Rwanda Travelogue

Day 9 - July 18, 2022

Up early at 5:30am in time to depart for the National Park Head Quarters at 6am after having the gaiters supplied by the lodge fitted to our legs. At this time of the year they're not there to keep your feet dry, but to protect your legs from the undergrowth. Arrived at the HQ at about 7 am - it was much busier than we expected - there were a few tens of safari trucks and lots of people milling around in the hard-surfaced car park. There was free tea and coffee and excellent toilets. We had to wait while Tito went to the office with the other guides to work out what group we would be placed in. For the gorillas, each group was a maximum of 8 people to limit the numbers that the gorillas are exposed to. We were somewhat shocked by the state of preparedness of some of the trekkers - quite a few had no gaiters, were wearing shorts and tee-shirts and lightweight trainers. We had long-sleeved shirts, long trousers, boots, rain jackets, thick leather gloves and the gaiters mentioned above.

After what seemed like an age (it was probably around 20 minutes) Tito returned to lead us to our guide in his briefing area - each group had its own circular briefing zone where the guides told us what to expect. We met our fellow group of trekkers and were pleased to see that they included some other older people - the implication being we had been assigned to find an easier group of gorillas.

Back to the truck to drive to the starting place - there were a variety of locations dependent on where each group's gorilla family were known to be. At the parking place we were introduced to the porters - locals who would assist in more difficult terrain and carry backpacks, like my camera bag. We were also given walking sticks.

We set off up the mountain with our porters and guides. The initial climb was on paths through fields - mainly potatoes and pyrethrum. The climb was steepish - a walk rather than a scramble, but made more difficult by the altitude. After what was probably around ½ a mile to a mile, we reached the edge of the National Park - and therefore the start of the forest. We met our four trackers there - they would lead us to the gorilla family. We used a bridge to climb over the wall surrounding the park and set off in fairly open forest. This was quite easy going. Part way through this forest region we stopped in a clearing and left our bags with some of the porters - not forgetting to take our cameras out! At around 8:30am we made contact with the gorillas. That was the good news. The bad news was that the only one we could see was at least 100 metres away up a steep slope completely covered with thick undergrowth. The only option was for the guides and trackers to cut through the undergrowth with their machetes/pangas. Underfoot the conditions were quite difficult - a mixture of mud and a lot of cut away undergrowth which sometimes would support your weight but often wouldn't and you fell through to the ground - sometimes only a few inches, but occasionally a couple of feet. Getting back out required at least help from your stick, and occasionally help from the porters/guides or other members of the group. Going up frequently required climbing using hands and feet and often pulling your self up using the undergrowth to either side. We were very grateful for the gloves we had brought - much of the undergrowth gave a quite painful sting, but the gloves were full protection. We occasionally had to descend a little to find our way through, and this could be sufficiently tricky that the easiest way was to slide down on your bottom.

It took around 45 minutes to get any closer to the gorilla family and remained quite tricky navigating around them on the steep slope. It was interesting to note how little attention they paid to us - they basically completely ignored us and carried on eating, even when you unintentionally got closer than the nominal minimum distance of around 20 feet. We were occasionally too close for my camera to focus -1.2 metres. Another interesting aspect of their behaviour we saw was them apparently eating from a small cliff face - we assumed this was to get salt.

When the time came to leave them alone (there's a rule that says that contact should be limited to one hour) we were in some further difficulty. The only routes down were all filled by gorillas and to get down we would have had to get too close to them. In the end the guides were able to hack a path past the group and we started our stumble down the steep section. It took about 45 minutes to get back to the location where we'd left our packs and then we had the much gentler walk to the edge of the forest and down through the fields.

On the way down, there was a friendly competition between some of our group to work out who was the oldest - which Mavis won, beating a 73 year-old American lady.

Tito took us back to the lodge for a well-earned rest and something to eat.

Day 10