Live Long and Prosper - Mountain Gorilla Trekking

This is from over a month ago, but I've been away, and busy and also not feeling like blogging, but I did want to capture some thoughts on this experience.  The event was like a wonderful, brief encounter with aliens who are more evolved than us and not that interested in getting to know us better.

At the start of the school holiday in the beginning of April, I went with my friend Ellen to see Rwanda's #1 tourist attraction: Mountain Gorillas.  There are about 600 Mountain Gorillas left in the world and 300 of them live in the Virunga forest on the border between Rwanda and the DRC.  Volcanoes National Park was made a wildlife preserve in 1925, and claims to be the oldest national park in Africa.

I love animal-based attractions and I've been to see Koalas and Cheetas before, but nothing compared to the experience I had Gorilla trekking.  It was, no exaggeration, one of the best experiences of my life. 

The day before our permit to trek, we hired a driver take us from Kigali to Musanze where we stayed in the Muhabura Hotel, which fit all the Rwandan Stereotypes for fruit plates, crummy pasta and frequent playing of Kenny Rogers.  (I guess Kenny was at the height of his fame in the USA in 1983 and I cannot for the life of me explain the frequency his songs are played on Radio Rwanda 30 years later, but if you are out and about you are pretty much guaranteed to hear him a few times a day.  Rwandese love themselves some KR.)

On the morning of the trek, we rose at 5 and met at the park headquarters in Kinigi at 7:00 AM.  The headquarters are surrounded by a ring of mountains and it was a gorgeous sunny day.  When you arrive, the park rangers divide you into groups which will each go to visit one of the 8 gorilla families habituated for tourists.  Some of the groups are quite easy hikes, while some of the gorilla families are further up the steep and slippery trails.  I was hoping for a fairly strenuous hike to be part of the experience and make it feel more like an excursion and less like a petting zoo.  It was a 30 minute ride from the headquarters to the start of the hike for our group over quite bumpy 'roads' and at one point Ellen almost asked to get out and walk.  

Our group was about 8 tourists, a lead guide, Augustine, and about 5 porters.  There are also additional security/ park ranger staff stationed throughout the hike to protect the gorillas from poachers.

Once we got to the start of the hike, it was about an hour or so up a fairly difficult jungle/forest trail to where the spotters had last seen our assigned gorilla family.  The hike was not too difficult, but did get my heart rate going.  The only real problem were stinging nettles which were everywhere.  The trail was lined with them the entire hike and they stung me through my performance gear shirt and quick dry pants.  When you go, wear jeans and rain pants and a couple of long sleeved shirts. I was stinging pretty much the whole time, but so excited abou the gorillas I almost didn't mind. 

After about an hour, our guide said we were getting pretty close and we put down our hiking poles and bags.  Then we went through a clearing and honestly I was expecting to start looking around to 'spot' the gorillas.  Instead, there was a large male Silverback maybe 5 feet from me, so it was more like opening a door on an apartment and 'spotting' the couch.  He turned around and approached us curiously while our guides told us to move back and simultaneously made this low purring/ cooing sound that is supposed to soothe the gorillas.  Then the silverback suddenly turned back around and went down the hill a bit to eat shoots.  

The gorillas don't use the trails, so the next hour or so, was our group moving through thick foliage and tons more stinging nettles to angle to see members of this gorilla family.  We saw gorillas eating in groups of two or three or on their own.  Mostly they would keep eating for a while and glance over at us some, and then eventually relocate for a better leaf pile or some privacy.

I could not believe how peaceful and quiet the whole experience was and how close we were to wild members of this severely endangered species.  It was a beautiful experience.  It feels like I'm under selling this, and I guess I just can't explain it well, but it was high touch, high access, and didn't feel rushed or exploitative.  The gorillas, while habituated to people are still basically living a wild gorilla life and seem more or less unharmed by the daily one hour visits of small groups of tourists.   It just feels like you are right inside an episode on Gorillas from Animal Planet or Nat Geo and that is my kind of snow globe.

I didn't take many photos myself, because Ellen had a great camera with her and took some high quality ones.  I'll add a few of those to this post later, but for now here are just a couple to give you a sense of the experience.

Here's a picasa link to a few more, but none of these are the best pics really, I know.

After the gorillas we headed to the Lakeside town of Gisenyi on the border with the DRC to relax for a few days at the gogoeus Palm Garden resort.  It was a nice spot for reading by the lake and I wouldn't mind going back.  I did almost walk to the DRC in the dark, and that was a minor mistake I'll have to tell you about more in person, but other than that Gisenyi was a quiet, sleepy, pretty place to relax for a couple days.