Rwanda -December 2007
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2007
1
8
Trip End
Jul 11, 2009
Ruhengeri, Rwanda
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Venomous Lakes and Expensive Chalets
On our first day near the national park our driver, Gaston, took us to see two nearby lakes: Lake Burera and another one, or maybe it was only one and he lied. The lakes don't have any fish in them as there are gasses from the volcanoes. The views from Virunga lodge were quite nice, but unless you have a lot of cash to burn, I wouldn't stay there. Our driver knew all the guys working at the lodge and quoted us $500 US dollars per night to stay there. It was nice, but no thanks!
Close encounters and flatulence
They call it tracking the mountain gorillas, but it is more like taking a walk through the forest. The real trackers will radio the guide with the location of the group and then you just walk towards them.
The experience was amazing. We had some close encounters, but mainly they stayed a good distance away.
We met the guides, our main guide's name was Olivier and was great, and were assigned a gorilla group at a little after 7am. Ours was the Umubano group, which means friendship in English. The current silverback of this group, Charles, left one of the other groups to start his own. A real gorilla entrepreneur. Either that or he was just sexually frustrated as only the dominant male of a group has the right to mate with the females.
The ride from the national park headquarters to the start of our hike took about 30 minutes. Most of it was on a road that gave us a wonderful "African massage".
We walked through some fields until we came to an opening in the stone fence that surrounds the national park. The fence is there to keep the elephants, buffalo, and other wildlife from ravaging crops. As we neared the opening, we saw a small troupe of golden monkeys in the trees. They fled before we could get close enough to get any decent photos.
The walk up into the national park started on paths made by the buffalo. It was quite a task to try to avoid stepping in the mud, the giant piles of buffalo dung, and the gigantic earthworms. The earthworms were easily a foot or more in length!
As we climbed, we entered into bamboo, which made the trekking a little slower. As soon as the guides told us we were close and would have to leave our hiking sticks and bags/backpacks behind you could hear the pop pop pop sound of one of the gorillas beating his chest. Only meters later we saw our first gorilla.
The guides tried to maneuver us around the first gorilla, one of the 8-year old males. Most of the group got by before he decided to show us who was the real boss. He pushed his way through the bamboo and the guide to me to stop. I did and the gorilla went right up to the guide and gave him a half push half swat. I was immediately behind the guide and Liliane was a meter away on the other side. I saw everything, even the hand hitting him in the chest. The gorilla turned and the guide told me to start moving. I didn't need to be told twice. The gorilla sat about a meter away from Liliane and stared at her for about three minutes. Liliane and one other person in our group had to backup and move around to find another route past him. Geez, we weren't there five minutes and he was already moving in on my woman.
The bamboo forest was very dark and it was impossible to take any good pictures while the gorillas were deep in it. I put the ISO on my camera to 3200, but I still needed to try shooting at 1/15th of a second. We watched the group for some time. It was amazing to see the babies playing in the vines and tumbling around. One of the group's babies was only around ten months old. The babies were also a cause for concern as they would approach without caution and should they get too close the others might move to defend them. As they babies approached we would often have to retreat.
After a while the gorillas had eaten enough and retired to an area of the bamboo that was more open. There we could take some pictures. Even there it was difficult at times as the distance was great or there was a lot of vegetation in the way. The negative part was this happened when we only had about twenty minutes left of our hour to watch them.
The silverback, Charles, was huge! His head was enormous. Because of the way he was seated we couldn't see the white on his back, but he sat there, three meters away, and just watched us. He didn't seem worried about us at all, and rightly so: he weighs about 200Kgs!
While watching one young gorilla clap his hands, beat his chest, and pick his nose, Charles showed his disdain by releasing a rather huge amount of flatulence. I thought he was growling! Well, he was, but not by using his mouth.
The trip down was much faster than the one up. Thankfully so as the sky opened up and started to throw rain and hail upon us. We walked as fast as we could back to the cars.
We would whole-heartedly recommend this trip to anyone who doesn't mind the minimum of a one-hour trek through bamboo forests and mud at around 2700m above sea level. We would come back here and do this again in a heart-beat. They were so human-like that is it impossible to actually call them animals. Perhaps near-humans is better terminology.
For the trip, bring your raingear, good hiking shoes, gaiters (to keep out the safari ants and stinging nettles), a raincover for your backpack, and warm clothing. Bring more than one battery for your camera and lots of memory cards. A good, fast, zoom lens would also be worthwhile. I used a 100-400mm lens and had times that I wished I had an even longer zoom, but it would also have been nice to be a stop or two faster. Give and take.
Sleep and confusion
We stayed at the hotel called Gorilla Nest Lodge. It is a nice place, not too expensive, but not all that cheap either.
The rooms were quite large, but there isn't a lot in them either. The food at the restaurant is pretty hit-and-miss. Often they have a buffet, but the food can be cold, or gone. Also, take as many Rwandan Francs as you think you will need for your stay, and then bring a little extra. The hotel front desk told us that they could change US dollars for Rwandan Francs for us, then later changed their quoted exchange rate to one that was a lot worse. It didn't matter as they didn't have enough to change one hundred dollars, or twenty, or ten. Maybe they could have changed a five, or one dollar bill, but by then I got tired of the blank stare of non-comprehension. I would recommend the hotel to stay at, but bring enough local currency to tide you over, just in case. Oh, and bring shampoo.
Odd N Ends
The trip from Kigali to the Gorilla Nest Lodge was quite interesting. Everywhere you look there are people and farms. All the fields you can see are being worked. As well, up near the national park all the land is farmed. We were told that around 90% of the land in Rwanda is farmland. That doesn't leave a lot left for national parks and cities.
Strange enough, there was a lot of eucalyptus growing, and wheat. Who would have thought they would have been farming wheat in Rwanda.
There are also a huge number of children in the country. Everywhere you look kids are at the side of the road yelling: Hello mzungu, or bonjour mzungu, or just screaming mzungu and pointing wildly like we were crazed leppers.
Comments
FANTASTIC
Sure hope that someday I get to have the same experiences that you had on this trip.
Bumpy