Virunga: Part 1

Greetings fellow travelers wherever you may be.

I am sitting in a cafe in Kampala with my great friend Jackson Kariuki, waiting for our night bus to Kigali, Rwanda. From there, we will tackle our next challenge: Nyungwe Forest and all its shy and mysterious birds.

But in meantime, I am able to regale my readers with my greatest adventure to date. Ramata and I have saved and planned this one for a long, long time and saved ALOT of money so let us hope you enjoy my humble account.

I speak of the legendary Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, not a country on most peoples' holiday bucket list - unless you dream of massive mountain gorillas and the world's largest lava lake. If you're interested in logistics (we self-organized), I'd be happy to respond privately with all the details on how to pull off this once-in-a-lifetime adventure with your wallet relatively intact.

We arrived at dawn in Kigali, a cool and steamy place surrounded by a thousand hills. A long taxi-ride took us through a noticeably clean country (plastic bags were banned 15 years ago I think). Steve as usual was extremely excited by the outfits/activities of the local people and we attempted (in vain) to restrain him from taking unsolicited and prolific iphone pictures of pedestrians/women carrying things on their heads/shop-keepers/butchers/women carrying babies, etc.). People in other places may not be as friendly as these Rwandans. Steve quite memorably said "this is one of the best head-carrying countries I've been to!" After a taxi to the border, we made sure all our credentials were in order while our driver texted Steve to try to ask for more money for having taken us on a 'detour' to the genocide memorial - which was part of the agreed-upon fare. I urged him to ignore this cliché tactic. We had little problems entering as we had arranged the visas in advance (although we visited an elaborate series of kiosks). Our driver Oscar was soon there to greet us in a vintage Land Rover Defender with a slick Virunga decal on it. Driving through Goma, we gathered the rough vibe of the town, which has experienced civil war, a large refugee influx from Rwanda, and a fairly recent volcanic eruption which coated a large portion of the town in lava. It's surprising how quickly they rebuilt the buildings, using characteristic black igneous rock as bricks. The bricks of buildings can give insight into the geology of an area, but not usually in such a stark way. Oscar stopped at the office in Goma to wait for an armed ranger who would ride to the park with us. There was a reason we paid $625 for 5 days' worth of transport for three people (over short distances) and that reason was security. Considering over 140 rangers have been killed since the park's founding in 1925, we deemed the precaution appropriate (email me privately for advice on insurance).

Goma

Oscar waited for the ranger to meet us. Since visitors were not allowed to enter the park after 15:30, which had already passed, he proceeded very quickly without making any stops, straight to camp.

Our cheapest accommodation option was the newly built Kibumba tented camp at a staggering $280/N for a triple room. Its kind of sad we needed to minimize our time spent in the park in order to make the visit fiscally feasible - but it those five days were the most magical and memorable I have ever lived in my 29 years of life. Perched atop a rural village on the edge of the highland rainforest, we could safely say we were in a sort of paradise. The view of primary forest on the park side was staggering and birds called abundantly from the canopy. L'Hoest's Monkeys peered cautiously at us from the trees while I got my first lifer in the park, Western Green Tinkerbird. As the sun set on Nyiragongo and Mikeno mountains, a chorus of treefrogs erupted and we could start to see an orange glow atop Nyiragongo. A Wood Owl and Red-chested Owlet both called from the treetops. Only two days earlier I had been in London, it was surreal. I tried as best I could to prepare myself for what I know would be the best experience of my life.

Mikeno Mountain disapears into the night...

...as an ominous glow appears atop Nyiragongo

On only the second day of our trip (the trip climaxed early) we were gathering for the Mountain Gorilla briefing . The expected details were provided (wearing masks, not making monkey sounds, not screaming or running away from the gorillas!) but then an unexpected turn. The ranger strait-up asked everybody all at once which family they preferred to visit. People started shouting out the names of these gorilla families, panicked about missing out on some silverback or gorilla baby action. One dude who appeared to be Belgian was particularly adamant/aggressive about visiting a very particular group which had the most babies and the most silverbacks. Everybody wanted to maximize their chances of baby and/or silverback interactions by choosing the families with the highest numbers of said age classes. I figured I better jump in if I wanted to do the same so I looked him in the eye and firmly said which group we were going to visit. It turned out to be a good choice.

One of our many dedicated rangers

After a fantastic hike through highland farmland, we met the forest entrance. It looked as if the local children had never seen wazungus before, even though I'm pretty sure they see ecotourists weekly. Their requests for biscuits were not met, but they were eager to pose for photographs anyway. The news portrays misery and suffering in the Congo but what we mainly saw were smiling faces.







A brisk hike into the forest and we rendezvoused with two rangers who had scouted the gorillas ahead of us, since they tend to move from day-to-day. After some time the ranger ahead spotted one up in a tree eating leaves. Soon we were face to face with a massive silverback, who reminded me of giant beef-heads I see in the gym. He was thoroughly enjoying a leaf-tree salad. One of the strongest animals on the planet eats mainly leaves - a strong argument for veganism if you ask me.

The  silverback is responsible for the protection of the family

Nearby, the fat mother preferred some orange flowers while her young cuddled up next to her. They were shy at first but one mischievous little guy got extremely curious about our cameras and the rangers needed to tell us to step back as he tried to grab Steve's iphone while hanging upside-down above our heads. He then proceeded to stand on his dad's giant head while spinning round and round on a vine.

Time for a rest! 

We proceeded further to observe the mother with her young of various ages. They were all bundled up together in a big family ball. She was breast-feeding a cute baby while the others groomed each other and just generally lounged around while munching on an occasional leaf.

At last I had to put the camera away and just take in the beauty around me. It was almost too much to handle and I nearly shed a tear. These are our cousins and there are people trying to rid the planet of them. I found it difficult to imagine how anyone could want any harm to come to these peaceful animals. The rangers, upon first impression, seemed pretty casual about slashing their machetes to help us get better photos, and making grunts at the silverback. However, it soon occurred to me that they knew exactly what they were doing. Every move, every sound and every action they took was for the safety of us and the gorillas. I know many people may be wondering "were we too close? Is it OK for them to be cutting up the bushes with machetes?" Those are reasonable questions which I will answer.

In fact, the gorillas like the openings created by the machete work, not unlike a clearing created when a tree falls down. It gives them space to move around and to forage and play. In the rainforest climate, it takes no time for this vegetation to grow back and I would imagine the fresh growth would be good food for them as well, especially for the Gallium vines which they prefer. People may also be concerned with the distance they were from us. This is not a problem because these gorillas are well-habituated; our rangers knew them personally, and the gorillas knew them. In fact, they pretty much treat the rangers like friends or fellow gorillas and the rangers know how to communicate with them based on experience and scientific research. We did hear of a lady who was once charged by a silverback who felt threatened by her. Despite the fact that she reacted in a bad way by screaming hysterically and running away, the rangers still managed to get the situation under control and nobody was hurt. Another question people have asked me is  the purpose of the masks. Aside from chimps, gorillas are our closest living relatives and as such they are vulnerable to some of the same diseases as us, against which they have never evolved immunity. So to prevent oral transmission of disease, all visitors and rangers are required to wear them.

If you ever go on this type of trek, trust the rangers because they are extremely well-trained and they they care deeply for these gorillas. They would lay their life on the line to protect them and I tell you that as a fact. What they are doing is one of the most difficult ecotourism feats ever pulled off and I have the deepest respect and trust in them for that.

At last, our hour time-limit was expired and we said goodbye to our new friends (our cousins, the gorillas and our fellow humans, the rangers). It was the best experience of my life and I am still not finished fully processing it!

Here are a few more:

Timo, Steve, Ramata and the gorillas