Mountain Gorillas
Another earlier than hoped for wakeup. But this is the day that brought me to Rwanda in the first place – Mountain Gorillas.
Much like on the sixteenth, breakfast at 5:45 AM and out the road by 6:15 AM. Two significant differences today – I had a copilot and I didn’t get lost. We were onsite and checked in by about 6:35 AM and then waited on the groupings and briefings until about 7:15 AM. Once the briefing was over, we convoyed about 30 minutes out to the starting location for our trek. Our group included our guide (Epa), a German father/daughter couple, a Russian couple, an American mother/daughter couple, my fellow former federal employee, and myself. The Mountain Gorilla family we would be visiting (hopefully) was the Sigasira family.
Once at the trek starting location (in farmland), Epa suggested we consider hiring a porter to carry our packs and help us along the trail. Myself and the German couple opted not to hire a porter. I did fine without but the German’s struggled.
The hike was only about 2.5 miles each way and was relatively easy going with the exception of the altitude gain. We started at around 2,500 meters and the gorillas were at 3,000 meters. It had rained hard overnight and the trail through the farmland was quite slick (black volcanic soil) and the path within the park was slick or through standing water/mud. Again, not really hard hiking though. I was wearing hiking boots but might opt for muck boots if I was to do it again.
In addition to the guide and porters, our group ultimately included five trackers as well. These are the individuals that do the hard work locating the gorillas each day so that we can visit them.
When we reached our family, the gorillas were largely hunkered down and moving as little as possible. It was still raining and you could see your breath at this elevation. I think we were with them for over an hour and I don’t think the silverback moved the entire time. A couple of mother/child pairs did provide some entertainment and one adult male shared a few interesting looks of disgust. Some photos.
After we all made it successfully back to the car, my travelling companion for the day and I headed back to the resort. I attempted the return trip without Google but after one brief wrong turn we acquiesced and used the GPS for the rest of the trip.