Gorilla trekking 2
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2006
1
6
100
Trip End
Dec 11, 2006
Kinigi, Rwanda
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Hello again! I get to tell you about our second day of gorilla trekking. I must admit that after the first day (a) I was shattered and (b) I wasn't sure if we could improve on what we had seen the day before. I was wrong. We arrived in the morning and were assigned to the Sabyinyo group which is a much smaller group of about 10 gorillas. It is special because it has the largest silverback gorilla in Rwanda. This time there were only two other people in our group - a couple of Italian women (one of whom looked a wee bit like Renee Zellwegger). After the effort of the day before we decided to get a porter to carry our rucksack. This didn't really seem worthwhile after we reached the edge of the forest in just 10 minutes. Ah well. We then had a near vertical climb for about 10 minutes through thick forest/jungle until we saw our first gorilla. It was difficult to see them at first as the jungle was so thick but then they all started moving to one area as it was nearing their rest time. We climbed up a bit more till we reaced the clearing they were all in and it was absolutely amazing.
We were standing about 10 feet from the silverback (which was enormous and looked just like King Kong) who lay on his front watching us with his head leaning on his hand, just like a human. He watched our every move. The rest of the adult gorillas were lying around eating, snoozing or just watching us too. The best part was a group of 3 brothers who were playing together. One was just a baby and the other two a little bit older and they were rolling all over the place, biting and play fighting with each other. They came so close to us that at one point they grabbed one of the Italian women's legs, I think in a bid to get her to join in! It was very entertaining to watch though, not least when the brothers were chastised by their mother for, I think, coming too close too us. They all immediately stopped playing, lowered their heads and skulked back to sit beside their mum. Their behaviour was so human it was incredible.
We were allowed to watch for about half an hour more but then had to leave. After my initial worry it was definitely worth going up for a second day.
So, after that we went back to Kinigi lodge to pack up because we were going back to Kigali the next day before flying to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the day after that.
