In 1979 David Attenborough was seen sitting with Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda. This was in the landmark series Life on Earth. At the time Sir David said, “There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than any other animal I know." This moment was recently voted the nations 2nd favourite Attenborough moment, behind the ridiculous Lyrebird which impersonated a chainsaw! From that moment I was hooked.
I’m a avid photographer and keenly follow the work of Andy Rouse, a world renown wildlife photographer. In April 2007 he posted details of a trip to Rwanda to see the Gorillas on his blog. This was no ordinary single day trek to see a band of Gorillas, this was 5 consecutive treks, (not that any trek to see the Gorillas is ordinary;) Somehow I managed to secure one of seven places on the trip. Fast forward to Feb 2008 and I’m on the plane to Kigali.
Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills, it’s a spectacularly beautiful country-subjective I know- made so by the extremely fertile soil. It’s a verdant paradise, where everyone seems to work the land. Rwandan people always seem to be smiling, they genuinely seem happy. Considering the recent genocide I found this truly remarkable.
Despite being one the mostly densely populated country on the planet, there is no rubbish to be seen, they have community service day once a month where everyone cleans up, the roads, parks, gardens, houses. An amazingly simple idea that works. Rwanda is a beautiful country filled with beautiful people, a real jewel. I implore you to go, the gorillas and the people would love to see you.
After a two and half hour drive up to the mountain town of Ruhengeri we finally reached our hotel, The Mountain Gorillas Nest hotel (p20 Africa brochure). This hotel is what I would call functional. clean, decent food and reasonably priced drinks. It is also closest to the Parc de Volcans, where the Gorillas hang out. It’s a 15 minute drive compared to the plusher hotels an hour away and when you have to be at the park for 0700 then every minute counts first thing in the morning.
The Mountain Gorillas live in the Virunga volcanic mountains which spread across the borders of Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, this collective is known as the Virunga Massive. Despite its name there were no indications of jungle raves being held anywhere nearby.
In October 1902, Captain Robert von Beringe (1865-1940) shot two large apes during an expedition .One of the apes was recovered and sent to the Zoological Museum in Berlin, where Professor Paul Matschie (1861-1926) classified the animal as a new form of gorilla and named it Gorilla beringei. In 1925 Carl Akeley, a hunter from the American Museum of Natural History, convinced Albert I of Belgium to establish the Albert National Park to protect the animals of the Virunga mountains.
George Schaller began his 20 month observation of the Mountain Gorillas in 1959, subsequently publishing two books: The Mountain Gorilla and The Year of the Gorilla. Shedding light on their social organization, life history, and ecology.Following Schaller, Dian Fossey began what would become a 13 year study in 1967. Fossey made new observations, completed the first accurate census, and established active conservation practices, such as anti-poaching patrols. [I nicked this from Wikipedia but it’s exactly the same as the guide told the story, or by Day 5 how we were telling the guide!]
A census in 2003 revealed there were just 380 Gorillas in the Virunga Massive.There is another collective in the Bwindi Impeneterable National Park in Uganda and these total around 320. With are just 700 Mountain Gorillas remaining, they are critically endangered. After the chimpanzee they are our closest animal relative, they are our cousins.
You visit the gorillas in groups of 8 and our band of 8 trekked five days to five different groups (Bands) of Gorillas. The trek lasted between an hour and 3 hours each way. Its hard work, so if you go , train otherwise you’ll be knackered and when you only get one hour with the gorillas, time is precious.
You must stay at least 7 metres away from the gorillas to ensure you don’t transmit airborne diseases. That’s fine for humans but no one tells the gorillas this. Adult females, juveniles young black backs, babies , lots of oohs and ahhhs but silence descends when the big fella is around especially if he is moving. The Silverback is the most awesome creature I have ever seen in the wild (yes more than polar bears). Weighing up to 500lbs he is immense. He knuckled dragged his way past me at less than a metre away, breathtaking. No photos when gorillas are this close- rules, you don’t want to spook him. Silverbacks are gentle giants, a caring dad who looks after his family,so like most animals its wise to just make sure you don’t come in between him and his loved ones!
Gorillas are primarily vegetarian, eating some 200 varieties of plant and fruit. They eat a lot and then sleep. Ah siesta time, that’s when we wanted to be with the gorillas specifically for photographic needs. Feeding gorillas are moving gorillas, not easy to photograph. In fact they are not easy to photograph at all, big black shapes on green backgrounds in very difficult light- almost impossible if the sun is shining! This is because there is too much contrast in the image, the bright light blows out the highlights when you’re trying to expose correctly on the dark shape. But we had the pro with us and now we all have great photos. Top photo tip, ensure you have high shutter speeds above 1/125th sec even if that means cranking the ISO (ASA in old film money) up to 800 or higher. On top end digital slrs there is minimal noise (grain) even at ISO 2500, which is an extraordinary technical achievement.
One fantastically funny moment with the silverback sprawled out sleeping with an adult female and her baby by his feet, he let rip the loudest fart I’ve ever heard -you should have seen the look his girlfriend gave him, utter disgust. Just like home!
5 treks 5 extraordinary experiences.