Day 14 - Gorilla Trek Day 1
Sunday, September 20
5:15 Wake up - 6:00 Breakfast - 6:30 Meet Jovia, our guide
Our lodge had backpacks with water and snacks for us. We drove a short 10 minutes to the gathering place for all the groups who would be going to hike in to see the gorilla’s today. We were the first to arrive, so we had to wait 45 minutes or so for all the other individuals and groups to arrive. Then we were sorted us into our gorilla families with the other clients we’d be hiking with that day (maximum of 8 clients in a group). We met our guide, and had a short briefing before getting back in our vehicle to drive to the trailhead where we met our personal porters for the day.
We were hiking at 8:15. We walked on paths through a little neighborhood and along the edges of the fields that belong to these people. It is Sunday, and so we passed people on the paths who were dressed up and going to church.
We zig zagged higher and higher through their fields for 30 minutes or so, when we entered the Parc National des Volcans and met our trackers. These three men had been tracking our particular gorilla family - the Muhoza family - all afternoon yesterday, so they had an idea of where they had been last night. They had also been up in the park early to track them before we were to arrive so that they could get us to the gorillas as expediently as possible.
When we entered the park the terrain sure changed! We began in a bamboo forest and were quickly pushing our way through dense foliage, following our trackers who were literally bushwhacking their way through with machetes. We’d go through thick jungle, and then it’d open onto a small clearing, and then we’d be back into the thick stuff.
At one point, our guide told us to put our gloves on (thick gardening gloves) to protect our hands from the stinging nettles. At another point, he said, “ANTS! Move quickly!”
Eventually, we got to a spot where we left our packs and walking sticks with our porters, and went on following only the guide and trackers. We went through a dense thicket and emerged into a clearing which was filled with gorillas!
It was quite an open area and the gorilla’s were scattered all about. We didn’t really know where to look to take them all in! Our guide would tug on our sleeve, or wave us over to a new spot to see something we might be missing. We went back and forth between 2 or 3 open glades where they were hanging out.
The silverback, his 6 wives, and their assorted children including a 4 month old. There were little ones who were playing together, rolling around…and one small one who kept climbing on branches. For much of the time we were face to face with the silverback just 10 ft. away as he ate and ate and ate while the rest of his family played around him.
Also during this time, the sun came out - it really was magical!
And a few videos:
After an hour, it was time to head back. So we just did everything in reverse….returned to our porters, hiked through the forest, then zig zagged back down through the fields and paths to our vehicle, arriving at 12noon!
These white plants are Pyrethrum Daisies in the chrysanthemum family. They harvest the flowers, remove the petals, and dry them as they can be used as a natural insect repellent. We also saw fields and fields of potatoes.
We returned to our lodge, enjoyed a late lunch and afternoon naps. Then we relaxed in our hut, until dinner. We turned in early as tomorrow, we do it all again!