Gorillas in the Mist

I travelled to Ruhengeri on Friday night to see the gorillas on Saturday! This was one of the most incredible things I have ever done; if you get the chance you should really come and meet the gorillas in Rwanda.

The first step to see the gorillas is to acquire a permit from the tourism office in Kigali. I had tried this twice before since I've been here and found the permits to be sold out. They only allow 50-60 people to go each day and each group can only spend one hour with the gorillas. This week I was invited to join my friend Laurie and her brother Michael and I lucked out by acquiring a permit from someone who was unable to go. We drove up the night before and stayed at a guest house about 300 meters from the Parc entrance. We arrived at the gates of the Parc de National Volcanes at 7AM on Saturday. There are seven groups of gorillas on the volcanic Mt. Karisimbi(4507m), Mt. Sabyinyo(3634m) and Gahinga(3437m) with between 7 and 30 gorillas in each group (roughly 80-90 gorillas all together) and there are only about 700 gorillas worldwide! At around 5AM the gorilla trackers (parc employees) go up into the mountains and find the various groups of gorillas; they then radio the location to the parc guides who alert all of the permit holders how far the gorillas are located. Each group is at least a 30 minute hike up the mountain, with the Susa group (oldest and largest group on the mountain; 30 gorillas) usually a 7 hour hike. There are a maximum 8 people per group; and they ask whether you'd like a long or medium hike. We did not hike to the Susa group (next time!) but we selected a medium distance hike to the HIRWA group (11 gorillas including one silver back, five females, and five babies.)

Michael, Laurie, and I with Mt. Sabyinya behind us.
We drove for 30 minutes with the parc guides, then hiked about 45 minutes around the foothills of this mountain. We passed a few villages, and many potato fields. The guides informed us that the buffalo and elephants on the mountain sometimes come into the fields and disturb the local villagers. But the gorillas rarely come down the mountain- only occasionally and just on the edge of the forest. During the dry season (June-Oct) the gorillas are often located higher on the mountain where there is still lush vegetation. We couldn't have asked for better weather on this day; sunny and warm!

We carried water and rain jackets with us. The guides instructed us about how to act around the gorillas. It is important to whisper, not bring any food, not point fingers, and turn away to cough or sneeze. We learned that the silver back gorilla in this group was originally in the Susa group but fought with the leader and about five years ago he took two of the females from the Susa group and started his own group. He also stopped by another group on the mountain and took another three females. Then over the years each of the females has had one baby. He is 28 years old, and some of the females are older than him (they live to be about 45 years old). The babies in the group range from one month to 5 years and are considered babies until they are 7 or 8.

Once we reached the edge of the mountain and forest we hiked uphill for about 45 minutes. Then they stopped us and pointed down into a valley of bamboo shoots and showed us where the gorillas were eating. We could hear them before we could see them; they were breaking off bamboo shoots and munching away. I could see the occasional head pop up out of the bushes. We then had to shimmy down a hill through these trees. Once down in the valley the guide approached the silver back gorilla and made grunting noises while we all crouched quietly. The gorilla grunted back a few times and rolled over to look at us. The guide indicated to us that the silver back has said it was okay to come closer and visit them. We all laughed; incredulous that the guide was able to communicate with him, but I guess it was true! We had two soldiers with us which made us feel safe. Although after our one hour with the gorillas we learned that their purpose is really to stay there after we leave and ensure no poachers have followed us or the trackers to the location of the gorillas.

This is the silver back. We were about 5 meters away from him. We were told he weighs about 220 kg (close to 500 pounds!) And that he can eat up to 40 pounds of food a day (needless to say he was eating for the entire hour we were with him). This is him behind me. We watched him eat, and he mostly watched us take pictures of him. He rolled around sometimes and mostly remained patient while the baby gorillas moved around playing. The females were scattered throughout the bamboo also eating and tending to the babies occasionally.
This is the silver part of his back.

This is one of the babies. They were the most fun to watch. They would roll around. Often fall down, wrestle with each other, and pound on their chests. They were pretty much oblivious to us but very involved with each other and their mothers and father.
This baby is 8 or 9 months old.

At one point this baby came over to us. But the silver back came and got him and seemed to reprimand him. He ran crying away. It was fascinating.

This one mimicked the silver back the whole time; like his shadow.
This is our group after coming out of the forest.
It was exhilarating!

Sunset over Ruhengeri