Rwanda Travelogue

Day 11 - July 20, 2022

Another early start - loading our truck with our bags for a later transfer to Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge. But first back to the Park HQ to be allocated to our trekking group and briefed. The incidence of wildly inappropriate clothing on this morning seemed much lower for some reason.

We were allocated to a group of mainly people of around our age, although we also had two quite young US women, who seemed like they wouldn't find the trek much of a problem. This time we found the gorillas much more quickly and in a much easier location - still heavy undergrowth, but much less steep. We started by seeing a silverback (one of two in the family) at about 8:45am. We saw and got close to many of the gorillas in the family, including sub-adult males, adolescents, the other silverback (a bald guy called Bob) and small babies with the mothers. One of the adolescents ran towards me and before I could get out of the way had used my leg as a support in his progress. I've been grabbed by a gorilla! We left them to their own devices at about 9:45.

One of the men in our group was clearly struggling with the walk but declined any help from the guides or porters. It turned out that he was 75 and had Parkinson's. It seemed that this was a "bucket list" trip for him - he had lectured in engineering in Rwanda more than 20 years ago. Happily he made it back in the end - albeit quite a long way behind the rest of us.

Back to the truck for our transfer to the new lodge. This was on a pretty steep slope. We had been told that there was a buggy to transfer us from the road up to the lodge "if required". It was certainly required in our case, with the lodge being at around 8,500 feet up. It was a beautiful place with great staff and friendly other guests. A relax for the afternoon - except for the need for another PCR test to be allowed to see the golden monkeys the next day. We were told we could be driven to the local town, or for $20 each (on top of the $50 test fee) a medical professional would come to the lodge. Seemed worth it, so that's what we did.

Day 12