Mountain Gorillas - Bucket List Check
Within my first week in Africa, I had checked off one of my bucket list items by spending an hour with the mountain gorillas in their natural environment. There are only approximately 800 mountain gorillas left in the world - all in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo. I visited the “Titus” community that lives in the Volcanoes National Park in the Virunga Mountains, Rwanda.
During one’s first week in Africa, there is just so much to take in. Between the diverse landscapes, abundant wildlife, chaotic villages, extreme poverty and endless beauty, we spent an hour with these fascinating animals in their rainforest home.
Setting off at 8:30am, it was a one hour hike straight uphill. The first half of the hike was through steep farmland set against a dramatic backdrop of volcanic mountains. We passed mostly females and children tending to their crops, and the hills were ringing with the cries of children calling “hello” as they spotted the daily group of tourists heading up to the forest. Those that were close enough came running and waving, but sometimes we couldn’t even see where the voices were coming from so we just responded to the hills.
Arriving at the stone wall that marked the boundary of the forest, we were met by one of the trackers who had already gone ahead of us to find the gorillas. She was armed with a gun just in case we came across any buffalo or elephants that needed to be scared away. Between the trackers, porters and our guide, we had nine people escorting eight of us.
The rainforest was lush, dense and beautiful. At first we followed a narrow track, but the porters soon had to use their machetes to clear the rest of the way for us to reach the gorilla’s chosen breakfast spot. All of a sudden I got my first glimpse of a female gorilla sitting with her back to me. She did not seem bothered by our arrival, but the guide was making the gorilla sound for “everything’s okay” to reassure her. We slowly moved around in front of her and she let us take photos while she kept eating her breakfast. The sun was out, the birds were singing and the only other sound was her crunching her chosen plant stalks, like we would eat a celery stick. The forest was serenely peaceful.
We moved around the area and saw a three year old, a mother with a six month old baby, a silverback (male) and a couple more. They were all very chilled, only the three year old playfully pushed past one of the members of our group at one point. They let us take photos as they kept eating – they eat with their eyes closed but between mouthfuls they would watch us and make brief eye contact. Most of the time there was only about two metres between us and the gorillas. By the end of our visit there were two that had finished eating and sprawled out on their backs in a very relaxed and playful manner.
When our hour was up, we left the gorillas and the trackers – they stay there for the day, monitoring the behavior of the group and seeing where they decide to spend the night so that they can find them easier the next morning. Spending an hour in the middle of dense forest with these powerful but gentle beasts had been a privilege.
A permit to see the gorillas is not cheap, but they have set up a sustainable tourism model whereby the entire local community benefits from this tourism. There are 400 people employed in the park, between the tourism and research departments. They have various communities of mountain gorillas and golden backed monkeys that are habituated and have one group of eight tourists visit them for one hour per day. In the low season, locals can also visit them at a much lower cost. They have established a cultural village visit where tourists can learn about traditional Rwandan culture, and this village provides jobs for reformed poachers and their families – thus contributing to the ongoing safety of these endangered animals. The money from the permits supports various community projects in healthcare, education, and providing seeds and/or goats to the poor. Seeing all of this made it feel all the more worthwhile “investing” in this experience, in these animals, and in this community.
