Mountain Gorilla trek in the DR Congo
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2007
1
Trip End
Sep 10, 2007
Virunga National Park,
Congo - The Dem. Repub.
Friday, August 24, 2007
It's thought there are less than 700 mountain gorillas left in the world, and the majority of them are congregated in rainforests of Uganda, Rwanda and the DR Congo. To visit the gorillas you need a permit, and as a protected species, the number of permits is restricted to allow one small group of tourists to visit each gorilla family each day.
It's a hideously early start as we have to be dressed and on the truck by 6am to head to the border to cross from Uganda into the DR Congo where we will be trekking.
Crossing the border
Congo bicycle
Booking office
Just 45 minutes after we depart, we arrive at the border. This is followed by 2 hours of waiting around, Africa-style, which makes us wonder why we had to be there so early in the first place.
Our guide briefs us ahead of the trek
Eventually things start to get underway and we are briefed by one of the guides. We are then divided into 4 smaller groups and dispatched to vehicles which will take us to 4 different locations, based on where the gorillas had last been seen the previous day.
Our group sets off and drives for about an hour through lush green forest and small villages with mud huts. This is such a desperately poor country - most of these people are living without electricity and running water. There are young children everywhere and they run after our little van shouting for money and pens. We feel like celebrities!
We head off on our trek
Once out of the van, there is a short walk through some farming properties to bring us to the edge of the forest where we stop to slap on some Deet. Its steamy in the forest, and pretty dense in parts, so we are lucky our trusty guide has a huge machette with which he can hack a path for us to get through. To find the gorillas as quickly as possible, the guide uses a walkie talkie to talk to the trackers who are near where the gorillas are.
Trekking through teh jungle
After about 2 hours, our guide stops and tells us all to be very quiet and to put our bags down as we are close to the gorillas. The only thing we were allowed to take with us is our cameras. We round a bend in the track, and next thing we know we are in a clearing and there they are - a whole family of gorillas!
There must be at least 10 or 12 of them including a few baby ones. All the gorillas are just sitting there peacefully, and they don't seem too fazed by our presence. Everyone is stunned and not saying much other than whispering 'oh my god'. Once we recover from the initial shock of seeing them, the cameras start going crazy!
The family
Baby gorilla!
6-Mountain gorilla
Three baby gorillas start playing in the tree right next to us, swinging from branch to branch right over our heads. At one point the branch cames crashing down on top of us, complete with baby gorilla who scampers away back to his mum.
1-Baby one!
Bit of wrestle
1-Kicking back
Mountain gorillas
13-Mountain gorilla
4-Mountain gorilla
The other gorillas just continue about their business; play fighting and sleeping. Their beauty is just astounding - at one point I'm so overwhelmed I feel my eyes brimming with tears!
We managed to get pretty close!
We all take turns having our photo taken with the gorillas, each person daring to go slightly closer than the one before but not so close as to scare them. Unfortunately there's not going to be any Diana Fossey scenes happening! In this photo I am smiling but as my back is turned, the only thing I can think about is what's going on behind me! Just after I have my photo taken, the Silverback decides to stand up, and oh my god is he massive! I hadn't even noticed him at first as he was sitting right down the back. Standing, he is at least 6 foot tall and as wide as 3 adult men.
The Silverback passes within 2 metres of me!
6-Up close and personal with the Silverback
Up close and personal with the Silverback
We all freeze as he walks within a metre right past us and out of the clearing. He pauses at one point to 'mate' with one the female gorillas. This ritual takes all of about 15 seconds, and then cool as you like, he continues on his way. Classic!
Group photo
The rest of the family obediently follow him and the guide tells us that they are probably trying to move away from us so that will be the end of our visit today. We're disappointed its all over so quickly, but very, very grateful just to have had the opportunity to see them up close and in their natural environment. On a high, we head back to the edge of the forest which only takes about 30 minutes. We are met by our vehicle, and after a beer, are transferred back to the border to passport control which is a simple affair consisting of two guys on chairs outside a run-down office.
Passport control
Another Congo bicycle
Congo Bicycle
We arrive back at our campsite around 2pm and spend the rest of the afternoon chilling out with Nile beers and listening to music. It turns out that our group got lucky, as we were allocated a gorilla family that wasn't too far away. One of the groups had an 8 hour return drive and a really long trek and didn't get back to the campsite until about 10pm. As luck would have it, their 4WD ran out of petrol on the way back and they had to wait for another car to come and get them! Needless to say, they werent too impressed...
Comments
drc gorillas
hey when you were there did you have to do this through nkunda's guys? when i did this very trek back in June 2008, crossing via bunagana and seeing the gorillas at Djomba, the territory was still controlled by General Nkunda. I imagine it must have been when you did it, lucky because soon after there was a joint congo army/rwandan offensive and bunagana became a bit of a warzone. Nkunda made a last stand there before getting chased into rwanda and captured. and now i believe the park is still somewhat sketch with the congo army going after the hutu rebels. just curious what your experiences with nkundas guys was like. i found them to be very professional. now they are all being integrated into the congo army.