Gorillas In My Midst

Part of the reason that travel so enthralls me is that not every moment can be memorable. Some days just plain stink, and are totally unfit for the highlight reel.

Maybe you get stuck in a butt-ugly place.
Maybe you shell out a lot of money for an unforgettable activity which winds up being totally forgettable.
Maybe you decline to participate in an activity on account of being too tired, only to find out later that you missed out on having a blast.

Fortunately, it's the great moments - the ones where the highlight reel nearly runs out of tape - that make this business of solo travelling worthwhile. And for me, tracking the gorillas in Rwanda's Parc National des Volcans was perhaps one of the greatest moments yet.

A small helping of background info on mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei):
-They can only be found on a small volcanic ridge that straddles Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo
-There are only 720 living specimens, making them one of the most endangered species in the world
-They share 97% of their biological make-up with humans (and 99% with my Gr.8 math teacher Mrs. Case)
-They live in groups consisting of one dominant male (the silverback), several females and their offspring
-They were made famous by the late scientist Dian Fossey, who was played by Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas In The Mist
-To track the gorillas, you must purchase a permit from the country they reside in

Getting a permit is no easy task. There are only 108 available each day in the 3 countries combined, and given that the DR Congo is currently off-limits, that number is down to 72. They also come with a whopping 500 dollar ticket price, which is what I normally budget for one month of African travel. But some opportunities are too good to pass up.

I hardly slept the night before. At 6AM, I was picked up from my hotel in Ruhengeri and taken to the Park headquarters in Kiringi. The Park itself is gorgeous - 5 towering volcanoes covered in electric green vegetation.

At the HQ, tourists are divided into groups of 5-8 people, and each cluster of people visits one family of gorillas. I pulled some strings (meaning: got the Aussie girl I was hanging out with to bat her eyelashes at the group coordinator) and secured a chance to see the Hirwa family, which purportedly had many young gorillas. Then we set off.

It begins with a ride in a 4WD up the World's Worst Road to the base of the Muside volcano. Once there, you are met by your guide, as well as 2 soldiers from the Rwandan Army.

Perhaps I should account for the presence of the G.I. Joes: Gorillas, being extremely rare, are highly coveted on the international black market, and are therefore subject to illegal poaching. Poachers mean business. In 1999, 8 tourists and their guide caught some poachers in the act while tracking the gorillas in Uganda, and were subsequently kidnapped and murdered. Nowadays, no one hits the mountain without an armed escort.

And so the ascent begins. It can take up to 4 hours to reach the gorillas, though at this time of year they are fairly low, due to the snow at the summit. We reached them in 1 hour, and thank God for that, because the hike was no picnic. There is no path; you simply follow the guide as he slashes his way through the foliage with a machete, and to make matters worse you're slogging through foot-devouring mud filled with stinging nettles and army ants. But nothing Nature could throw at us was going to ruin this.

Finally, we arrived to within a few hundred feet. We received our final instructions ("Don't point at the gorillas or they might get nervous and kick your ass"), and then trudged through a last bit of bush and into a clearing.

[Insert words that may accurately describe the magnitude of my awe]. Fact is, there aren't any. Gorillas are one of the most majestic beasts on Earth, and here I was, seeing them in their own house.
My first sighting was of a female and her baby. Upon seeing us, the young one stood up, batted its chest, then promptly lost its balance and fell over backwards.

Then I saw HIM - the silverback. He was less than 6 feet away, sitting on a rock between a pair of palm trees, watching us with his crimson eyes. I fully expected him to roar, but instead he chose to roll on to his back, stick his feet in the air and sigh. "Bugger off, I'm tired."

For the next hour (because that's all you get), we all sat and watched gorilla TV. Gorillas are gentle and (thankfully) vegetarian creatures and are quite content to go about their routines despite the gallery of spectators. The females in the family spent their time munching away on bamboo shoots and wild celery. The young ones thrashed about, climbing trees, doing somersaults and generally causing a ruckus. The silverback, meanwhile, policed the area, charging us once to establish superiority, though all he did when he got close was rip a fart that was likely heard on the Congo side of the hill. I preferred that to the alternative of a physical encounter, because the old boy was 6ft tall and 200kg.

Then, in 2 minutes, the hour was up. Back down the muddy slopes, 500 dollars poorer but richer for the experience. In fact, having now visited them once, I'd pay twice that to do it again.

Just wait till you see the photos.