This is another account of the gorilla trekking experience that was posted on the Rwanda Initiative website. Unfortunately, the site is no longer available.
So I bought the T-shirt the day after but it doesn’t change the fact that I am now a certified gorilla trekker. Not just any trekker though. I visited the Susa group, which is supposedly the most difficult to reach. It wasn’t as hard as people played it up to be. Meagan, Kristen and I started climbing the volcano at about 9:00 a.m. and reached the gorillas in about two hours.
The Susa group is more spectacular than just the search for them. This group features more than 30 mountain gorillas, with at least three adult males (silverbacks) and the famous newborn twins (very rare to have both survive). We didn’t actually plan to do this trek but our driver, Alphonse, got the receptionist to put us in this group. We’re glad he did.
The first section of the hike through the hillside farms took an hour. When we reached the entrance of the forest, we took a break so we could be briefed about what to do in front of the gorillas and other precautionary things. Then, we climbed – through the forest, into the bushes, hacking through trees, slipping on broken branches, avoiding nasty sting nettles. After an hour of that, we stopped. There was some rustling in the trees made by a black furry object. We found them.
We dropped our bags and followed the guide through the brush again. The path opened up and we saw them. Two gorillas rolling around, play fighting. They roared and tackled each other, then stopped, sat still as if they were bored of it, then did it again. Deeper into the bushes were more – knocking over trees, eating the leaves and rolling around. It would take forever to describe everything I saw. I’m sure everybody who does this would agree. The only way to find out is to do it yourself.
I didn’t see all 35 gorillas but it was still amazing. I saw the twins. I saw the chief. He walked by me, close enough for me to reach out and touch him (of course, I didn’t). I even got a glimpse of a couple mating until the chief came and broke it up. And I almost got hit by a tree that a gorilla was pulling down. It was awesome.
The trek was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done. A 400-word blog obviously doesn’t say enough. I’ll be telling people about the adventure for the rest of my life.
andrewng.media 