We traveled to the small, landlocked country of Rwanda for one main reason, to go deep into the Virunga Mountains and trek to the mountain gorillas. This is the same place, and the same gorilla families that Dian Fossey brought to the attention of the world with her field work and book, "Gorillas in the Mist." Now, it was our time to enter the misty mountains of Rwanda, and have that same shared experience, or becoming part of the gorilla family for a short time.
Whenever I am here, I like to stay at a small, hidden, boutique lodge, called the Bishop's House. You would never know what incredible rooms, service, and food, await you inside from the almost hidden entrance to the historic place. The morning of our gorilla trek, the staff here outfitted us with gaiters to keep the mud off our pants, rain jackets for the rainforest showers, and a waterproof backpack to protect our cameras. They even stashed a packed lunch for us since you never know how long your hike will take you. We felt ready. Now we just needed to meet our ranger and find out which family of gorillas we would trek to this morning.
It turns out that our national park ranger's name was "Muhoza" which was also the name of the family of gorillas we were going to trek to. They are a family of 22, led by a big silverback named Marambo. This family was just formed relatively recently, when Marambo split off from another group to form his own on Dec 3, 2016. This family is usually relatively easy to access, due to their preferred location in the park, but the downpour of rain last night ended up making the trek quite a bit more difficult.
We made our way through the potato and permethrin farms with relative ease. Greg even turned to me towards the border with the forest and said, 'I thought it would be a little muddier than this.' We were lucky to see some golden monkeys at the border of the forest. These are a subspecies of blue monkey, even though the guides told me they weren't. After crossing the rock wall boundary of the national park, we encountered the real mud. At first we tried tip-toeing around it, but by the end people were sloshing through up to their ankles. One older gentleman who joined our hiking group (limited to 8), just about had a heart attack on the way up. Luckily the porters were there doing everything in their power to get him up the mountain.
The trek was one of the tougher ones I've done, thanks to the mud, and through very dense bush. Incredibly enough, when we reached the Muhoza gorilla family, the forest opened up into a sunny, level, bamboo area. From there, we hardly had to move at all. The entire family was around us, breaking bamboo, slowly eating, and bedding down for a mid morning nap. Marambo himself, slowly walked through the area, not the least concerned we were there. But the real hit of our hour with the gorillas, was the baby gorillas. They were playful, and shy, and curious, all at the same time. Their mom's kept them pretty close, but they were obviously very curious about these newcomers who were allowed into the family's area.
We had a mother with a four month old baby, walk right through the group, as she sat down and started to munch on some nettles. It was the same nettles that had stung me through my hiking pants earlier, so I felt a small bit of retribution. We spent a full hour being totally immersed in their world. We would watch one from a short distance, until another would come even closer. Then backing away, we would realize that now we are right next to the first one. The entire hour was like that, until we were totally surrounded.
There is just something so magical about being in the presence of an animal that is so humanlike. It is something to be experienced, and we had one heck of an experience.
Later in the afternoon, as we were slumming it in a private helicopter, courtesy of the President, we quietly took in our experience with the gorillas, as we watched the patchwork farms and terraced hillsides of Rwanda spread out below us. It is not something we will soon forget.
