Tuesday 7th April: Jules drove me the night before to Ruhengeri near the Volcanoes National Park in the Virunga region (where met the chameleon in J's friend's garden).
The gorilla trek starts at 7am (1/2 hr drive from the hotel). Assigned to a group of 7, (2 English, 1 Canadian, 2 Brazilian, 1 Japanese, 1 American) our group will track only one family of gorillas. I manage to hitch a ride to the entry point with Eloise and Lynn from Manchester after a briefing from the guides.
The $500 fee charged by ORTPN to see the gorillas is nonrefundable and so they must guarantee tourists can get their hours worth. They also tell us to make sure we stand at least 7m back, never sneeze or cough in their direction to prevent disease transmission and no longer than an hour is allowed to make sure they don't get stressed.
Only a short walk from the carpark across some fields, passing farmland and staring local community, we reach the park boundary which consists of a volcanic rubble wall. I think they're kidding when we stop and they point "we climb the wall".
Once inside, we traverse the dense bamboo uphill path and after just 1/2 hr meet the trackers who take us to the gorilla family, lucky 13. We were warned the trek could be anywhere from 1hr to 7 hrs depending on where the families move to. I was well up for a 7hr trek! Had to contain my disappointment... hehe.
What followed was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We were only 1m away from them at some intervals and were lucky enough to see over 14 out of 24 family members together at the same time (many of whom are babies). Most amazing of all was that they didn't mind us moving around them, so close to the nursing mothers and huge silverback dad.
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