Gorillas in the Mist - Ruhengeri, Rwanda
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2008
1
27
Trip End
Jun 25, 2008
Ruhengeri,
Rwanda
Friday, June 20, 2008
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. The modern day Mary Kay salesman. Awesome.This could not, however, beat our nightlife experience of Kigali. Reaching the border, crossing over, waiting our 2 hours for a minibus, and then taking a 3 hour busride squashed in a minivan listening to I love Jesus music tunes (I kid you not, it truly was religious music professing the gospel of Jesus' love for humanity), we reached Kigali. Checking into a dump hotel costing us nearly 50 bucks for the nite, we headed to the restaurant/bar downstairs to get some grub and see if we could watch Euro Cup soccer. Jackpot. We scored both, and more... On top of the good food, and football match that was on tv, there was some type of lip synching/dance-off type competition on the stage in front of us. As various folks got up to lip synch Enrique Inglesias or Madonna or what not, the crowd was going wild for a select few performers. Among them Greg Ruth.... Yup, the muzungu (which Greg and I have been called everywhere, by everyone - means white guy, or whitey) was called to stage to perform a country hit at end of night. Classic.
From Kigali, where we watched the Boston Celtics win the national championship, and also watched key matches of the Euro Cup, we headed to Ruhengeri, Rwanda. Ruhengeri is in the western portion of the country, and known as the home to the mountain gorillas of Africa. Only 720 of these animals are left, and spread between Rwanda, the DRC and Uganda. Greg and I had shelled out our 500 USD permit fee several months ago, as we both knew this would be an opportunity of a lifetime
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. It did not disappoint.... For those of you who have gone on safaris, know that a day with the gorillas is for me worth every penny of the 500 bucks i shelled out. We headed out with our group of 8, which we had met that morning at the park, and with guides and armed soldiers (to protect or actually scare against buffalo or elephants, or poachers), we started hiking into the hills of the Volcanoes National Park. Incredible scenery, but we were there for the gorillas right??? Seeing these things at such a close range (within 3 feet, although we were warned not to get within 20+ feet of them) brought hairs to the back of my neck. The family of gorillas we encountered was the Kwitonda family, consisting of 1 silverback (the oldest and biggest male of the bunch), 2 blackbacks, 3 female adults and the rest adolescents and babies (babies are 3 years or under). The silverback is at times aggressive, as he hopes only to protect his women and baby gorillas from intruders into his 'home'. Thus, there was a warning given to the group that he at times will charge intruders to make this point. Who does he charge on our trek??? Of course me... As this 400-500 pound thing charged me, all I could think to do was run a step or two and dive to the ground. As guide Francois yells 'Dont run', coupled with some grunts and groans he aims at big Kwitonda (family is named after this big guy), I see this enormous arm being swung in my general direction. Fortunately, Kwitonda was only playing with me, and barely brushed my back with his huge fist
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. A definite adrenalin rush, whoa....Awesome, really... On a high from my recent brush with my newfound friend, we continued along, sitting and snapping shots at various of the 17 family members, all the while our guide Francois was talking Gorilla talk to the silverback. Apparently, he was asking him this time if there were any problems with our group being in his camp, about 6 feet from him, to which the silverback replied 'No problems'. Guess that is the gorilla equivalent of Hakuna Matata... The pictures here just dont do justice to this experience - exiting the forest after an hour, as observers can only stay 1 hour for the gorillas protection, the eight of us looked at each other in complete awe. This definitely is one of the most magical and memorable experiences of my life. Watching these creatures' interact amongst themselves as well as directly with us, identifying their particular mannerisms, and just sitting in peace with what could at some point in our lifetimes become an extinct species, was in my mind the most profound way to conclude my trip and Africa experience.
In actuality, that is not true. Tomorrow Greg and I will head back to the park for the annual ceremony 'Kwita Izina'. This ceremony takes place every year to name the newborn gorillas of each family located in the Volcanoes National Park. Apparently it is a big to-do, and we will be there at 9am along with thousands of others to hear the names of the 12 new gorillas of Rwanda
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. We have interest in this course of events, as the Kwitonda family has a newborn being named tomorrow. From there, I head back to Kigali and out tomorrow en route to Dubai, UAE. Checking with South African Airways several days back, I learned my flight was cancelled to Johannesburg and thus I have been rerouted thru Uganda where I will overnite tomorrow. From Entebbe I head to Joburg and onward to Dubai. Here I come Manish, ready or not. For those of you who dont know Manish, he is a T-bird buddy I was fortunate enough to meet during my years in Central Asia. Manish is now living and working in Dubai, so I will stick a couple days there before heading to Houston on June 25.
This is pretty much the end of my travel blog. At least with this one. There may be more to come, but for that I am not yet sure. I head home several days before heading off to Mexico to spend a week with my family at a nice resort. After this trip I think I need and deserve some rest! I realize the blog itself wasnt always interesting, and apologize for such. But hope overall it was enjoyed by a majority of the folks that I attached to it.
Cheers, from Africa...
Kyle
