The Gorilla Trek

We headed to the mountain area of Rwanda to see the rare gorillas in the wild. There are less than 1,000 gorillas in the mountain areas of Uganda and Rwanda. Over the years, gorillas have been hunted by some of the bands of men who roam these open areas with little or no legal interference. This is also the area where Dian Fossey of "Gorillas in the Mist" fame was murdered for her activism against the poachers.

The two countries governments have gotten serious about protecting these animals and have convinced the poachers that it is there best long term interest to not continue poaching. The former poachers now are scouts who find the troups of gorillas and use radios to tell the guides where the gorillas are so the guides can bring the people to the gorillas.

After meeting in the central gathering point, groups of tourists are separated by difficulty of climb. I was in the medium difficulty group and we headed out in vans to the put in point for our hike. The road to this point was extremely rough, tossing us all around the vehicle and referred to by our guides as an "African Massage"

The hike to see the gorillas starts out in farm land where people live in structures like this one...



We then went over a fence into the rain forest/jungle where our guides used machetes to clear the path. After walking on a rickety bridge, we began ascending on our search. The guides tracked the specific family of Gorillas we were going to see to a point in the middle of a vast open space that was severely overgrown. With the excitement of finding gorillas in the air, we didn't realize how difficult this climb was going to be. We scrambled uphill over mud slicked, tree root and sticker bush paths in the rain. Sounds easy, I know, but this was truly hard work. No remote controls, no tour buses, no paved paths, we were truly in the middle of the jungle. Our guide did have a rifle and the same team of guides visit the same family of gorillas every day so the gorillas are acclimated to the sounds and smells and won't attack or flee.

After an hour, we came upon the gorilla family and had to leave everything but our cameras and binoculars behind as we approached the gorilla family. This walk was now a decent on a slick path which leaves you no options but to grab at the sticker bushes and other growths to stem your forward progress.

So here is what we found...

The first one was truly a gorilla in the mist...



The rest are the best of the most candid shots and close-ups











Visitors are only allowed to send one hour per day with each family so we quickly consumed our time and headed back down the slippery trail and back to civilization. It was an amazing experience to see these beautiful animals in their native environment.