Location
South Africa
1° 27' 58.7124" S, 29° 30' 46.3752" E
This travel blog is dedicated to our very good friend Meryl Rivers who is recovering from a major back operation in Johannesburg. We hope you enjoy the photos and we wish you a speedy recovery.
We headed for the town called Kiniki in Parc des Volcans where the ORTN National Parks offices are and from where we will depart to the gorillas.
We set up camp on the lawns of the Kinigi Lodge which is ideally situated only about 500mtrs from the ORTN Offices. Once again camping is an add-on with very poor facilities. Fortunately they were not busy so they allowed us to use the bathroom of one of the rooms.
The following morning was a 5:30 start to be at the offices at 6:30 to check in.
The Gorilla Trackers getting their early morning briefing from the head warden. Everything was well organized and hot coffee was laid on. We all got put into groups according to the distance you are prepared to trek after the gorillas and which group you would like to see. There are only 15 groups of gorillas in the Rwandan mountains. Seven of them they allow visits by tourists and 8 of them are for research. The groups have different number of gorillas in each group and are spread out all over the different mountains. The group we were going to trek was called Susa, one dominant silver back in the group who is the leader, a female with the youngest baby of all the groups and in total 28 gorillas.
Our guide for the day was Edward. He takes you all the way up to the gorillas. The guards in the mountain that protect the gorillas are in radio contact with him all the time and guide him to where they are. Today the group we are going to track are at about 3000mtrs which means we will have to climb about a 1000mtrs from where we park our car.
It is about an hour’s drive from the offices to the bottom of the mountain.
Beautiful lush valleys on the way to the mountain.
You park your car in a village and then start the climb up the mountain. The first half an hour you pass lots of locals farming potatoes etc. Everyone is very friendly and lots of waving and smiles as you pass their houses.
Little girl en route to the gorillas.
They all wanted their picture taken.
Walking towards the mountains.
The stone wall was built to keep the buffaloes out of the local’s farms. We were told it will be about an hour’s climb from this point to the gorillas.
At the lower end of the mountain one passes through huge bamboo fields. The gorillas eat the young shoots which form part of their diet.
The bamboo came in very handy to hang to as it was very muddy and we slipping and sliding all over the place.
Some of rain forests one passes through on the way to the top of the mountain.
Toni in the thick vegetation one has to get through.
Stinging nettles all over the place.
The first sign that we were getting close to the gorillas – fresh gorilla phoo…..
When you reach the gorillas you are met with the guards who watch over the gorillas 24 hours a day. They are all very polite and well trained. Part of their job is to remove snares which the poachers set for the buffaloes. The gorillas sometimes to get snared instead of the buffaloes in the process. You leave your back packs with them and then you proceed towards the gorillas with only your camera.
We were fortunate that it was nice and sunny and they were eating in a nice open patch where we could get a good view of all of them.
The leader, a huge silver back.
The leader.
Another huge male.
Spreading for the cameras.
One of the black backs. They only become silver backs at adult stage.
As small as he is he can already take on a typical fierce silver back pose.
One of the young ones. The gorilla’s finger print is the markings on his nose. The whole group has been photographed individually and ‘nose printed’.
The mother with her baby of 8 months. The gestation period is the same as for humans, 9 months. Her son at her side is 4 years old. Gorillas can have up to 6 babies in a life time and they live to between 30 and 45 years.
Baby catching a ride on her mother’s back.
Beating his chest for the cameras.
Another pose.
They started to move further upwards which means the group coming to check them out the next day will have to climb further.
Once they start moving they all move.
Youngster climbing a tree.
Well, was in worth to pay $500 per person to see 28 of the last remaining 700 mountain gorillas in the world? Every dollar.
We are now off to Kampala, Uganda and then on to Addis, Ethiopia. We will post more blogs once we are there. Internet cafe's are hot, grubby, old computers, slow and irratic connections so updating these travel blogs require a lot of effort. Hope you enjoy them.
