Meeting Mountain Gorillas: My Most EPIC Experience Ever!monkeysandmountains.com /mountain-gorillas-volcanoes-national-park-rwanda-2

Like most travellers I have a mental bucket list that I am constantly updating. As a travel blogger I have been veryfortunate to regularly check off items from that list. Take a look at my Top Travel Adventures of 2012 and my #1 traveladventure of 2012 and you’ll see what I mean. But the #1 thing on my bucket list, remained, chewing away at me….untilrecently.

It will probably come as no surprise to those of you that know me and even those of you who don’t – my blog is namedMonkeys and Mountains after all, that the # 1 thing on my bucket list was to observe Mountain Gorillas in thewild. I had studied Western Lowland Gorillas during my Bachelor of Science in Primatology. I went on to work inenvironmental education at a zoo and designed and taught primate environmental enrichment programs. But still I hadnever seen a gorilla in the wild.

Bleep, bleep, bleep. That was the alarming sound I woke up to at 5:23 am. Normally I would have turned it off, and thenhidden under the covers, but not today. Today I pulled the covers aside and leapt out of bed, my feet hitting the coldfloor of Amahoro Guest House in Musanze, Rwanda. Today was the day I would be seeing Mountain Gorillas inthe wild!

Flash forward 30 minutes later and Omar my friendly guide at Amahoro Tours has picked me up and I’m now in a groupwith six other gorilla enthusiasts. Our trek to the low stone wall marking Volcanoes National Park has begun.

Our guide

One of the three s i lverbacks that com pr is e the Sabyinyo troop.

Our guiderepeatedly spokesoftly into his 2-wayradio, speaking inhis native tongue ofKinyarwandan. Ididn’t understandhim, but I did noticethe worried look inhis eyes as heexchanged glanceswith our other guidebefore brightlyannouncing that thetrackers couldn’t findthe gorillas but notto worry.

What? Nogorillas? Mypulse quickened.Don’t worry, heassured us, thegorillas are movingfast in search ofbamboo shoots.

He repeatedly assured us that the trackers would find the gorillas, but even he sounded less and les convinced as wewaited just outside the park border to Volcanoes National Park. Half an hour later we were still waiting. Finally he got thecall we had been impatiently waiting for – the trackers had located the gorillas, but we would need to hurry to catch upwith them.

But

Drunk s i lverback p laying wi th h is be l ly button.

Butf irst ,hehadtowarnus ofoneother

thing….bamboo shoots make the gorillas drunk! And there were not one, not two, but three silverbacks, includingGuhonda, the largest and oldest silverback in the entire Volcanoes National Park! We had to be preparedfor….drunk gorillas!

It turns out that a drunk gorilla might parade around a bit more, beating their chests, showing off how strong theyare, intimidating other males, or (gulp)…us. Doesn’t really sound all that different from drunk men does it?

We began to hike the steep muddy trail. I was full of adrenalin and could have raced up the hill, but we could only go asfast as the slowest member in the group. In other words not nearly as fast as I would have liked given the fact that Iknew Mountain gorillas were waiting for us. 90 minutes later we reached the trackers. We dropped off our backpacksand took out our cameras as we followed the trackers to the gorillas. I smelled them before I saw them. It wasn’t a badsmell, but a distinctive gorilla smell.

A

Two of the Sabyinyo troop ’s s i lverbacks .

A

branch snapped, i looked up and saw the behind of a huge male gorilla – one of the silverbacks who was obviouslysuffering from stomach problems as evidenced by his backside. Then he was gone, disappearing into the bush,despite his massive size! We moved quickly, deeper into the bamboo forest. Then out of nowhere, I sawhim….Guhonda, the largest and oldest silverback! I quickly started snapping pictures, but he was moving quicker thanwe were and just as quickly he was gone too. The next 20 minutes are so consisted of playing hide and seek with thegorillas. One second you would see them, the next second they had vanished!

Then

Kam panga, the m other m ounta in gor i l la who m el ted m y hear t.

ThenIT

happened. By IT I’m referring to one of the most magical moments of my ent ire lif e! A female gorilla (who Ilater found out is named Kampanga) stopped long enough to look up and acknowledge us before going back tosearching for bamboo shoots, but she moved slowly carefully…Perhaps it’s because Kampanga had a baby on herback! YES A GORILLA BABY!

And

Kam panga and her adorab le s on or daughter ( the trackers d idn ’t know yet) .

Andnotjustanybaby,but ababywho

seemed to know how cute he was! He played it up for us as we snapped photo after photo. We stared. He staredback with his massive curiosity filled brown eyes. Kampanga decided to move on, coming closer and closer to us. I wasin her way and she gingerly took her hand and brushed my leg, as if to say Excuse me. OMG, I had just beentouched by a mountain gorilla! And a very polite one at that ! It took every ounce of willpower not to reach out andtouch the baby on her back who was literally just inches from me. I was so close that had I extended my arm half way Iwould have touched him.

After

He’s a s tar and he knows i t!

After

passing, she let out a low grunt, which I interpreted as Thank you in gorilla language. She proceeded to climb up a tree,her baby’s expression changing from one of curiosity to that of fear, his eyes growing even bigger as his clutch aroundher fur tightened….Then they were gone. Words cannot begin to express how I felt….elated….dizzy with excitment…thankful….beyond grateful for the opportunity….Words are simply not enough. Even now as i write this, several weekslater, my breath has quickened. It was truly one of the most memorable moments of my entire life!

Our time with the gorillas had not yet come to an end yet though. We moved on and caught a glimpse through thebamboo forest of Big Ben. Big Ben is famous in his own right, for despite being a juvenile gorilla. He is bald! TheGorilla Doctors have examined him and he is perfectly healthy…but bald. Poor guy! Wonder if that impacts hischances with the ladies?

We passed Karema, another female who is easily identifiable by her missing fingers, caught in a snare. Snares are notcommon in Rwanda any more due to some impressive initiatives by the Rwandan government (to be discussed more inan upcoming post), but that wasn’t always the case.

Next

Guhonda taking i t eas y, perhaps h is bam boo buz z had kicked in?

Nextwe

stumbled upon Guhonda again, the park’s largest silverback. He was settled down, perhaps his bamboo shoot buzzkicking in. PFIFFFFF PFIGGGGHHH. Yes that is the sound of a silverback having gas! Something that gorillashave a lot of . Given the fact that Mountain gorillas are predominantly herbivores, this shouldn’t come as a surprise,but still I found it entertaining.

As a FYI gorilla gas doesn’t stink

Me pos ing wi th Guhonda (wel l kinda)….he d id have bad gas a fter a l l !

As a FYI gorilla gas doesn’t stinkwhen you’re standing 3 meters away.All too soon, our hour was up. It wastime to go. To leave the gorillas inpeace. To be gorillas again without agroup of tourists snapping pictures,oohhing and ahhing…. or poking fun at their flatulence. I was the last oneto leave and did so only at the urgingof our guide. I waved goodbye toGuhonda and mouthed a silent Thankyou and until next time….

Know Before You Go GorillaTrekking in Volcanoes NationalPark in Rwanda:

It’s not cheap. A one hour permitwill set you back $750 – but it’sworth every penny!

Amahoro Tours can purchaseyour gorilla permit for you.

Book as far in advance aspossible. There is a maximum of80 people a day and spots fill upquickly, the exception being inMay, when I went, during rainyseason.

Once you arrive at VolcanoesNational Park, your guide will askyou how far you want to hike andthen try to find a gorilla troop tomatch your abilities.

Porters are also available to helpyou and carry your back pack.

Photography t ip: Flash is notallowed. Set your ISO settings at1600 or 3200 so that the gorilla’sfaces show up. I got thisexcellent tip from a guy on mytour who got it from a professional photographer on his previous tour.

You can see more primates (including chimps) in Nyungwe National Park in the south part of Rwanda. I highlyrecommend it.