Hotel Muhabura Ruhengeri

... closer and he soon disappeared followed by female with an infant. We also spotted another tiny infant off feeding in a tree.<br><br>That was our hour up but just as we started to leave the juvenile we&#8217;d seen first by the black back came down the tree and stopped to look at us quizzically.<br><br>All too soon it seemed to be over but what an amazing experience and what fantastically wonderful animals. We were told the wild gorillas are quite scared of humans ...

... Robert, the next student, pinched his cheeks twice when Victor asked him to give me a name. Yep, my chubby cheeks follow me round the world and whilst I&#8217;d have preferred high cheek bones to protruding fleshy cheeks full stop, hey ho! And Victor explained Robert wanted to give me a name that reflected my elevated chubby cheeks, fruit of the smile strapped across my face.<br><br>Before I knew it Victor was spelling out my name to the kids and I was going round ...

... Sabana, passed away earlier this year due to sickness. We&#8217;re shown a photo of each of the members, which includes 5 &#8220;kids&#8221;. Silverbacks are born after a 9 month gestation period (whaddayaknow, just like us) and weigh in at around a mere 1.5kgs. The females will attain an average weight of 100 kgs with some males getting as heavy as 200. They live in &#8220;families&#8221; with a leader and those males losing their rank can spend some days or weeks, months ...

... traveling in remote places. These were the major roads into anywhere and they were bad. Not surprising at all! The road would also change from paved roads to dirtish/clayish roads which meant even more potholes. It&#8217;s kind of annoying but if you think about it, it&#8217;s all these people have got. Most of the people are walking from point A-B and a lot of times are carrying items on their heads. I&#8217;ve seen everything from boulders, to plates ...

... order to allow you to spend one hour in their company. This is strictly controlled as their numbers are so low, one mountain gorilla to every 10million humans. They are the most expensive animals to visit on earth but the price of the permits is keeping them and their habitat alive and safe from poaching. Not one of us begrudged a cent.<br><br>The gorilla families stay reasonably within their territory but this can still vary considerably. Trackers go out ...

... hike to a small family group living quite close to the grave of Dian Fosse. We have organized a litter to carry one of us up the mountain due to severe asthma and the altitude (about 10,000 feet).<br><br> The walk today is delightful except for the pesky stinging nettles that somehow manage to zap us even through clothing. We are told by our gorilla tracking guide that we must suffer in silence if we get hit by anything ...

... problem is seeing if there were any permits ($400 versus $500 in Rwanda) left for tomorrow and arranging transport of a Land Rover for $200 (which was way too much for me). So we headed to the permit office to have once again another road block...no permits for tomorrow. The good news is that there is a guy named Kennedy that has one with no name and Roger knows the guy. The bad news is that he can't reach him by phone. Finally we find someone that knows him and has his ...

... our group we headed off to our first campsite... a mere couple of hours away. Pitched the tent, which we&#8217;ve already mastered now and headed off to our first &#8216;activity&#8217; visiting the home of Joy and Elsa the lion (Born Free) for High Tea.<br><br>A few beers consumed that night while checking out the resident Hippo&#8217;s, our first wildlife, who come in from Lake Naivasha to eat inside the camp. No problems about safety though as there was an ...

... tracking. If you did the math, that's $20,000 per day they are making to help with the conservation of the park and the gorillas. There are five habituated groups of gorillas Volcanoes National Park, so they assign 8 people to each group based on age and fitness level. Some of the treks are quite flat and easy while others are more strenuous. The gorillas don't move around too much from day to day so the park sends ...

... tiny cement building, with somewhere to sleep and sit only, I think they must cook outside. Her mother has polio as well as a disease which makes her faint often. Because she fainted while cooking she was burned badly. Her father is not in the picture. Despite her living conditions you can tell that she is much healthier than the other children where she lives. Most of the other children have protruding stomachs from malnutrition , are covered ...