Face-to-Face With The Mountain Gorillas
Loading ...Mountain Gorilla Highlights:
I just completed The Most Punishing Hike Of My Life, but was rewarded with one of the most amazing experiences of my life: I came face-to-face (within 6 inches) with a 400 pound Black Back Mountain Gorilla, (an adult, but sexually immature male of about 9 years old).
On the morning of my trek (Sunday, June 22) I took a moto-taxi to the tourist office at the entrance to Volcanoes National Park in Northern Rwanda at 7AM. After producing my permit and filling out the paper work I found myself in a group with a guide and 6 other tourists (3 from Malibu, CA). We were told we were going to visit the Amahura family of Mountain Gorilla on the Bikoke Volcano (one of several in the park and one that straddles the border with the DR Congo). We drove in 4×4s from the tourist office to the base of Bisoke, where our guide pointed out the ridge where Dian Fossey had her home base for 17+ years until she was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1985 just as we set out around 8AM.
The Black Back Mountain GorillaThere are 5 separate families of mountain gorillas that can be viewed in Rwanda (plus 5 more that are reserved for research purposes) and only 8 people are allowed to visit each family for a total of 40 permits per day. Each family of gorillas contains a single Silver Back (mature, dominant male) and has a total of between 9 and 33 gorillas in it (females, juveniles, infants and Black Back males). The largest group of 33 is called the Susa group but as it is also the more rigorous trek to reach them I opted for one of the closer families and we were told that as the gorillas were an hour away the day before the trek would take more like 1 1/2 to 2 hours to find them since they had moved a bit. This sounded hard on the steep slopes of the volcano, but quite doable and less strenuous than the 4-5 hour trek to see the Susa group.
The first stage of hiking took us about an hour through rolling hills and pastures to the base of the volcano and was not overly strenuous, but I was fully aware the worst was yet to come. Once we got to the base of volcano our Rwandan guide Olivier called on his radio up to the trackers who had been on the gorilla trail since early morning and he was informed that they were farther up the volcano than expected and it would take 2 more hours to reach them but after 3 months of backpacking I was feeling fairly strong and felt I could handle 2 more hours even on what I expected to be much steeper slopes but I also realized this would be the first real test for my new ankle ligaments and tendon that were reconstructed barely a year before. From the bottom of the volcano the second stage became a fair amount steeper and the trail narrowed from the jungle overgrowth. This second stage had some steep sections but those were broken up nicely with more gradual ascents as the trail zig-zagged around ridges and then up again. In some places during this stage we had to nearly crawl through bamboo tunnels or shuffle sideways around narrow logs with a steep drop/slide below.
As I had expected the trek to be fairly rough I had taken some precautions to stave off exhaustion as long as possible and had eaten a few bananas for the potassium, taken an aspirin to thin my blood and increase my oxygenation and blood flow, a double shot of my asthma inhaler to prevent chest constriction and I had amply water, snacks and even ibuprofen should my muscles get sore. As we had started at about 8000 feet (2500 m) and were ascending quite rapidly the air quickly became even thinner and despite the preventative burst of my asthma inhaler and aspirin I started to lose my breath every 15 minutes or so and had to slow and rest to recapture it to which the rest of the group (in much better shape and mostly much younger) were thankfully quite understanding.
At the next stage the trail (to use the term extremely loosely) turned straight up hill on muddy and slippery slopes that any Westerner would use a ladder to climb. There was not much to the trail and only the occasional muddy foot hold of the guide and porter, who helped in several instance by literally pulling me up by the arm. The guide kept saying we were almost there and he could hear the trackers but it was little solace as this third stage lasted for 75 minutes or so on the steepest and most slippery of terrain as we ascended up from 10,000 to 11,000 feet and the air thinned out further, forcing my rest breaks to come every 5-8 minutes (in which time we would climb the equivalent of 2 or 3 stories up the muddy slope). When we finally reached the trackers they told us to leave our bags and walking sticks (no food to temp or weapon to threaten the gorillas) and the trackers and guide started to hack an entirely new trail straight up and around the ridge as they said we were “quite close” now to the gorillas. In reality that meant that we had another 45 minutes across the most brutally punishing terrain I had ever traversed and at over 11,200 feet above sea level! Our path wove through groves of stingy nettles and with only the slippery, mist-shrouded cut vines and plants to stand on with a crazy steep slope dropping down a few hundred feet below. We wound around slowly in the thin air and over and around steep drops to find our way down and back up a small ravine and climb up one last massively steep slope and just when I told myself for the one hundredth time that I was going to collapse…we spotted the first gorilla!
Moving around this gorilla we followed the trackers and came into a more gentle slope in the midst of 5 or so gorillas, including a mother and her 8 month old baby (pictured above). As everyone scrambled to get into optimal photo position I was boxed out and every time I came closer the mother and baby would back off into the bush further obscuring my view. After 10 minutes or so they disappeared just as 2 other gorillas became more active in the trees above. Then the mother returned from a different angle and literally walked right towards me, so the guide had me stop taking pictures and move out of the way and she passed within a few feet. Then the baby came back from another direction to stop within 5 feet and continue feasting on leaves with little regard to our presence. We watched the baby eat and frolic for a good 25 minutes before we spotted the massive Silver Back eying us from a distance of about 35 feet (11 m). As we were watching the Silver Back watch us, the baby rolled away and disappeared into the bush. The guides urged us to move CLOSER to the Silver Back and as those leaders in front got closer it moved off into the bush, sparing me from any unnecessary exertion further into the jungle on the steep and slippery slopes.
Just as our attention was on the retreating Silver Back the guide and trackers told us to turn around and we saw a massive Black Back gorilla (an adult male that is sexually immature) coming slowly right towards ME! As I was taking pictures the male came closer and the guide sternly directed me to stop taking photos (which can be seen as aggressive behavior) and sit down, which I did immediately. Then he had me creep down the slope a few feet just as the Black Back moved past me, within 6 inches. I was VERY tempted to reach out and touch this amazing creature but I resisted the urge and followed the advice of the guide, not making eye contact at that very close and potentially dangerous range. I had heard that the gorillas will often touch the humans gently but sadly that was not to be and after staying for 45 seconds or so the Black Back rose up the slope to continue feasting on leaves, only 7 or 8 feet away. After another 5 minutes or so we were informed that our hour with the gorillas was up and by the conservation regulations that was all we were permitted, so we sadly left these amazing creatures to start the very descent I had been dreading, around 1PM.
Before we could start our descent we had to crawl, climb, scramble and scamper back up the machete cleared path just to make it to the super steep, barely visible trail. After about 35 minutes I reached back to the point where we had left our bags and was starting to fear I might not make it down without collapsing or injuring myself in my fatigued state. After a brief brake for a banana (more potassium for my screaming muscles), water and an ibuprofen we started a much more rapid descent since the other 3 Americans had to hurry back to catch their ride to Kigali. I was fortunate to have both my walking stick and the porter again to lean on in the steepest and most slipper sections and despite a few sliding close calls we managed to make it to the bottom in about 2 1/2 hours, what took 4 hours to ascend. Fortunately for me the farther we went down the more oxygen the air had, which was a welcome relief to the nightmare ascent where the reverse had been my curse and almost undoing. On the lowest sections of the volcano slope my legs were trembling with each step and I struggled to keep them from collapsing until finally we made the gradual descent of the first stage and walking was quite a bit easier and I was able to make it back to the car without any more rests or close calls.
Despite the sheer effort of all my physical and mental strength and the most punishing trek of my life (making the Great Wall climb and the rear mountain at Macchu Piccu seem like walks in the park by comparison), the encounter with the gorillas and the face to face meeting with the Black Back and close proximity with the gorilla baby were among the top few experiences of my life. Had the guide told us in the morning that we had a 4 hour trek ahead of us I would have likely found a closer family to visit (some were only between 30 and 45 minutes away from where the cars park), but through the hardship and perseverance I found the encounter all the more rewarding and fortunately I have some amazing photos to prove it (the lighting in the misty jungle proved quite difficult to photograph). These are truly memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Fucking awesome! No other way to put it.
Thank you for sharing. Your narration is wonderful. You are a great story teller.
Carry on, Buckeroo!