Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
The Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is the World’s most endangered ape, with about 880 animals left on the planet. They are only found in small portions of protected afro-montane forests in north-west Rwanda, south-west Uganda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Our visit was to Virunga Volcanoe National Park in Rwanda where there are 20 habituated groups, 10 of which are available for tourist visits and 10 restricted to researchers. Each day only 8 visitors are permitted to visit a Gorilla group for no more than 60 minutes. The groups are spread over a very large area along the upper slopes of the volcanoes. Depending on where the trackers find the Gorillas on any particular day your hike could be pretty strenuous, muddy and slippery.
On our first trek we visited the Hirwa group which has 18 Gorillas with one Silverback (large mature dominate male), while our second trek was to Kwitonda group with 23 gorillas including 3 Silverbacks. Once the trackers find the Gorillas we hike up thru the bamboo forests to where they are and get to spend an hour with them. Usually the gorillas just ignored us although we had a number of incidents where they would touch or brush you as they passed by. One of our group got a mild play bite on the leg and one woman was grabbed and thrown to the ground, no one was hurt and it made for an exciting visit. One of the fun things were a lot of the Gorillas were drunk on bamboo (from a sugar high) falling down and rolling around. You just had to laugh. Overall visiting Mountain Gorillas up close (within a meter or less) ranks as one of our most incredible wildlife experiences. The trip was led by the very experienced Ged Caddick owner of "Terra Incognita Ecotours" http://www.ecotours.com/ We would highly recommend them for small group EcoTours.

"Africa Wanderings" Videos & Time Lapse
“Linda’s Mountain Gorilla Encounter” Video: http://youtu.be/Y_GKxzRrokg

For purchase or for usage rights contact: Bill Klipp, billklipp@wkimages.net