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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“I'm the king of the swingers!” |
We arrived in Ruhengeri in northwestern Rwanda on Saturday morning as a base for our gorilla trek. The scenery on the way up was breathtaking, with the hillside a rich and vibrant green. The town itself has a magnificent backdrop of five volcanoes, the tallest being Karisimbi (4507 metres) meaning "snow" in Kinyarwanda - the national language.
Not really much to do in Ruhengeri so we watched the Chelsea-Liverpool FA Cup final in a restaurant and in true British style arrived 30 mins before kick-off to soak up the atmoshpere.
After helping the staff lay out the tables and chairs (Rwandans are obviously are not so concerned about getting a good seat) we settled down to watch the match. The atmosphere was electric as the packed bar watched the match unfold (five of us actually), with periodic shouts of Mzungu whenever anyone white demonstrated good skills. The only disappointment was that a power cut interrupted Liverpool's first goal. We were pleased to toast a Liverpool victory with a bottle of the local brew Primus (4 star rating) and felt well set up for our gorilla trek which started at 6am the following day.
We arrived at the Parc National des Volcans headquarters at 7am following a very bumpy 1hr drive. As well as Karisimbi we could also see the peaks of Bisoke (3711), Gahinga (3474) and Muhabura (4127). Muhabara means "guide" in Kinyarwandandese and can be seen from Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. The park forms part of the Virunga Massif where the last remaining mountian gorillas in the world live (700). The first scientific discovery of the gorillas was in 1902.
The gorilla group that we would track (latin name gorilla gorilla so they were obviously suffering from a lack of imagination on that particular naming day) was called the Amahoro group (meaning "peace") and consists of 14 gorillas. The Silverback male is 28 years old and is called Unity. Eugene our guide had great delight in telling us that the Silverback can weight up to 200kg and eats up to 30kg per day - nearly as much as Becs. The blackback (2nd in command) lost his hand in a snare ("gammy-hand" in Kinyarwanda) and we also hoped to see the baby gorilla who was 8mths old - Becs has been feeling broody of late so I was slightly concerned that she might try and strike up a deal with the baby's mother).
The Amahoro group is one of 8 habituated groups in the Parc National de Volcans (5 for tourism, 3 for research) and there are now 380 gorillas in the park. Over the last decade this has increased from 320. The park was made famous by the work of Dian Fossey in the 70's (Gorillas in the mist) and in the first gorilla census there were 450 (1977) but this was dramatically reduced to 200 by excessive poaching in the 80's. Aggressive campaigning for the protection of the gorillas cost Fossey her life and she was beheaded - probably by poachers.
Following a sharp intake of coffee (breath by Becs) we started climbing the hill next to Bisoke called Kanyabunjumba (means "sweet potatoes") following another very bumpy 1 hour ride. The terrain was pretty hard going despite one of our trackers merrily hacking away at the undergrowth. After two hours of climbing we were told that we had just missed the gorillas although how they could have been alerted by our presence baffles me considering how quiet and careful we were!
After a slug of water and with renewed vigour we set off again just of the first few drops of rain fell. 30 mins later we saw one of the gorillas through the undergrowth as it was heading down the hill, once again we had just missed the group which had now conveniently split into two groups! The rain was beginnning to fall quite heavily now but it did not dampen our spirits.
Then as we ducked under an overhanging bush we spotted 3 gorillas and a baby sat up in a tree. The guides exchanged grunts with them to let them know we posed no threat and then we stood and watched them for a while. At this point we were about 3 metres away. After some chest beating to let us know who was boss Becs started taking some pictures.
Whilst the 2 females (+ baby on board) and "gammy-hand" exchanged branches to eat we stood awe-struck until they started climbing back down the tree and closing the 3 metre gap fast. We immediately (6 tourists) pressed ourselves against the path as they strolled by, one of the females swept out a hand to get past me and grabbed my thigh, I could not believe how close we were. Once again Becs beat her chest to let them know we were married.
We then followed the gorillas down to a clearing where we were introduced to the Silverback male. I bravely stood behind another tourist whilst admiring the full size of the chief. up until this point I did not think the gorillas were that big, how wrong I was.
Unfortunately, the heavy rain was limiting the level of interaction and play as the gorillas mainly sqatted down and tried to keep themselves warm whilst it bucketed down. You could feel the kinship between man and beast as we all shook with cold and cursed the rain. Nevertheless it was an amazing experience if not an expensive one (800US dollars) and by about 3pm we were back in our hotel enjoying a hot shower and re-living the day through the pictures we had taken.
previous travel blog entry
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