gorillas in the mist

Yesterday (Sunday) - Vicki and I woke up at 5:30 or so (after an 11 hour sleep -haahah) and drove up to the main park office for the "Parc National des Volcans". We had booked our gorilla permits about a month ago - as they are quite hard to get ahold of. There are only about 700 mountain gorillas left in the world - located in the mountains between the borders of Uganda, Congo, and Rwanda. We were at the same area where Diane Fossey documented and lived with the Gorillas (Gorillas in the Mist). Absoltuely incredible drive up in the morning - super misty (how cliché) - coudln't see the the peak of the mountains from the mist- gorgeous! I think there are 5 groups of gorillas located in Rwanda - and each group can be visited by 8 people a day for an hour (this is a really strict time line - as not to bother the gorillas for too long). There are trekkers that go and find each group every morning and then stay within half a kilometer or so from them to watch for poachers.

Vicki and I joined another group of 6 that have been staying in Kigali for a while (all doing different things). We trekked a group called "Group 13", creatively named as when the group was discovered in 85 it had 13 members. Since has grown to 22 - 1 silverback (male leader), 10 females and then a bunch of "juveniles" and babies - the youngest (which we didn't see) was only two weeks old. Really interesting - the gorillas in each group are distinguished by their "noseprints" which are all unique - just like out fingerprints. We got driven to a smaller village and then walked about half an hour or so to the edge of the national parc. From there it was another hour and a half or so in the park to get to the gorillas. Was a pretty strenuous hike (not really that high) just lots of mud, and ducknig through vines, bamboo, etc. Once we got there we left our packs with the trekkers and then walked closer with the guide and one of the trekkers. They made "gorilla noises" that are supposed to "make the gorillas happy" - just lots of grunting really.

Absolutely phenomenal when we saw them - the silverback was enormous - nearly 200 kilos. We got within 7m from them (thats the closest your allowed to get) - but at times I think we were much closer if one well out of a tree and we needed to back up. The whole experience was amazing and really so hard ot describe... don't htink i can really do it justice. Most of the time we were there they were eating, and climbing trees a bit - some of them had bad gas which was kind of humerous. Towards the end was there siesta time so they were all started sleeping. Got a glimpse of some of the babies - soooo cute. And the younger ones were super playful and were chasing each other around trees msot of the time we were there.

We couldn't take any photos with a flash (for obvious reasons) - so a lot of my pictures didn't really turn out that great. I have a couple - and Vicki also has some good videos though that I will post when I get faster internet (ie. in Canada). Anyways I should probably get off the internet and start exploring Kigali - gorillas were definately one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced!!!! Ever. Ciao for now! Lots of love,

leslie.