Gorilla Treking - Day 1
Trip Start
Jul 16, 2008
1
19
27
Trip End
Aug 12, 2008
We arose at 0530, dressed, ate breakfast and met Moses, our guide, at 0630 and drove to the Volcano National park HQ. We signed in and were assigned to a treking group. 5 UK teenagers, 1 UK teacher and us. 8 tourists + 1 guide (Francis) + 2 porters + 2 soldiers with weapons. We drove from the HQ to the trailhead and began walking. Very slowly up and up. First through fields of potatoes and other vegetables then to the rock wall and into the park. Then the rain forest jungle. Very thick, sometimes you see for 1 meter, sometimes 5, rarely more than 10. After 2 hours of steady hiking we linked up with the trackers who had been talking to our guide on the radio. Each gorilla family is assigned 5 trackers for monitoring and protection. They stay with the family from dawn to dusk each day. After rendezvousing with the trackers we left our packs and hiking poles. With the guide and 1 tracker we found the family of gorillas. This day we were lucky and saw members of two families who were visiting each other. A silverback, blackbacks, females and babies. You get remarkably close to the gorillas and are allowed to stay with them for 1 hour. The gorillas are very powerful, capable of moving very quickly through jungle that we believe impassable, remarkably peaceful and quiet. They are vegetarian and essentially live in a gigantic salad. They eat the plants throughout the jungle. After we left our group and were moving away a juvenile ran up to two of the British teenage girls and invited them to play by slapping one on the back and grabbing the other by the leg. The guide, Francis, knew exactly what to say and calmed the girls while the tracker chased the young gorilla away. Contact is not good for them or us!
