It's a Jungle Out There

We got up at 5am to get ready for our Gorilla Trek.  We arrived at the staging area where they divided you into groups of 8 and assigned you to a specific family of gorillas.  We were assigned to the Isabukuru group, the group was comprised of 10 members, one silverback, 5 females, 1 adolescent, and 3 babies.  Our group was not a regularly visited group, it is a group that is used mostly for research.  I guess they had too many visitors on this day.  As you can imagine the idea of going to a non-habituated group could be an adventure. . .they are not as used to visitors and they are deep into the mountain.  It would take us about 2 1/2 hours to reach our group.

Hiking up the to Volcanoes National Park

We drove to the trail head and started trekking straight up the mountain.  We were at about 8000-9000ft of elevation.  The entire mountainside is cultivated for farming.  The government owns the land but each Rwandan can farm 25 acres and they do make the best of their land!

Farm House on the way up

We passed this farm house on the way up, they had a traditional round house but most other houses that we saw were wood with corrugated tin roofs.  They grow mostly potatoes high up in the mountains but at lower elevations they have corn, sweet potatoes, beans, peas, and sorghum.

Climbing over the wall into Volcanoes Nat'l Park

After about 1 hour of trekking straight up we reached the wall the separates the Volcanoes National Park from the land people can use for farming.  Did I mention the trekking was straight up the mountain?  The wall runs along the entire edge of the forest so there is no doubt that you have crossed the border.  We literally had to climb over the wall.  Now we were immediately deep in jungle forest and the path was no more than 12 inches wide.  We were told to watch out for the stinging nettles that can sting you and produce an intense itching burning sensation.  I was in the jungle not 5 minutes before I had my first encounter with the stinging nettles!  Right through my shirt on my upper arm and forearm. . .luckily there was some plant close by that was like an aloe that calmed down the itching.  The trail was total mud, the shoe sucking kind of mud, which made walking a little precarious.  We had great porters that carried our packs and helped us through the treacherous trail.  After about 70 minutes of slogging through the jungle they told us to put down our packs and get our cameras, the gorillas were here.  We would be allowed 60 minutes of viewing time. . . the stop watch began!

First Gorilla Sighed

We spotted our first gorilla, a female, she was sitting and eating.  She looked at us then went back to eating.  We heard the silverback to the side of us and he gave out a cry and stomped through some brush.  Our guide talked to it (making gorilla sounds) and he calm down and answered the guide.

This female just had a little itch that had to be taken care of!  The gorillas were scattered around so we had to kind of follow them through the forest.

This female sat for awhile and ate everything in front of her.  She pulled out entire plants and ate the roots.  She did not seem to mind our presence.

This shows how close we could get to the gorillas. . .I have a point and shoot camera with a minimal zoom!  I love her brown eyes!

The Silver Back

This is the Silverback of the group and he was constantly changing positions and moving to get away from us!  When he moved he plowed all the vegetation in his way. . .it did make it easier to follow him!  We were in kind of bowl like valley with very, very steep sides.  The silverback decided he had enough and crashed up the steep slope and the rest of the family followed.  I thought "darn we didn't get all of 60 minutes."  At the moment the guide pulls my hand and starts dragging me up the slope. . .I mean dragging me!  My initial thought was "How the hell I am going to get back down!", the slope was steep and very muddy. . .nothing to grab on to or more specifically nothing you wanted to grab on to!  We were able to see some of the gorillas while we were all clinging to the slope.  The last gorilla we saw walking up the slope was

Mother and 1 month old baby

this mother and her one month old baby.  She almost brushed Jeanna on her way up the slope. . .you can see someone's feet in the background showing how close they were!  Our time was now up so it was time to get down from our slope. . .pretty much we just slid down the hill!

Muddy Shoes

We finally made it back to our vehicle after our long trek back down the mountain.  It is hard to see but our shoes, gators, and pants were covered in mud!

This truly was an experience of a lifetime!