Volcanoes National Park

I'm kind of getting tired of saying 'It was the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire life,' but every experience seems to top the last! I left Kigali on the 4th. Isabelle, my tour operator, set everything up, so my 'driver' came and picked me up in the morning, and we started the drive to Kinigi. Kinige is in the western part of Rwanda, and is the town that the Volcanoes National Park (VNP) headquarters is in. VNP is a network of five dormant volcanoes that run between Uganda, Rwanda, and the Congo. It is the major tourist attraction in Rwanda, as it is home to the famous mountain gorillas. The drive took about 2 hours, and was just beautiful. The call Rwanda the Land of 1,000 Hills (they say it in french though, something like milles colones), and it is aptly named. The topography of the country just rolls from one huge hill to the next. There is absolutely no flat land in the country. Nevertheless, they have cultivated most of the land, so driving along, up and down the hills, I had some amazing view of huge hills, covered in tiered rice patties, corn fields, potatoes, etc. Even the rural parts of Rwanda are very different than Tanzania. The country, in general, is just much cleaner. It is also much cooler, at times almost chilly! Also, there is a lot more rain, so the country is very lush, just GREEN everywhere. I am also here during their rainy season, and they aren't kidding! It rains everyday, sometime pouring down in sheets! I arrived at the Gorilla Mountain View Lodge in Kinigi, and was kind of surprised. It was total luxury, which I wasn't really expecting. I certainly didn't complain, but after being around such poverty in Tanzania, it's a little uncomfortable to have some guy carrying my bags to my room (I carried them myself). A year ago, I would have been right at home, but I guess I've changed, because the extravagance made me a little uncomfortable. I did get a treat though - two of my mothers friends are on a huge trip around the world, and were staying at that same lodge for five nights. Their last night was my first night, so it was really nice to sit and talk with them about their trip, and see all of their pictures. There's nothing like familiar faces. We had dinner together, and then said goodbye. The next morning, I woke up pretty early, and Crement (the driver) and I headed to VNP headquarters. I had planned on seeing the gorillas for two visits, the 6th and the 7th, so I needed to find another activity for the 5th. The park is also home to a huge group of the rare and endangered golden monkeys, so I signed up to go and track them. It was a great way to start the trip. We drove to a different part of the park, and me and a Scottish couple started the hike toward the forest. No matter what you are going to see in VNP, it's tough. There is never parking right on the forests edge, so you have to park, and then start hiking up the side of the volcano, through village farms. The hike is steep, and the elevation makes it tough! The forest entrance is pretty surreal - there's a big stone wall, and then DENSE vegetation. The golden monkeys weren't far from the forests edge, only about thirty minutes. And the hiking was pretty beautiful. The animals don't adhere to trails, so very little of the tracking was on any kind of a trail, just a guy with a machete in front, trying to make a bit of a path. The monkeys were pretty neat, although they were kind of difficult to see for any length of time. They move very quickly from branch to branch. But it was a cool experience. There were a couple of times I got within about 6 feet of monkeys. After the monkeys, I headed back to the lodge, and laid low for the rest of the day, excited for the main event the next day - gorillas! Now anyone that knows me well, knows that I have dreamed of going and seeing the mountain gorillas in the wild for as long as I can remember, so when I woke up on the morning of the 6th, I could barely contain myself. The reality of the fact that I was in Rwanda, and going to see the gorillas had set in, and I couldn't believe it (I still can't believe it!). We drove to the park headquarters, where everyone that is going to see the gorillas shows up for a briefing, and to be assigned groups. There are 7 habituated groups that tourists visit, and each group can take 8 visitors. There are groups like the Susa Group, and Group 13 that EVERYONE wants to go and see because they are the groups with the most gorillas, so the headquarters can be quite a scene. I asked the warden to go and see Group 13, but he said the he couldn't accommodate that, but he promised that he would take care of me the following day (and he sure did!). I was assigned to the Amahoro Group, a group of 12 gorillas. One of the males, called a silverback, had grabbed a few females from another group, and started this group a couple of years ago. I was fine with this, I mean, I was going to see gorillas, and that was all I cared about. So, back in the car, and driving about 45 minutes this time. Once we parked, I made sure I had all my rain gear in my back, because the sky's weren't looking promising. We got to the forests edge in about 30 minutes, and then it got tough! The terrain went at a very steep incline, and it was pretty muddy. But after an hour of HIKING, we got to the group of trackers. With them, you leave everything you carried up, i.e. backpack, food, water, walking stick, etc. So, I threw on my rain gear, just in case, grabbed my camera, and followed the guide. I was first in the line, and he grabbed my arm and said 'Look!' and about 6 feet away from me under a bunch of trees were 6 mountain gorillas. It was a pretty amazing moment for me - THERE THEY WERE! Just big, beautiful, human-like, peaceful animals, doing their thing in the forest! (I'm sitting here trying to put into words how it felt, or looked like, and it's almost impossible). For the next half hour, we just sat with them, the adults didn't really take notice of us, but the juveniles did. One of them ran by us at one point, not 6 inches away! After thirty minutes, the rain started! And it rained HARD! I'm not gonna say it was fun, because the rain was tough. It was a soaking rain, but I was with my gorillas, so it wasn't that bad. At one point, it started raining so hard, we found a little area where there were some fallen branches and leaves on top, so we got underneath and took shelter. Then something cool happened - the gorillas came into the shelter too! So here we were, huddled inside this shelter, 8 humans on one side crouching, and 7 gorillas about 4 feet away on the other side staring right at us. At one point, the female gorilla sitting right across from me locked eyes with me, and I just sat, gazing into her eyes for about 10 minutes. All I can say is, I totally lost consciousness of everything happening around me, I forgot it was pouring, I forgot that I was with other people, I just had my few minutes with this gorilla. Neither of us looked away, it was amazing. Unfortunately, the shelter was just too dark and wet to take pictures, but I'll carry it in my mind forever. The hike down was a bit of a nightmare - a combination of whitewater rafting, skiing, and slip and slide. The mud was intense, and I have never been so dirty in my life, but it was so great. I was completely buzzing from the gorillas, so I didn't really care. The next day, (today), Crement and I made our way to the park headquarters at 7am for our morning briefing. As soon as I arrived, the warden came up to me and told me I would be going to see the Susa group today. The group has 29+ gorillas, and is the group that Diann Fossey did her research on. The hike to get to these gorillas was even more brutal than the previous. It was an hour and a half drive to get there, and then an hour hike up to the forests edge, and another hour + of hiking through dense vegetation in the jungle. But, it turned out to be so worth it. If the first days viewing was amazing, this was amazing times a million. Once we left all of our stuff, we walked into a clearing and there were at least 20 gorillas right in front of us, some only a few feet away. They were taking a break from eating, so the young ones were playing, and at one point, one juvenile ran right by me and grabbed my leg! The older gorillas were grooming each other. The weather was amazing, and I got some GREAT photos. The internet cafe that I am in is closing now, so I can't finish this, but I'll just say that seeing the gorillas today was PERFECT, a lifelong dream fulfilled. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity, and I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. There was some other interesting stuff that went on in Kinigi, seeing some local tribal dancing, eating, etc. But what I'll remember about Rwanda will be the gorillas. Tomorrow morning, I'm heading back to Tanzania...