Wow. Just returned
to the hotel at 7:30 pm following an adventure filled day that started at 4
am...
Let's start with the drive out to the park where the
gorillas are pretty much kept under lock and key by the Rwandan
government.
It was our first time out of Kigali, and it is really
different.
So many people on the road at daylight carrying goods to
market all over the country. On top of
their head, in carts, even on a large wooden bicycle. Thousands of people out in the rural
countryside, up and at 'em. 5 am, break of
day, a human traffic jam of activity.
And with the exception of the rare ancient motorcycle, no vehicle
traffic at all.
The villagers who live at the base of the trail to the
gorillas are very poor, 3rd world farmers who grow plots of vegetables for sale at market. When you walk through the village it seems
that it is a populated entirely by children. They swarm the car with a chorus of
"hello", which seems to be the only foreign word they
know. A singular highlight
for me was using my iPad to take video of the children and then play it back
for them to watch. It seemed quite
certain from their reaction of sheer joy that they had never seen themselves on
video, and quite probably had never seen
any video of any kind. I could have done this for hours.
There are 80 people per day who are permitted to go see the gorillas. They are divided into 10 groups of 8 and go as a group to see 10 different "families" of gorillas. The families are in locations that vary from 15 minute hikes in, to approx 3 hour hikes.
My group, being all pretty fit hikers, was selected for
one of the longer hikes. But the payoff
was we got to go see one of the strongest families, which had 19 members
including three of the silverback adult males. So, we set off across the
foothills. The first half hour or so was a very pretty hike through high
mountain farmland.
Then we crossed over into the National park. The border
to the park was demarcated by a large steep ditch that was used to protect the
villagers and their farms from the mountain buffalo. It was at this point that I fully noticed the
uniformed guard with an ancient AK 47.
Apparently he was there to protect us from said buffalo. Normally guns
make me very nervous, but it was certainly calming to know we had a guy with an
automatic weapon as we headed into the forest/jungle for the rest of our
journey to see the gorillas.
Finally we reached the gorillas. Incredible.
Well worth all the slog to get there. The gorillas are 100 percent
vegetarians and quite comfortable with human visitors. We were able to stand and observe them in
groups as close as 5 ft away. The silverback, or number one ranking male, is the
ruler of the group. Our family consisted of three silverbacks, five adult
females and a variety of juveniles from one year old through ten. The juveniles were acting just like a pack of
human children, play fighting and wrestling around and the silverback was a
little like a cranky Dad who became irritated when they made too much noise.
They are really remarkable animals who exhibit a lot of human characteristics. After a strictly time-kept hour we had to
depart. I know our group could have spent many hours there, fascinated by the
gorillas and luxuriating in our close access to them. I'll post some pictures as I get the chance to sort through them.
All in all one of the most interesting and incredible
days of my life.
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