Gorillas In The Mud

We are now into the last three weeks of our time here, which is a very scary thought indeed, and also means our schedules are all of a sudden jam-packed! We have concocted a plan to steal our favourite babies from the orphanage which involve smuggling them in our rucksacks… not that we should really be admitting we have favourites! We have also begun a four week project working for a friend at The Prison Fellowship, which works with the families of prisoners, victims and ex-prisoners on a basis of reconciliation. The project that we’re involved in is basically the same as our card project at Centre Marembo but working with adult women instead. The idea is that after we leave Ashild (our friend) will be able to continue the project herself. On the subject of cards… the project at Marembo made huge progress last weekend. Nicky and a few of the volunteers attended a Christmas fete held at one of the big hotels in town and managed to sell 62 of the cards made by the boys at £1 each, which is big money in Rwanda! Not only that but Graeme La Saux was there and he brought 5 cards! Claim to fame! We will be holding a meeting next week to discuss the project’s future, in which the boys will be setting up an association in preparation for when we leave, allowing the project to continue longterm. The other piece of exciting news from the centre is that a film crew have arrived, well when we say crew, we mean two very dedicated volunteers by the names of David and Elspeth. This means that all of a sudden our English classes have doubled in size with keen faces wishing to appear on camera. We held a competition on Monday during the ‘Nell and Jaz club’ whereby the kids were meant to design a picture, which will be painted onto the library wall in February. The kids were so preoccupied by the possibility of being famous that most of them just about managed one snake under the heading ‘jungle’ or a lone sun under the heading ‘sky’. We are thinking a collage may be necessary!

So the reason why we couldn’t attend the Christmas fete ourselves was because we had a very important date with a family of mountain gorillas!!!! (Jaz: thank you soooooo much to Mum and Mustie, you have given me a Christmas present I will never forget)
The trip started on Saturday with a bus journey up to the north of the country to a town called Ruhengeri. It’s quite a large town by Rwandan standards and the base from which the large majority of people go gorilla trekking. However, in true Rwandan style it is not in any way geared towards tourism. We ventured out of our guesthouse for a look around and discovered one gift shop stocking some badly made t-shirts and some extremely ugly wooden gorillas. Considering the number of rich foreigners passing through we couldn’t help thinking the town was missing out on an excellent opportunity to make some serious cashdollar!!
Sunday morning was an extremely early start, 5.10am, not what we’re used to but the incentive was great enough to get us out of our beds. We headed of to the ORTPN head quarters where the treks are organised. The drive towards the Volcanoes National Park was stunning, travelling through a banana plantation with an enormous volcano looming up in front of you is certainly enough to wake you up! We arrived at the head quarters and after a little hanging around, we had to decide on the group we wanted to see. There are 8 groups in total, some with a relatively easy hike to see them and others which are a little more challenging, the groups also range in size from about eight to nearly 40 gorillas. We wanted to get our moneys worth so we decided on seeing the biggest group, called the Susa group, which also has the most challenging hike, they warned us we could be on the mountain all day and if we were too exhausted to make it to where the gorillas were then ORTPN would not be held responsible! We had just enough faith in our fitness levels to rise to the challenge. We were then introduced to our 3 other trekking buddies and our guides, Cyprian and Emmanuel, who were very friendly and knowledgeable, and who both spoke perfect English.
So all raring to go we piled into a jeep, four on the back seat, two on the seats in the boot and set of to the park entrance that we assumed could only be a short drive away… an hour later, after bumping around on mud tracks we reached a stretch of road even a land cruiser couldn’t tackle so had to do the last bit of the walk to the park entrance on foot, even at this point we could feel the effects of the altitude and were short of breath before we’d even reached the foot of the mountain. At this point we thought maybe we hadn’t paid enough attention to the park warden’s warnings! At the entrance we were given a talk about gorilla etiquette, no pointing, no flash photography, try to maintain a distance of at minimum 3 meters and if they come towards you back away slowly, and if one of the males charges at you- Don’t Run! We were also told that there could be elephants and buffalo in the forest, which could be dangerous and for that reason we had a few armed guards with us… in fact with the guides included there were more of them than there were of us!
So at around 9 am we set off up the slopes of Mount Karisimbi, the highest of the 5 volcanoes that make up the park, with a peak at 4507m. Luckily we weren’t expecting the gorillas to be at the very top, and the guides informed us they anticipated the trek to be around two hours. The path up the mountain cuts through a dense bamboo forest, and what with it being the rainy season the path was far from dry. The mud only got worse as we headed up and the path also got extremely steep in places, we were very glad to have been provided with sticks to help us and frequently had to grab on to the bamboo at the edge of the path to stop us falling over or sliding backwards! The guides were in constant radio contact with the gorilla trackers and after about 40 minutes walking we were informed that the group had moved down the mountain, so we were at most an hour away from them. Big relief to the whole group as the mud and the altitude were beginning to take their toll. A little while later we heard some strange noises and rustling in the bamboo to our right, our guide stopped dead and we had thoughts of being charged by elephants or buffalo when from the bushes emerged an enormous male gorilla who strolled majestically across the path in front of us. His posture and size left no doubt in our minds of his pure strength and might. It’s impossible to describe the feelings of exhilaration and excitement that swept through us at that moment; we were on a pure adrenalin high.
We moved up the path and found the troop in a clearing, munching bamboo shoots, the head silver back in the centre. The group is made up of 37 individuals, and has 4 silver back males (males over the age of 12 yrs old). One of these silverbacks is in charge, and the others all know their place in the pecking order. There are also 2 black backs, (males aged between 8-12 yrs) numerous females, including Poppy the queen of the group at 35 yrs old, various adolescents, a few babies and a set of twins who were nearly 2yrs called Gift and Happiness. This group was one of the groups originally studied by the late Dian Fossey, (Sigoney Weavers character in 'Gorilla in the Mist' which was filmed on location in Rwanda). We spent around 45 minutes there, whilst more and more gorillas of all shapes and sizes emerged from the undergrowth and joined the rest of the group or just wandered past. It was extremely tempting to reach out and touch the nearest ones as the 3 meter rule went out the window and at times they were only an arms length away but we managed to resist. At one point a guard had to shoo one of the twins away because it was becoming too inquisitive and trying to touch us.. these creatures are not shy! Generally they all just sat around munching and eyeing us in a vaguely interested manner. On one occasion a black back of 10 yrs appeared and clearly wanted to show off to the visitors, he started by running through the clearing beating his chest and making a lot of noise, then snapped an entire bamboo plant in half and made a kind of nest from the branches, he was also seen to kick a couple of the smaller gorillas- typical surly teenager!! What was really incredible for us was the fact that we were so close meant that on many occasion it was possible to make eye contact with gorillas near us, we really felt like we were being studied as much as we were studying them.
At some point the chief silverback decided he was bored so got up, beat his chest and ordered the whole troop to follow him off up the path. They obediently trailed after him, sticking to the edge of the path to avoid the mud, which apparently they dislike. We followed close behind and found them in a very large clearing lying around and chomping on balls of rolled up goose grass. They were all making deep growling noises, which we are told means the food is good and they’re very happy. At this point the sun came out and they all looked extremely relaxed and contented, we could have stayed with them all day but unfortunately you are only allowed and hour and ours was up. Reluctantly we said goodbye, took one last look and set of down the mud river that was posing as a path. In certain places it was easier to ‘ski’ down than walk and on many an occasion our feet were completely enveloped in mud up to our ankles; our shoes and trousers will never be the same again!! By some miracle Jaz managed to stay upright the entire way down and Nell only fell over once, although if it wasn’t for clinging on for dear life to the bamboo, we have no doubt our rear ends would have suffered a lot more! We made it down to the bottom of the mountain by about 1.30pm and were very happy to be offered a lift right back to Kigali by our trekking partners.
Whilst the experience was a brief one it was also one of the most exhausting, exhilarating and rewarding of our lives. There are only 600 mountain gorillas left in the world, all of which exist in Rwanda or Uganda, and we feel incredibly privileged to have spent an hour in their company.