Gorillas in the Mist........

The alarm clock went off at 5:00. That is when the power generator is turned and I have light and hot water for my shower. I'm so excited that in a few short hours I will be heading to Volcano National Park to trek for gorillas!!! It's hard to imagine that I will see gorillas in their environment and not behind fences like at the zoo. I will be in a natural zoo!!! I had a wonderful breakfast. A ham & cheese omelet!!

After breakfast my driver, Somali, comes to pick me up and brings me to the park. We have to present the permit and passport. Only 80 people are allowed per day. While we are waiting for everyone to get entered we have coffee and are entertained by the Socola traditional dancers. Men and women with drums, chains around their necks and feet. It was very entertaining and beautiful.

Then we are put into our groups. My group consists of a couple from Nairobi, two gentleman from Dallas, Texas, another couple from Charleston,South Carolina, a guy from India and my self. Our guides are Julie and Francoise. The amazing thing is Francoise worked with Dian Fossey!!! He is a well respected and known man around here, and I have the honor of trekking with him!!! He has the funniest sense of humor! Talking about how the male gorillas like to do the "giggy-giggy" as he jumps up and down pounding his chest!!! We are going to be trekking for the Kwitonda group. There are 23 gorillas in this group, the largest family they have here.

So after the grouping, briefing, and information, we go in our perspective drivers trucks and off to the base of the volcano. Now yesterday's ride was a thrill ride , today's was the bumpiest ride!! We are basically driving through the fields, there are tracks to follow- if that's what you want to call it!!! I was really waiting for the truck to bottom out!! We got stuck in mud a couple of times, and then finally we arrive. Thank god I don't get car sick.....

We are assigned porters who will carry your back packs and generally help you along the way up to the gorillas. I have Andrew. Before we enter into the jungle, Francoise shows how you can get water from the eucalyptus trees that are very abundant here. It almost takes like coconut milk. So if we are to get lost, we have a way to stay hydrated. Standing at the beginning of this area are the guards of the fields. They protect the people's crops from the buffalo, elephants that will come down from the mountains and eat the crops. These people love their AK47's!!! They won't kill the animals, they just scare them off. 

Off we go....but first they tell you to tuck your pants into your sock as there are fire ants that will crawl up and bite you!!! We head out and it is flat at first, and then the climb up begins!! Thank The Lord I have quit smoking!!! With the high altitude already making it hard, smoking would have made it much worse. As we go along it is thick with bamboo and brush. The porters chop, with big machetes,away until we meet up with the park rangers. Guess what they carry.....yup the ol' AK47's!! But these guys are here to protect the gorillas. They walk through the jungle keeping watch over the families and also helping the guides to locate where we have to go. Francoise stops a couple of times to show us how and what part of the bamboo that they eat. I tried a little piece. Not too bad, no real distinctive flavor.

It was probably about a 40 minute hike up the mountain, when we come to another stop. The gorillas are around the bend. We have to put all packs and walking sticks down. We can bring nothing but ourselves and our cameras. They ask to not have your flash on, it will agitate and scare them off. Alrighty!! Don't really want to do that to them....

As we start around, I'm shaking like a leaf with excitement and fear of the unknown ahead of me. Julie is walking behind me , when she says to me to look over there!!! All I can see is black objects, as we get closer I can recognize and see them. All emotions overcome me and I just start crying, tears are just pouring down my face!!! This is truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen or done in my life!!! Julie is very concerned about me, I tell her that I just can't believe this!! She hugs me and hands me a tissue. We walk down a little more and not even 5 feet from me is a silver-back, a mom and a baby just sitting there!!! Looking around and there are gorillas of all ages. Some of the young ones are playing. Some of the adults and silver-backs( there are 3 in this family- with one dominant) are eating,sleeping or kinda just hanging out!!! They almost pay no attention to all of us. Francoise makes grunting noises to them. He is communicating with them and it is fascinating. One little baby starts to come over towards us and Francoise makes this noise and the little guy turns and runs off!! They do not want the gorillas to have contact with us, though it does happen occasionally. The gentleman from Texas was grabbed at the leg by one of the juvenile males!! It was quick and not meant to be mean. 

We are only allowed to be with them for one hour. It seemed like we were there forever, time kinda stood still.......thank God....this is one time I wanted time to go slow.

At one point I had a baby above my head and he was intentionally hitting me with the vine he used to climb up and then he was dropping leaves and moss on me!!! What a little bugger he was!!! 

I took close to 650 pictures of them.....not all good, but some really great shots. It is not easy to always take their picture because there is a lot of brush and vines in the way. As we were getting ready to leave, the Silver-back was sitting in an open area just eating bamboo. I did gets some real nice shots of him!!! 

Oh and how could I forget!!! Standing,watching this silver-back, Francoise says to me sit down over there  and he took my camera and took some amazing pictures of the gorilla sitting about 5 feet away from me!!! A lifetime experience I will never forget.....

This whole trip to Rwanda has been a eye-opening, put my life in perspective, incredible journey. I feel blessed to have been asked to do this volunteer work. I would come back in the blink of an eye. 

Thank you for following!!

Good night!!!

Love to you all!!