of each family by tracking, like they do with the monkies and chimps.

when we arrived, we had to decide which group i would visit. we had always talked about my going to susa, the largest group, but because of petrol issues (gas prices increased a lot here in the last week), susa was too far and there were no other tourists going who could take
me. so what's the next best group? amahoro A. they are the next largest group. okey dokey. no problema. when i'm not paying the $375, i'm not gonna getting picky.

however, i got a bit concerned when the average age of my group was about 65, and that's because i brought it down about 20 years. (i thought it might be a group visiting from my parents' synagogue). half american, half french. we got a short briefing about the family
we were visiting and it was time to go. they arranged for me to drive to the site with the french. they spoke no english. not a word. not one of them. the only word i understood the entire ride was "cigarette."

we got to the parking "lot," walked thru some fields of the local village and after about 10 minutes stopped at the edge of the forest. another briefing. there are some rules when visiting gorillas: no bags. no food. no water (gorillas don't drink. they get their water from plants. one they showed us looks very much like celery. tastes like celery too). you can only take a camera but flash is not allowed. keep a distance of 7-8 meters (if possible). don't point. and if they come towards you, move.

since arriving in rwanda i've heard story after story of the challenge of getting to the gorillas. "you climb, you crawl, you get stung by stinging nettles, you slip, you fall." you get the idea. so i was ready for adventure. with this group perhaps a bit of a slower adventure, but an adventure nonetheless.

well, within about 5 seconds of walking into the forest, we found our first gorilla. we walked about 10 feet and there was a bunch of them sitting around. some adults. some babies playing. two juveniles swinging on vines. they were very cute. we saw a silverback, the alpha male. we saw a lot of chest pounding. they were so close to us i didn't even need to zoom. they are amazing to watch.

after a while they took off, and we took off after them. finally, adventure. we walked briskly about 100 yards and next thing i know, we're out of the park in the fields again! the gorillas were feeding out of the park. well, for photos, this was a coup. the light was great, no flash necessary. we stayed there about 40 minutes and then it was time to go.

when i got back to the ranger station, my coworker took one look at me and realized something was wrong. i was too clean. i wasn't tired. my hair wasn't even in a pony tail! it was his first time ever hearing about gorillas coming out of the park. well, this would not do. my gorilla experience cannot be like seeing them in a zoo. i had to do it right. how can i report of tourism in rwanda and not get stung by one nettle?? it wasn't 100% certain if i'd be able to go again b/c we didn't have a permit for two trips, but he'd work on it.

we went to town and were having a drink, when in walks the park warden. awesome guy. we told him my experience and he was also disappointed. yes, many of the gorillas had been coming close to the park boundary and even entering the local gardens. he agreed, that was not the proper experience. tomorrow i would go to susa!

part two: gorillas in the mist

when we arrived the next morning, there were two other people going to susa. this made it easier because i could ride with them.

it took us about an 45 minutes to drive to the parking. from there we had to walk 40 minutes thru the villages to get to the park border. it's a bamboo forest. beautiful. they are amazing forests. we rested there awaiting word from the trackers. we waited and waited. nothing. well, let's go anyway. um, ok.

we climbed and walked. climbed and climbed. we slid, we fell. well, you know the drill. but this time i had no hand pulling me along. no stick to help me. it was tough. i was totally winded. i thought i'd be the first person under 70 to need a local "stretcher." and the first half was a cut trail! it was sad. at least we got to stop when the guide got word from the tracker.

but the good thing about bamboo is because it's smooth and thin, it's easy to hold on to when going downhill and helpful in pulling yourself up steep slopes. unless it's not anchored or dead. then when you grab you're in trouble.

so after about an hour and a half of climbing, then sliding though a field of wet vegetation and finally a harrowing jump over a crevice, we found the trackers practically asleep they had been waiting so long. i was so embarrassed. but we were leaving our bags there which meant the gorillas were close, so i got over it pretty quickly (labor pains).

a quick briefing about the susa family. it's the largest group with 37 individuals (to give you an idea, the next largest group, amahoro A, is 13). susa is the only group to have surviving twins. there are 4 silverbacks (older males). one is the head, and then there is a hierarchy of the remaining three. (depending on a silverback's personality, he will either remain under the leadership of the alpha male until he dies and the next in line takes over, or he will break off and try to start his own family).

we walked about a minute and got to a clearing and saw our first gorilla. a minute later, we saw about 15 lounging around.

i tell you what, these gorillas have it good. all they do is eat. relax. eat some more. play. relax. eat some more. pick ticks off each other. move on to the next feeding site. eat. relax. play. at some point in the day, some strange creatures come, ooooh and ahhhh, use some funny device to look at them through and then leave with sad looks on their face. whatever... eat. relax. pick ticks. play...

what's interesting about gorillas is, besides breast feeding, any member of the group, male or female, will undertake the care for all babies and watch out for all juveniles, whether or not it is theirs (for males this could be b/c you can't ever be 100% sure who the father is, as we were to find out). but it is quite impressive to watch as babies are carried on the back of or are cleaned by any member of the society. gorillas are very african in this way.

we found the #2 big guy lounging around in the group. only the lead male is supposed to mate with the females. female gorillas choose group they want to join. they can leave a family at will (so the alpha males try to minimize contact with other groups). but once she chooses her silverback, it's him who takes care of business, if you know what i mean. well, apparently this rule is somewhat "flexible," shall we say, when numero uno isn't around. gorillas will be gorillas and we witnessed some misbehavin' between a female and the second silverback! scan-dal!

after about a 10 minute nap (they really are so like humans) this silverback decided it was time to move on. and he wanted to take the path we had the misfortune of blocking. the guide was desperately trying to get us out of the way. "move down please, move here please. please. please!" he was first down the hill, then me, then the another guide, then the two germans. all in a row. backed up against a plant. no where to go but down. well, we were not quite fast enough for the silverback, so he decided to help us along and move us himself! it was incredible. he just looked at the guide, threw out his arm and shoved him. well, for a gorilla it was a tap, but when a tap comes from a 200 kilo silverback, it's like a punch. the poor guide went down flat and we all followed like dominos. it was hilarious. (the guide is fine, as is everyone else).

the rest of the group took off into the forest (fortunately by a different path) and we followed. but first, we had to make way for a female gorilla with a baby on her back. ladies with babies first, please.

it was still a bamboo forest but no trails here. and man, my wind came back like chicago. i was zipping around after the guide, not slowed by the climbs, the slips, the trips, the holes, the getting clobbered on the shoulder by a falling dead bamboo tree (literally), the falling into a patch of stinging nettles (ok, that freakin killed). nothing mattered but staying on the trail of these black, hairy, chest pounding, fascinating creatures.

unfortunately there was no food in this area of forest, so there was a lot of chasing, trying to cut them off to watch them go by. they aren't so fast, but they don't trip as much.

finally after about 30 minutes of chasing and watching, it was time to go. the guide guided us in the opposite of direction of the gorillas. my last site was a mother nursing her baby. life doesn't get more natural than that.

when i got back to town, our driver picked me up, took one look at me, recognized that look of elation, gave me a hug and three kisses on the cheek (rwandese-style). i showed him my pants. he said "that is good!" they were filthy.

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