Gorilla trekking in Rwanda- Day 1

The day had finally arrived! We had a wake up call organized for 5am. Which included the lovely Clement singing down our driveway and wouldn’t stop until we opened the door. He wished us a good morning and set down our coffee in our sitting room. We couldn’t believe how quickly the sun rises in Rwanda.  Whilst we enjoyed the lovely morning brew we got ready and packed our bags for the day ahead.

We then meandered up to the main lodge for breakfast, afterwards we were fitted with our gaiters and sent on our merry way with our packed lunches in hand. I got a BLT, and Alex opted for the ham & cheese. Each lunch had a the smallest cutest bananas, a samosa and potentially the most delicious dark chocolate I have ever tasted. The lodge makes it in house and I wanted to buy all of their inventory. (It was unfortunately not for sale)

Our incredible guide Johnson drove us to the gorilla trekking meeting site. We were optimistic and opted for a medium to hard trek. We got matched with a guide and another lovely young couple (Fernando and Romina), who were coincidently staying at the same lodge as us AND also on their honeymoon!

There are around 22 gorilla families in Rwanda. 10 are for purely just research leaving the other 12 families for visiting. The families all have different names and are vastly different. We were going to visit the Amahoro family, which translates to "Peace". With high spirits the four of us and our guide jumped in the jeeps and headed to the treks starting point.

Oh what a ride.... we start off on the regular tarmac roads and about 20 minutes in we turn to head up the mountain. I felt like I was in a washing machine, it was a really bumpy rocky road (it made the road leading up to the lodge feel like a piece of cake). At one point I felt as if the car was at a 45 degree angle. Most American cars would not be able to handle this kind of terrain. After about 10 minutes of this we arrive at the site.

At the starting point there were about 10 men standing there with wooden sticks wearing green khaki and Wellington boots (for Americans, Rain boots). They were called Porters, you can hire them to carry your bags and hold them while you see the gorillas but most importantly help you up the mountain if the hike got intense. We decided to hire the porters (as we thought it would be nice to have but not necessary), so did the other couple. Somehow Alex ended up with the smaller Porter out of the 4. He was potentially 5ft 5 and couldn’t have weighed more than 130lbs.

With large smiles, walking sticks and no backpacks we start the climb up Mount Bisoke. The walk up to the farm land was already quite steep and the altitude definitely was impacting us. The four of us exchanged looks of concern considering how we weren’t even in the bush of the mountain yet and were out of breath. Alex pulled me aside and said he was worried about passing out if it got much harder! The air just felt so thin!

The bottom of every mountain in the Virunga National Park has a “Buffalo wall” this is to keep the buffalo, elephants and gorillas in the safety of the park as well as also control who can go in and out. This has had multiple benefits to many parties; the park can prevent anyone unauthorized entering (with the help of the locals) and the local farmers crops and livelihoods are protected from the buffalos. All of the surrounding communities get 10% of all of the proceeds made from the gorilla tracking permits, this helps them with any loss on the crops that the gorillas or buffalos may eat. Most importantly this has deterred Poachers, as the local communities help guard the walls. Because of these efforts mountain gorillas are no longer in as much danger and their numbers are on the rise again! Woohoo!

The locals benefit from the gorilla trekkers as it creates jobs and brings tourism to their communities. They were all very welcoming and would wave as we drove and walked by so we could tell they liked our presence.

At the entrance of the National Park our Gorilla guide Augustin educated us on the gorillas, he explained how to act around them and what sounds to expect. He made it clear that we must not leave rubbish or belongings behind or take anything from the park. He ended with a poetic saying “You may only take pictures, and only leave behind footprints.” We then began the “hike”.

Oh my goodness! Thank GOD we hired the porters. The incline was relentless, and what made it worse was the very wet, slippery mud. Please let me remind you the porters were wearing Wellington boots and carrying our bags, whilst we were in hiking boots. Our assigned porters would climb in front of us and hold one of our hands to help us up. The four of us kept slipping all over the place, my porter saved me about 5 times from absolutely wiping out. The other girl (Romina), almost slipped and fell down the cliff. This climb was no joke, and to add to this we weren’t going up a trailhead. We were tracking wild gorillas that forged their own tracks. Augustin would use a machete to chop down branches, nettles and bamboo to forge something that somewhat resembled a very muddy path. The guide kept asking if we needed breaks, we only took one as we were all so anxious to get to the gorillas.

Everyone was drenched in sweat and out of breath, even the porters. We hike up a little further, then we reach one of the gorilla trackers who was armed with a gun. The gun is for elephants and buffalos in the case that they charged us, the tracker would shoot in the air to scare them off. They said many many times, we shoot to scare not to kill. Don’t worry, they did not have to use the gun when we were there.

Once we saw the tracker our guide explained the gorillas were close, but quite a substantial decline and horizontal movement across the mountain was required. We all slowly navigated to the spot that the gorillas were located. We handed over our sticks to the porters, popped on our masks, grabbed our cameras and left the porters behind. I took 3 water bottles with me, and I was glad I did. My porter looked quite parched so I gave him one and he was so thankful.

We had to wear masks as gorillas are very susceptible to human diseases and as they’re such a close knit family, a disease would spread like wildfire. So we did it to protect the animals from every possible illness.

I turned the corner and there they were! The first gorilla I saw was a blackback male gorilla. We all forged on to find the rest of the family. When we first arrived a silverback sat up and made the noise that shows displeasure “AGH AGH AGH”, as he wasn’t sure of our intentions. Our guide communicated back and made the happy noise (low pitched) “MGHMM MGHMM” The silverback then returned the noise and then laid down in the sun and sunbathed totally unbothered by our presence.

They were magnificent. I was so overwhelmed with just disbelief that I was so close to a wild animal, that I almost burst into tears. They were all relaxing in the sun and minding their own business.

Our brilliant guide kept moving us around to get the best views of the gorillas. A little adolescent gorilla came up and beat on Fernando’s back (the fella from the other couple). The guide made the “AGH AGH AGH” sound to show them we did not like it. The gorilla got off Fernando and then grabbed MY coat to try to pull me to play. The guide grabbed the gorillas arm, made the “Agh agh agh” sound and one of the trackers clashed his machete to show how unhappy we were. We were very safe, the guides just don’t want anyone accidentally getting hurt. All the gorillas wanted to do was to play with us. After witnessing how aggressively they play fight between themselves, I was happy the guides intervened.

Throughout our time with the gorillas we all got copious amount of pictures, videos and even some selfies with the gorillas. The silverback alpha gorilla acted as if he was a celebrity- wanted nothing to do with us. Let us take pictures but did not bat an eyelid once he knew we meant no harm to him or his beautiful family.

We spent a full hour with the gorillas, it was glorious. Once the hour was up the guide informed the Porters to meet us out of the bush with our bags and our sticks. We were now faced with the challenge of the descent down Mount Bisoke.

It was much shorter than the almost 2 hour hike up, they actually found an easier route down. It wasn’t as muddy, but we all still needed the porters assistance. The guide would hack down a path with his machete and then we would all proceed down.

We reached the Buffalo wall and I honestly felt very relieved, it was quite intense. We continued the walk through the village farmland and then got back to the original site. Our truck was equipped with mars bar, crisps and water in there. I put a Mars bar in my bag just incase I needed some energy during the hike. When I was paying the porters, I saw a porter notice a Mars bar and his eyes widened. I offered it to him and I swear he was more excited about the Mars bar over the $40 tip we gave him. (Mind you the normal tip would be about $10). I was just very grateful that he saved me from slipping into multiple piles of mud and poo.

We then made the drive back to the lodge, after the pit stop in the town to drop off the guide. The guide and our driver were communicating in Kinyarwanda (the native language) whilst we relaxed in the back.

Once we dropped off the gorilla guide, Johnson was explaining to us that the guide was very impressed with our hiking skills and the few stops that we made. He said that that hike for a normal person would be a hard hike, but for us it was only medium. That definitely made me feel a lot better, as I did find it very challenging at points.

We drove back to the Virunga lodge with a smile from ear to ear, the drive up the hill to the lodge felt like a piece of cake after today’s drive. We arrived at the lodge met by Clement.  He offered us a drink, removed our muddy shoes and gave us Crocs to wear whilst the lodge cleaned our shoes!  We put in our lunch order and Clement asked if we wanted to book a massage in the lodge. Please note, it was a traditional massage (not a Rwandan one!), we accepted the offer and booked it for 2:30.

After our shower and lunch we made our way up to the spa. We both enter the room and lay on the massage beds next to each other. Our massages begin…. I can honestly say I have never had such a handsy massage, my goodness I could never fully relax due to the fear of what could come next. She asked me how the pressure was and I made the mistake in saying great but you can go a little harder if you would like. After that I swear she recruited a lineman from the Chicago bears to help add pressure to the massage. However after the hike we just did, it did feel quite nice. The experience was very different to a US massage but it was still very lovely and just adds to the endless stories and memories we will take from this amazing country.

After our massage we both took a nap before the 7pm dinner. We find Romina and Fernando on the walk up to dinner. We sit next to each other and enjoy the 3 course meal. The day before there was a birthday and the lovely staff baked a cake for the lady and sung an amazing song! Today there were 3 cakes. 1 for a birthday and 2 more cakes, one was placed in front of Romina and Fernando, the other in-front of Alex and I. It said “happy honeymoon”.

They sung and danced for the birthday and then they looked at us and said now it is time for you. They dance and dedicated a song to us, it involved high pitched yelling and stomping. We were all so touched to be celebrated, and clapped. They then said “your turn”. I thought they were joking! They turned on a new song and grabbed out hands. The whole staff (including the chefs) surrounded us and were cheering. Romina and Fernando did some dips, so Alex and I decided to do some small parts of our wedding dance!

We swayed back and forth and then we did the full turn and then the dip! The other guests and the staff screamed with excitement, a core memory was created there! What a fantastic day!!