Volcanoes NP - Gorilla action

Gorilla portrait

We arranged a last minute trip to see the gorillas as we were leaving Rwanda permanently.  It had been raining heavily the last month or so over December, but after checking the weather report for early January, it seemed as though we may get a break in the rain to visit Volcanoes NP.

Volcanoes seen through fields of Pyrethrum, which is used for mosquito repellent

So on a Thursday after a hasty arrangement with Arrive Africa Safaris (who were very good in organising the required permit and accommodation at short notice), it was off to Musanze from Kigali.  The trip only took about 2,5 hours before we arrived at the accommodation in the afternoon. The lodge itself was a budget one and nothing to write home about but there was some entertainment in the form of birds fluttering around the lodge which made for a pleasant way to spend time.

Volcanoes NP forest

It was up early the next morning for breakfast before we took the 40 minute drive to the Volcanoes NP headquarters to do the formalities and be assigned a gorilla family group.  This time it was the Sabyinyo group - a well known family headed by the equally famous Guhondo - the largest silverback gorilla on record weighing in at 220 kg.

Guhondo - the largest Silverback recorded

The Sabyinyo family has about 13 members although that changes with the births, deaths and migration within the group, and is popular because it is usually the closest family to the headquarters.  Since a “quick” hike had been requested, regardless of difficulty, it was the perfect family to be assigned to. But of course quick in gorilla time isn’t necessarily quick...

Receiving our briefing from our guide Francois (L) and his assistant

Tourists are broken into groups of 8 (there are 10 families, so altogether 80 people per day can visit the gorillas) to have a briefing with the guide and his assistant.  Our guide was Francois, a veteran at gorilla tracking that soon had us in stitches as he imitated the gorilla sounds and movements before getting us to do the same ;)

Francois demonstrating gorilla behaviour

After introductions were made, we returned to the vehicles and headed off to the designated zone from which we'd start the climb at the base of the mountain to catch up with the Sabyinyo family. As we walked through the fields towards the base of the mountain we could hear from the calls that Francois was making that the trackers still hadn’t found the gorillas.  

Francois and the trackers that keep tabs on the gorillas during the day

The trackers stay with the gorilla family all day, even though the tourists only spend an hour with them.  The trackers leave once the gorillas have settled down for the evening as they don’t move around at night, and then return early the next morning so that they know where they are.  From what we could work out, the gorillas had been on the move before the trackers had reached them, so they were out tracking them while we were just starting the trek up the mountain, hoping that they would have their location by the time we got close.

Now, it had been raining for the last couple months rather heavily across the East African region and Rwanda had been experiencing landslides due to all the rain, so we were hoping that we didn’t get too much rain during the trek as it would make it quite difficult to hike up the small mud paths.

One of the other couples on the trek had mentioned that people had done the gorilla tracking a couple of days previously and it had rained heavily non-stop. Luckily for us we started off in the sunshine and it managed to hold out the whole time that we were on the mountain, only raining in the afternoon on the way back to Kigali.

The bamboo forest at the base of the mountain

Despite the “quick” hike requested, it still took about 2 hours to get to the gorillas.  It probably would have been a bit quicker but we had to stop quite a few times to hack a new track through the jungle as the existing track was too flooded and slippery to walk through, as well as to let a few of the more unfit members rest a bit. 

Luckily there were porters to help us through the tricky bits while carrying our bags making life a bit easier for us. And Francois was excellent at keeping us entertained, amusingly demonstrating the different plants that the gorillas include in their diet.  

Being shown the wild celery that gorillas eat

Most of our walking was through a thick bamboo forest at the base of the mountain, a most unusual environment to go through.  It was interspersed with dense shrub, including stinging nettles making me happy that long pants and shirts were recommended when hiking.  It also made me pity the young woman in another group that had chosen to hike with short shorts on - she was going to have to deal with some itchy legs when she was done with her hike!

Nettle - extremely itchy if you get it on your skin

Finally the bamboo and rainforest started to intersect and that is where we finally met up with the trackers.  We had seen some fresh gorilla crap so knew that the family was close. After dropping everything off and taking only the cameras, we followed Francois through some thick undergrowth, where in the dense shrubbery we could see something moving - the first gorilla.

Just chilling

Unfortunately he was mostly hidden from view, and just as I was thinking that I hoped that wasn’t the best sighting we’d have, Francois suddenly told us to stand back from the path and stop taking photos - and there we got our first clear view of the mountain gorilla - and the silverback at that!

Chilling in the forest

This big hulking gorilla just sauntered past our group, who were stunned into silence, all staring at our first encounter of this massive primate.  And then following behind him was one of the smaller members of the family - a small gorilla - probably only about 6 months old just following (presumably) dad.

Francois quickly indicated that we should follow the two gorillas, and when they veered off the path, we carried on - soon coming to the gorilla that is set apart because he is bald - quite an odd sight.

Even gorillas go bald!

He was sitting with another youngster, who was entertaining himself by swinging on a vine. It was fascinating to watch this young gorilla - just holding onto the vine and swinging himself around in circles - something a child would do!  All the while the bald gorilla just patiently sat and watched both the youngster and us photographing the young one.

Leaving them, we headed along another path and came to a small clearing amongst the bamboo forest where most of the family had gathered, including the Silverback. What made it quite entertaining were that there were two young gorillas playing with each other, roughhousing just as children would do.

Catching a ride

There are plenty of vines that hang down from the bamboo and this makes for great playthings - the gorillas are constantly using them to swing themselves around - one of the young ones got himself caught in vine that created a noose around his neck - luckily he worked it out soon enough and stopped short of strangling himself.

While most of the family largely ignored us, one of the youngsters was quite bold, coming towards our group.  But as soon as he got too close Francois would make a certain noise and the youngster knew to back away. In fact, the guides are constantly “talking” to the gorillas, I assume it is to keep them calm and let them know that we are not a risk.  It worked the majority of the time ;)

Breakfast

We were very much aware that we were guests in the gorillas’ habitat and this was borne out every time the gorillas started down one of the paths we were standing on. Immediately the guides would tell us to put down the cameras and stand back to let the gorillas through.

Looking a bit confused

The gorilla family themselves were pretty unperturbed by our presence, largely ignoring us. In fact for a long time, the main silverback sat with his back to us, until he reminded us how big he actually is by mock charging us!

Who's watching who?

Recollection is a bit fussy due to the adrenaline of the moment, but I think one of the blackbacks annoyed the silverback by crashing through the bamboo branches, so the main man decided to lurch forward at us - luckily not too far towards us but it got the heart racing:)

Silverback

But it did have its advantage because it got the Silverback up, giving us some nice poses before he headed out of the forest and into a sunny patch. He then proceeded to ignore us again by showing us his ass before heading back into the gloominess of the forest.

He seems a lot bigger after he charges!

The same blackback who had annoyed the silverback seemed to be quite a troublemaker and tried his luck soon after.  He started walking along a path and so we all stood back as instructed, but when he reached the last person in the queue he suddenly stood on his hind legs and actually grabbed her around the shoulders and tried pulling her with him.

Back to ignoring us

Luckily it seemed that Francois had anticipated the behaviour (maybe he was known to do it beforehand?) and grabbed the woman from the other side, resulting in a quick tug-of-war before the gorilla let go and headed off to sit a few meters away - that was a heart stopping moment!

And then to be extra cheeky, a few minutes later the same blackback came to sit directly in front of the woman that he’d tried to grab and did a bit of posing - maybe he was looking for an American mate?!

Nice pose!

There were a lot of highlights watching this troupe, but probably the cherry on top was seeing the newest member of the family - a little mop of black hair in the arms of the mother gorilla turned out to be a 1,5 month old baby.

The newest member of the Sabyinyo family

He was absolutely adorable keeping close to mom but moving about on relatively shaky legs, compared to the surety at which his older cousins move.  

It is amazing how fast an hour can go when in the company of these fascinating creatures, especially when they are moving around.  This was a 180 degree contrast from the previous trip when the gorillas mainly just slept - this time around we could hardly keep up with them, they were moving around so much and we just went from one action sighting to the next - so you never can tell what to expect with the gorillas!

With our hour up we said goodbye to the trackers and made our way back down the mountain - it was quicker going back and within an hour we were out the park and back into the surrounding farmlands.

And luckily in all that time there was no rain - it would have been a lot more difficult had it been wet, so we were very fortunate that in the middle of all the heavy rain that Rwanda had received over the last couple of months that we’d had a respite to see the gorillas.

The vines make for great toys

It can be argued that it is a lot of money to pay to see some primates, but considering that a lot of the money goes back into conservation and to develop the surrounding communities, I would say that it is a worthwhile experience and well worth checking out some of our closest cousins.

Chilling with a Silverback