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Published: April 17th 2006
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Mountain
There be gorillas up in those mountains There are only 700 or so Gorillas left in the wild, so how cool would it be to be able to trek to see some of them?
The Gorillas live on a mountain range that forms the intersection of the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. We wanted to try and trek to see the Gorillas from the Rwandan side, the side that Diane Fossey worked on who you may remember from the film Gorillas in the Mist.
The night before we were due to set off my stomach had been in knots, the repeated visits to the great white telephone brought on by the dodgy goat curry I had scoffed the night before. I popped a couple of imodiums and hoped for the best as we hoped into a 4x4 at 6.30 in the morning to take us to the mountains. As we drove we collected more and more people and soon there were 10 people crammed into the car. Pascal the guide, seemed intent on driving in as many potholes as he good, as we made our way down what must have been the worst road in Rwanda. He smiled to himself every time he saw my head bang
KGor
Kim getting up nice and close to the Gorillas against the window I was wedged up against.
As we drove we passed people making their way down to the nearest water pump, which in some cases could be 10 miles away or more. The women carried the water containers on their heads, the men strapped them to push bikes. As we drove past the villages, our car was filled with the sweet smell of marijuana.
As we arrived at the base of the mountain, we were met by 2 armed guards carrying AK47s. Rwanda is pretty safe nowadays, but there is still a threat that we could run into some rebels from the Congo (It's still at war) or some poachers. We started to walk through cultivated fields and then up the base of the mountain as the gradient became increasingly steep. We were up to about 3,500 meters here and we soon had to stop for a rest. It gave us time to admire an earthworm as thick as a garden hose.
We scrambled and slipped our way up the mountain, whilst being stung by super sized stinging nettles for two and a half hours whilst Pascal skipped up trying to keep his frustration and
Gorilla and baby in the bushes
Mother with Baby sheltering from the rain bewilderment at our ineptitude at bay. Just as he told us we were only about 200 metres from the Gorilla family, a huge wall of white mist rolled into the mountain in seconds and the dark grey clouds overhead started to pelt rain on us that quickly turned into a torrential downpour.
We came to a brow of a hill and looked out across a steep ravine about 100 deep. I saw a flash of black across the other side of the ravine that quickly disappeared into the dense jungle. It was a Gorilla, but it was moving away from us.
We had to try and cross the ravine as quickly as possible so we didn't lose them and we started to make our way down. None of us had ever negotiated terrain like this before and whilst Pascal tried to clear a way with his machete, we clambered down on our bums holding onto the vines to stop us falling to the bottom.
It took us a good ten minutes to get to the bottom and the rain was still pouring down turning the ground into brown sludge. We still had to get to the top
GorSilv
His head was as big as a widescreen tv of the other side of the ravine and a woman in our party was too tired to climb up. She tried twice but slipped and fell into a muddy heap at the bottom. It was at this point that we really felt that we weren't going to make it and that the black shape I saw was all I was going to see of the Gorillas.
Somehow though we did manage to get the top and I collapsed on a ledge and tried to get my breath back. Turning round I realised that we had actually plonked ourselves in the middle of the Gorilla family.
It was still poring with rain, but we got a good look at a female with a baby, a slightly older juvenile, and the daddy of them all the Silverback. It was surreal moment, shivering in the rain about 3 metres away from a Silverback whose was absolutely massive.
After an hour with them we headed back down the mountain high on the buzz of seeing them and laughing at each other as we fell over repeatedly. Pascal our guide came over ill from Malaria and he could hardly walk by the
GorJuv
Young juvenile showing off time we got to the bottom of the mountain and we had to rush him to hospital.
The Gorillas are supposed to be a once in a lifetime unforgettable experience and they did not disappoint! (MD)
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Amanda
non-member comment
Glad you got to see the gorillas guys, they are amazing. I saw them in Congo, hard work getting there too but so worth it! x