Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda
For Christmas in 2006 we travelled to Rwanda to (hopefully) see mountain gorillas.
We departed O’Hare amidst utter weather chaos. Our inbound flight was delayed several hours, but American found a new plane and we departed right on schedule. Miraculously, we (each) packed everything into completely legal carry-on bags.
Saturday, December 23
When we landed in Kigali it was dark, very dark, and lightly misting. We quickly changed from fleece that we’d been wearing since Chicago into hooded windbreakers that were on the top of our duffle bags. We descended the stairs and boarded a bus that drove literally 150 yards to the airport building. There was a door for VIPs and a door for everyone else – we selected the latter. Immigration was fast, and would have been twice as fast if they didn’t write us each a personalized “happy holidays from the director of immigration” bookmark (addressed to our middle names).
Because we hadn’t checked any luggage, we headed straight to customs where our bags were x-rayed (I don’t remember having my bags x-rayed when leaving an airport before). There were several people holding signs that said “gorilla trekking” so we were a little confused, but a minute later we saw someone holding a sign with our name on it. There’s a quote I read somewhere that says “the best thing about arriving in a foreign country is seeing someone holding a sign with your name on it” and I could definitely relate.
Vicky, our driver for the next four days, was parked right across the street, so we hopped in his vehicle (I think it was a Toyota Prado) and headed out. He spoke to the gate attendant in what was clearly not Swahili, and we learned it was Kinyarwando – the official language of Rwanda. He taught us how to say “how are you” (amakaruchi) and explained that many people also speak French, English, and Swahili, depending on where they live and what they do for work. I asked how far it was to the Intercontinental and he said it was 5km and would take about 15 minutes. After this I learned to ask in time, because 1) I hate doing math to convert from kilometers to miles and 2) it all depends how fast you are driving. There were lots of people walking on the street and the street seemed to be well paved. We passed a roundabout that was called “the wedding roundabout” because people like to have their wedding pictures taken on it. We passed the Milles Collines – the entryway looked nice and I was wondering if we’d overreacted in upgrading to the Intercontinental (we had dinner there on our way back through Kigali and although the rooftop restaurant was nice, the hotel has seen better days – also noteworthy was stopping to buy fuel and having a street vendor try to sell us cigarettes, bottled water, or panic alarms).
The Intercontinental (which was sold to the Serena chain the week after our visit) is about 5 minutes from the Milles Collines on top of a hill in a very quiet area. We were shown to room 419 which overlooked the street. The room was very nice and the bathroom had a huge tub with good bath products, and plenty of clean fluffy towels. The air conditioning worked; there was international television, and also plenty of bottled water.
The main restaurant was closed so we went downstairs to the open air bar adjacent to the pool area which looked nice even though it was still raining. Andy had his first Primus beer and we both ordered burgers (the “local special” involved goat and I wasn’t feeling adventurous). The burgers weren’t too good and seemed to not have much meat, or have suspicious meat. The fries, however, were quite tasty.
Sunday, December 24
We slept until 6:30 which meant we had a solid 7 hours of sleep. There were lots of chirping birds outside, the rain had stopped, and there were high clouds. We went downstairs and had a nice breakfast at “The Diplomat” restaurant. We’d forgotten about the suspiciously white eggs that we’d noticed last year (I asked around when we returned, turns out it’s grain fed vs. additives – they taste just fine by the way and are one of my favorite foods when traveling in this region).
Vicky was right on time and we loaded up the truck and headed out at 10am. We asked him about changing money and he said that the rate at the hotel wasn’t good, but that he could take us to a bank, or we could use USD. As pathetic as it is, I really didn’t want to go to a bank, and I really hate having to do math calculating how much something is so I’d rather pay a few percent more and use US. When I got money at the bank in the US, I painstakingly went through every single bill of the $900 cash to make sure all were relatively new and none were torn or taped. The teller was from Cameroon so he did not think I had lost my mind.
On the way out, Vicky highlighted some points of interest: maternity hospital, Unicef, Milles Collines, prison (which he pointed out is quite full), American Embassy, shopping area, mosque, and a very busy bus terminal. We passed through what looked like a nice section of town – the homes were set back behind tall fences that were topped with either barbed wire or jagged broken bottle glass. I noticed that motorcycles were used as taxis and was relieved to see people consistently wearing helmets.
The drive to Ruhengeri was mostly rolling hillsides, with more shades of green and more banana trees that you could possibly count. There was an insane amount of pedestrian traffic on the road. I found myself wondering where they were going and where they were coming from, since often times we hadn’t passed anything for miles, yet there was a steady stream of people; women carrying unbelievably large loads on their heads – sacks of potatoes, pottery, you name it – and men pushing bikes loaded down with as many yellow containers as possible. We passed stands where dead chickens were for sale, genocide memorials, and billboards emphasizing the importance of using condoms (I think the brand name Prudence).
After about 2 hours we arrived at the Mountain Gorilla Nest Lodge in Ruhengeri. We were assigned room 16 in the Visoke building (named after one of the volcanoes in the national park). The room was pretty basic – there was a bed, desk, closet, bathroom (with hot water and shower shoes), and a gorilla lamp. Outside we had a beautiful view over a gorge with volcanoes in the distance and crowned cranes and guinea fowl wandering about.
In the afternoon, a local group of entertainers (traditional singers, dancers, and acrobats) performed in the courtyard. They actually did two different shows, including costume changes and a reenactment of the birth of Jesus (it was Christmas after all). Still pictures don’t do their performance justice.
The dining room is open-air and was therefore a little chilly, but warmed by coal pits. Food at the lodge was nothing to write about, but we didn’t go hungry.
- Safe: rolls, chicken soup, green beans, potatoes, rice, mushroom soup, peas, eggs,
- More adventurous stuff that I avoided and Andy might have tried: manioc, goat kabobs, chicken curry, fish soup, and goat slummers (no idea).
Monday, December 25
We trekked to see the Amahoro group of gorillas on Chrismas Day, 2006.
There were 5 other hikers in our group including two young women from Montreal (who were wearing velour track suits and one was wearing driving moccasins with no socks), a man from Ireland and his friend from Moscow who had a very strenuous hike to the Susa group the day before and a guy from the US Embassy. I only mention the Montreal outfits because as I stood there in my nettle-proof shroud and kick-ass hiking boots that I’d been breaking in at home for months, I was concerned that they were going to have a difficult time keeping up.
In addition to the group of 7 tourists, we had two guides as we headed out from the ORPTN park office headquarters at 7:30am. Once we turned of the main tarmac road, the drive to the trailhead was very, very bumpy and muddy. The guy from the Embassy (who was driving his own vehicle) kept getting stuck and at one point had to be pulled out by the Volcanoes Safari vehicle at the front of our convoy. This was quite entertaining for the local villagers who came running from all over the place to see the stuck mazungus (this is the Kinyarwando word for “white people” and the children would wave and yell “mazungu” whenever we drove by). Many tried to speak to us in French, although one harmless fellow who came up and said (in English) “Hello, my name is John <pause> Give me some money¨.
We finally reached the trailhead around 9am and hired a porter (Andre). With one bag we really didn’t need one but figured that it was money well spent (and these guys need the work – only one other person hired a porter, so six went away without work for the day). We were instructed to tuck our pants legs into our socks, I thought this was because of ants but it was because of the mud. Our entourage now included armed guards and trackers too, so our group was up to around 15.
The first part of the trek was through flat farmland, complete with chickens and goats and children waving hello. The ground felt hollow – I still don’t know why because it seemed like too complicated of a question to ask (with the language issues) and I was ready to see some apes!
The weather was fairly clear, so we had a great view of the surrounding volcanoes. We reached the stone fence that indicated the park border and took turns awkwardly climbing over. Patience explained basic gorilla etiquette and also guaranteed that we would see the gorillas today. This was excellent news since everything leading to this point had included the disclaimer of “we do not guarantee wildlife sightings” and “the gorillas do not work for the park” etc. As one of the women from Montreal climbed over, she asked me to hold her iPod. now I’m not entirely clear why you would want to deprive yourself of the sounds of the forest, but they were actually the fastest hikers and were staying out of my way for photo purposes so I really didn’t care.
Once we were in the dense bamboo forest it was noticeably warmer. In the forest, we hiked for less than an hour but some parts involved stooping over to climb under overgrown bamboo and other parts were straight up and pretty slippery. We reached a small clearing and saw more trackers so I knew the gorillas must be near. As we were gathering our cameras, we saw our first gorilla about 100 yards up the mountain. It was pure forest at this point so I had no idea how we were going to proceed, but into the forest we went. As we pulled ourselves up through the bamboo, there was a baby gorilla playing in the canopy above us – then we noticed another gorilla to our right. We were so busy watching the first one (in very dense vegetation – exactly the conditions that I was expecting) that I didn’t even notice a larger one with a baby out in the open to the right! We stayed and watched for a few minutes, but then Patience told us to continue on and we moved along the ridge. In a few minutes we came upon a clearing (remember, we’re on the side of a mountain here) and saw the second silverback and about six others with a few juveniles. We were so close to the second silverback that we could hear him snort and fart! Patience and the trackers kept making throat-clearing noises to let the gorillas know that we meant no harm, and from their reaction, they could care less that we were there. We watched the 13 year old second silverback (whom they call Kajoliti) for a long time. He is missing his left hand “due to poachers”. This just makes me sick. They said the most recent poaching incident in PNV was two years ago. (Though poaching in the Congo continues frequently.).
The trackers and Patience hacked a path down into the nettle thicket and said that we could go down one by one to get pictures of the second silverback from a different angle. He rolled over a bit as I descended and I now had a perfect front-on view of him from about 10 feet away. Between the noise of the trackers, the bird noises (we saw a Rwandese Trogan), and the gorilla noises, it was complete sensory overload.
We took turns taking pictures of each other with the gorillas in the background and soon Patience announced that the hour was up. You are only allowed to stay with the gorillas for an hour to avoid stress to the animals, and that seemed short when we were paying the permit fees months ago ($375/person/trek for non-Rwandans, going up to $500 in June of 2007). Now that I’ve been, an hour seems fair, (though I could have stayed in that nettle patch all day).
Tuesday, December 26
Our second trek was to the Sabyinyo Group on 26 December 2006.
On the drive to the park headquarters we asked Vicky if he could ask the ranger if the Sabyinyo group was relatively close, and if so could we be assigned to that group. We wanted to be back by 2 to avoid driving back to Kigali in the dark, and we wanted to see the Sabyinyo group because it had a very large silverback. As usual, no problem. Vicky had a very good attitude, which was a definite plus.
We checked in at the ORPTN office, Vicky disappeared for a minute, and when he returned he took us over to the Sabyinyo group sign. Hooray! Francois introduced himself as our guide, and introduced our other guide Tio. I remembered reading about Francois on the internet (he has been a guide for 26 years, knew Dianne Fossey, and was Bill Gates’ guide last July) so I knew we were in for a good day.
We were joined by a couple from France and three people from Los Angeles (although one lived in Kigali and worked for USAID). The drive was the same as the previous day, but this time we stopped where the tarmac road ended so we didn’t have to endure the bumpy muddy part.
We hired a porter (we were the only ones today) and I took a walking stick that had a carved gorilla on it. The walking sticks turned out to be good for testing the depth of the mud. Like the previous day, we hiked through farmland past goats, cows, and waving children. The weather was much better today and we had a beautiful view of the surrounding volcanoes.
The wall climb into the national park was easier here because there was a passthrough. The forest was also slightly different than the day before, much more dense and with different kinds of trees and visible damage from elephants.
Along the trek, Francois showed us how the gorillas extract water from the plants so they never need to go in search of water. He also showed us assorted plants and fruits that gorillas and elephants eat. Other members of our group tasted them, but I couldn’t get “peel it, boil it, or forget it” out of my mind and envisioned having to explain to a travel clinic doctor “i don’t know what it was – it was about this big, had seeds, and is part of a gorilla’s diet” so I passed. Francois showed us wild impatiens (which the previous day we thought were orchids) and how daisies are natural bug repellent (which they call insecticide).
After about an hour of hiking in muddy slop we heard some rustling in the bamboo. Then we saw the trackers so we knew that the gorillas were near. We put down our bags in a clearing and followed Francois and Tio as they hacked a path into the solid bamboo. As we were climbing, there was a baby and a subadult playing in the canopy above us. When we reached the top, there he was – the biggest gorilla I had ever seen! I think the first 10 minutes were spent saying “look at the size of him” and “look at the size of his hands!” and “look at his teeth!” Francois asked us to hold off taking pictures to make sure that Guhonda (that’s what they call this silverback) was ok with our presence. A minute later Francois said it was ok to take pictures so we all began snapping away.
He was about 15 feet away, and Francois kept saying “come over here to see better” but I was afraid that I’d slip and wind up in the silverback’s lap. No thanks, I’m fine right here. Guhonda, who is 35 and weighs 450 pounds, sat there and ate bamboo while two babies played in front of him. They rolled and tumbled and bit each other. I filmed some video. Francois made some crazy sounds. At certain points, the babies were too close for Andy to photograph with the 70-200 lens. The gorillas really are…pungent. We took turns taking pictures of each other with the gorillas in the background. One of the trackers kept asking to take a picture of me with the gorillas – he spoke French but no English, and I only had the DSLR (Andy had the point and shoot, but he was about 5 feet away). I’m good at charades, but there’s no way I could do “point it at me, hold the trigger half way down to focus, then keep holding it down, but reposition the camera so the gorillas are in the picture too”. i just let him take a few pictures and said thanks.
Something spooked the silverback and he let out this crazy loud howl/bark and charged sideways at one of the females. We all assumed our submissive pose but Francois said “everything is ok, he is not angry” – I sure didn’t want to see him angry! Holy #?$!! A minute later, the bamboo canopy collapsed under his tremendous girth and he and the other gorillas rolled down into the forest.
I thought that this must signal the end of the trip, but oh no. Francois gestured for us to follow him and we tracked them through the dense forest where it was so dark that the video camera thought that the lens cap was on.
They emerged in the clearing where we had left our bags (although the porter/trackers had moved our bags at some point). The entire Sabyinyo group was now out in the wide open – it was absolutely, jaw-dropping amazing. Little ones riding on their mom’s back, a baby nursing, a juvenile eating fruit – the silverback ran by at one point (not charging, just running) and the earth actually trembled. We watched them for a while and then Francois announced that it was time to go, but there were two gorillas blocking our path so he had to kind of shoe them away and we had to sneak by.
We’d booked two treks really as insurance – in case the first one yielded no gorillas, or bad weather, etc. But we’d had a really good first day so we’d joked that the second day was just “gravy”. But the second day FAR exceeded our expectations – and even the guy from Kigali who had been to see the gorillas FIVE times before said that it was a particularly phenomenal day.
