Jonathan, Laura, and Matt insisted that we had to arrive early, very early, to get our choice of group. So Celestin picked us up at 5:15 a.m. for the 25 kilometer ride to the National Park. It took well over an hour to make it down if not the worst rutted roads we have ever been on, something closely approximating them. We only made one wrong turn. What I found really strange was how few animals we saw in the countryside as we drove through at dawn. This is the middle of Africa, near the Equator. I expected the land to be teeming with wildlife.
We were of course the first people there. Checked in and expected an orderly assignment of groups. There are 5 gorilla families currently residing in Rwanda's national park. There used to be only 4, but a group from the Congo has moved over the border because the food supply is better. The smallest group has about 12 gorillas, one silverback, the largest, the Susa group, 37. The gorillas exist as family groups, headed by the most alpha-male silverback. The breakdown by age category is: 0-3 years: babies; 3-6 years: juvenile; 6-8 years: sub-adult; 8-12: black back; 12-45 years (gorillas live to about age 45): silverback, if male; black back if woman.
The gorillas migrate, on a constant search for a food supply that will feed the whole family. They eat bamboo shoots, wild celery, mint, and another vegetable. They go from bamboo grove to bamboo grove, uprooting and consuming, then moving on. Silverbacks will consume about 30 kilograms (66 lbs) of food per day. Since bamboo shoots and wild celery do not weigh a great deal, you can begin to imagine how much volume is being consumed.
About that orderly assignment of groups: The tour guides pulled in about half an hour after our arrival and began filling all groups with their clients. There are 8 people to a group, plus one guide and three armed soldiers "to protect us from the buffalo". When we protested that we would like a choice before all groups filled, a very nice guide directed us to a park service person who asked which group we would prefer. We chose the Susa group, which is the one Dian Fossey had worked with. It is the largest, the most fun, and of course the furthest hike up, up, up the mountain trails. The prospective trek was two hours, I was closely questioned about my ability to make the climb, and of course said there would be no problem. I forgot about how well I usually do at high altitudes.....
We drove out of the park, back through Ruhengeri, to a further point of the park about 15 kilometers down yet more dirt roads. We have by now been slogging down dirt roads for a number of hours -- over an hour to get in, a slightly faster trip back out to Ruhengeri, and now another half hour or so to get to our starting trail. It's about 9 a.m. At our destination, we were surrounded by the usual crowd of small children appearing out of the atmosphere to look us over. Began trek through the high meadows. People grew potatoes, and in the same field a daisy-looking plant (pyrithrium) that is a basis for a natural insecticide. The owner of Gorilla House, a lovely hotel near the park that we managed not to stay at (choosing, instead, the hotel that the guide book labelled "scruffy, but with hot water", to be at the AIDS conference with Molly), pays the potato farmers to sharecrop this product along with their potato crops, collects the flowers every two weeks, and produces the insecticide from them.
Kids continue to greet us all along the climb. Up...up.....up....... I was not making it. Had to stop every few meters, hyperventilating like mad, til I just sat down. Everyone in the group was incredibly nice. They had me walking in front, right behind the guide, to set the pace of the group. Philip pulled out his asthma inhalent, made me take two puffs, and fed me a power bar, slowly. That all helped immeasurably, and I was able to go on, setting a still slow, but not totally unreasonable pace. Basically turned a 2 hour trek into a 3 hour one, but we did make it.
Reached the top of the meadows, entered a bamboo forest. The gorillas eat bamboo, wild celery, etc
for 4 hours each morning, nap for about 2 hours, eat some more. We expected to reach the gorilla
family just as they were going into their late morning nap period. After the bamboo forest came the
fields of nettles -- stinging through your clothes. Didn't matter if you wore long pants, long
sleeved shirts, as we had. What you needed was a couple of layers of these, to insulate.
Still climbing. Then we saw a huge, lovely plant with broad leaves, sort of looked like a giant
aloe. Actually, it may have been the same family. Turned out to be an antidote to nettle stings!
So we each cut a frond or two to treat the stings we had and the ones we were still to receive.
Many eucalyptus plants on the mountain. Philip informed us that when Addis Ababa was originally settled, the city was running out of firewood and they were about to move the capital when someone discovered that the eucalyptus tree would grow very quickly and do well in that climate. So trees were imported, groves planted, and the city saved.
We plowed on through the nettle fields, at one point having to crawl through the foliage on all fours. One member of our armed escort went in front to scout out the path, two more behind. Apparently it wasn't only buffalo, also rampaging elephants, that we were allegedly being protected from. Finally reached the second level bamboo forest. The guide was in touch with the trackers via radio. As the gorillas migrate from place to place, the trackers track their route, and route the guides to the general location -- which is how we are able to climb so directly to them. When we began the day the gorillas were somewhere around 4000 meters up, but had turned and come down to about 3300 meters. More climbing, steep again, another asthma medicine dose. Just as I was ready to collapse, the guide said: "Listen", hooted out, a tracker returned his call, and 2 gorillas, a black back and a young silverback, tumbled into view and began posturing to us, playing to the audience like a couple of hams in an opening vaudeville act: striking poses, acting up, gambolling with each other.
We are supposed to remain a minimum of 7 meters away from the gorillas, but clearly no one had told these guys that. We folleld them to a sort of clearing. They continued posturing, posing, playing, clearly having fun. Ran at us to show who's boss. One of them yanked up a bamboo shoot by the roots, tossed it at us as he dashed by -- just to remind us who is really in charge. They would stop to eat, turn a profile as if to say "have you got that picture yet?" "okay, I'll hold the pose a little longer." turn the head, in case we wanted another profile.
Then, performance over, they led us on toward the rest of the family. Our first sighting, from about 4 feet away, was mama with twins on her back. Twins are exceptionally rare in the gorilla world. Mama is food, transport, playground. The twins were playing. This was the rest period, gorillas resting, some eating, some yawning, kids playing.
After a few minutes observing the twins we went a short distance further and suddenly found ourselves in
the middle of 37 gorillas, stretching both up and down the mountain, all ages. Totally surrounded by
gorillas. Totally awe-inspiring. As far as the eye could see, there were gorillas.
The
giant silverback is 25 years old. The oldest gorilla in the pack is a female, age 29, who was 2
years old when Dain Fossey worked with this group. She is currently pregnant with what will be her
fifth child. The other gorillas respect her mightily. There are 4 silverbacks, 1 dominant, 3
submissive to him, but each with his own status as to where he walks when the group is on the move, what
his obligations are.
The Sabena group, which Matt, Laura, and the Leverings visited had the largest silverback and the tiniest
baby. When the baby came too close for the silverback's comfort, he uprooted a giant bamboo,
approached the visitors, and drew a line in the dirt, then marched back. Our silverback seemed
considerably more relaxed. He yawned mightily, chomped some bamboo, and sort of said
"Welcome. Don't I have a lovely family. Please meet and enjoy them." We stood
still, frantically taking pictures, and all seemed relaxed to have us among them. It was magical!
We're allowed to visit with the gorillas exactly one hour. Just as the tracker said "time to leave", papa silverback abruptly stood up, glared at us, turned his back and began stalking up the mountain, with the entire family falling into line behind him. Sort of "visit's over, guys. Get out NOW". The message was clear, the timing amazing. He knew we were there for one hour, and was happy to welcome us and share his family for exactly that much time. The communication with us throughout the entire visit was amazing. There was no doubt who was in charge. They were, and we were their honored guests for the agreed-upon time.
It was so exciting and uplifting to meet them. All we had done in Rwanda prior to this visit had been so emotionally heavy -- to have such a spirit-lifting day was a joy. The most incredible part of our gorilla visit was being so totally in their midst. I had expected to be standing and staring at them, an observer, watching them react and interact as we tried not to disturb their space but really did -- sort of a glorified zoo without bars. I had never in wildest contemplation realized with what grace and charm they would welcome us into their home and their lives, and allow us to be among them -- not angry, not scared, not protective, but self-assured and hospitable.
Going down was a joy, by path, not nettle fields. Sort of like the kid's game "Let's go on a bear hunt", as you go slowly cross-country til you meet the bear, then streak back over the same terrain at warp speed. Back at the cars, we were once again surrounded by the children, all asking for our empty water bottles, excited and delighted to receive them.
We drove to Lake Kivu, a volcanic lake which forms the border with Congo. We had reservations at a
Catholic guest house, a working farm in the town of Kagufi. Matt, Laura, and Jonathan kept raving
about the peace and serenity, and we could just feel ourselves unwinding as we dined by candlelight (yes,
the electricity went out three times during dinner), and wandered along the shore.
The next morning
we swam, read, walked along the country roads (with the usual contingent of children), photographed the
cows and an occasional dugout canoe. The cows were so well cared for. The herder would
lovingly rub them down with straw as they were grazing. There were strangely shaped objects in a
number of tree branches -- sort of like drying banana fronds draped over logs. Turns out they are
apiaries. There is a honey industry in this part of the country, and the nuns, as well as having a
full working farm, raise bees.
As we came into Kagufi we passed the Bralirwa bottling plant, a consortium that uses the available water from the lake for bottling Primus (Rwandan beer that comes in gigantic bottles), Guinness, Mutig, Fanta, Sprite, Coke, and Heinekin.
Visited the town of Gisenyi, and passed the UN refugee camp on our way home. Very desolate. This camp houses the refugees currently fleeing the Congo. We had originally planned to cross over into Congo to visit the lava fields of Gomar, but bagged that idea in favor of swimming and lolling by the lake. A wonderful decision that left us in good shape to fully process the Gacaca court hearing tomorrow (Saturday) morning. We ended a wonderful day by arriving back in Kigali in time to take Matt and Laura for Indian food.
Final thoughts and reading list to come.
Sarel and Philip