Gorilla Trek

Getting to see mountain gorillas in the wild was one of the coolest things we have ever done. After a briefing about our expected hike and how to behave around the gorillas we set out for Karisimbi, the biggest of the 5 dormant volcanoes in Volcanoes National Park. We were going to see the Susa group. This is the largest of the habituated (used to being stared at by humans) groups of mountain gorillas in the park with 46 members, including 5 adult-male silverbacks. It is one of 5 groups that you can see with a permit from the Rwandan national tourist office (ORTPN). Though I knew it could be the most difficult and muddy hike through the bamboo and tropical rain forest that protects the upper part of the volcanoes where the gorillas live, I felt it would be worth it based on what I have heard from other peoples experiences. Given that the gorillas change location every day as they look for food, it could be anywhere from a 30 minute stroll to a 3.5 hour grueling uphill hike to find them. Felix, our official ORTPN guide, was in radio contact with the other ORTPN park rangers and trackers who were already out looking for the group.

After driving to a parking area on the outskirts of a rural village, we hiked up to the edge of a dense bamboo forest that was marked by a rock wall called "the buffalo fence." We were told this keeps the mountain buffalo and other wild animals from coming down to eat the crops of the villagers. Erin and I were 2 of 7 tourists traveling in convoy with 2 guides and 2 soldiers from the Rwandan army as well as a few porters to help carry our backpacks and ensure we made it up & down the steep, slippery trail. The soldiers bookend the single-file convoy with machine guns slung on their shoulder in order to protect us from the buffaloes that can occasionally block the trail. The hike was pretty difficult in places and the fact that it was >2,500m above sea level translated into a pretty wicked headache after awhile, but I had no other ill-effects of the altitude. Of course, I had the luxury of living in Kigali for the past month where it is >1,500m above sea level. Erin, who had just arrived a little than 2 days earlier from the flat lowlands of Chicago, didn't seem to show the effects of jetlag or altitude. We hiked up through a dense bamboo forest then through even more dense tropical forest. There were many places where the our feet were not on ground, but a dense bed of shrubs and plants called "stinging nettles" which are very well named. It took a little less than 2 hours, but we finally met up with the other ORTPN rangers who had tracked the gorillas from their nesting site the night before to their current location. We were very lucky to find the Susa group mostly in a clearing where they were eating their typical lunch of bamboo shoots and wild celery. Felix said we saw 26 members in total. It was amazing! We tried to stay the prescribed 7 meters away, but frequently found ourselves within a few feet of these enormous, gentle, nearly-human creatures who were peacefully eating and napping in front of us. Occasionally they would look at us with the same curious facial expression that many of us had. The silverbacks are enormous, weighing upto 200kg! There were quite a few juvenile ones as well. We even got to see a baby who Felix said was about 3 months-old. The ORTPN guides, who see the gorillas everyday, seemed to have the same wonder and enjoyment that the tourists had. They kept a close eye on all of us, making sure we didn't endanger ourselves or the gorillas during the 60 minutes we spent there. We snapped hundreds of photos and lots of video of the gorillas going about their daily routine. The guides also took pictures of us in front of the gorillas. It was really an amazing experience!

We hiked a short distance down the hill to meet our porters and take time for lunch. Afterwards, we hiked down the volcano back toward our waiting vehicles. The hike down was not as strenuous as the one up, but in many ways it was harder. The mud made footing difficult at best, but it was the fallen bamboo that was the biggest obstacle. The usual trail had been cut off by a dense thicket of bamboo that could not be penetrated. The porters hacked a passage with machettes, but there were a couple times that I thought we weren't ever going to find the trail again. In places the bamboo was so dense, no sunlight penetrated to the forest floor and the only way to pass was to turn sideways and squeeze through while bending the bamboo away from your body. After a little over 1.5 hours we made it back to the trail and then to the upper crop fields from the village we passed through. We walked along the fields back to Jamada waiting with his LandCruiser near the village school to take us back. We received certificates from Felix and his colleagues noting that we saw the Susa group in front of hundreds of children. We purchased a couple of hand carved & painted gorilla figures as souvenirs from a guy on the roadside sitting in the center of the throng of children staring at us. We then embarked on the long drive back to Kigali for the night.

I split our tours between the gorillas and our game safari in Akagera National Park so that Erin and I could have lunch with the US Ambassador, W. Stuart Symington, back in Kigali on Wednesday. I also volunteered Erin to come with me back to Muhima district hospital to continue teaching obstetrical ultrasound that morning.

Here is a link to photos from Erin's week here in Rwanda with me.

Erin in Rwanda

I will write more about our lunch with the Ambassador and our game safari at Akagera soon.