In search of the gorillas in the mist - Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
We started our journey in search of the mountain gorillas that reside in the volcanoes national park in Rwanda by arriving at the capital city of Kigali. Post some rest overnight, we started out for our trip to the park with our local guide. The Rwandan landscape is mystical with its mountainous terrain as is well developed with a robust infrastructure that serves to provide a very smooth ride from Kigali to the national park. Most of the tourists usually stay at one of the hotels in Kinigi, Musanze area if doing the gorilla or golden monkey treks. The primary reason being we need to be at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) office by 6.40 am in the morning for check-in and orientation for the gorilla and golden monkey treks.
Once you reach the RDB office in the morning - there will be a security screening, any backpacks, camera bags etc., After the security screening you can leave your belongings in the vehicle and enjoy some complimentary tea / coffee while waiting for the orientation. There is a seating area where you can wait or you can take a walk in the garden until it’s orientation time. Your guides would go to the office and do the check-in on your behalf and they do need a copy of your passport for that. Carrying a few photocopies will help and can prevent the need to have another go of your passport at the copy machine. We had requested our guide to take the required copies so that we are not required to carry our documents with us, especially since we will be trekking in the rainforest. From hearsay, we understood that if you had a private party, the orientation could be done at your hotel. It does give the luxury of not having to get up so early and having to arrive at the office for the check-in and briefing.
A group of 8 is the maximum that we understand is allowed to visit one gorilla family. Also appointments are treated very strictly and there is no room for flexibility- for example, if you fall sick or cannot make your appointment on scheduled date and would want to go the next day - it’s usually not allowed. Once the groups and the park rangers are allotted, your local guide will let you know which group you need to head to for your orientation. Orientation is done by the park rangers and they tell us a little about the group we are visiting and a short overview of what can be expected. Use the restroom at the end of the orientation as after that, its bush or forest toilets only!
In terms of the attire - we have seen it all - people wearing shorts to fully covered in jackets and rain pants. We would advise the latter. Its a forest and a rainforest at that. If it rains you are done for and we are not kidding. Carry your rain gear, I mean I cannot stress this enough. You are lucky if you do not fall down or fall less, so there goes that. It also depends on the route you are going to take. A longer route or a tougher trek means more time in the forest and that means you are exposed longer to the elements out there, so yes, common sense prevails. Take everything and a little more than what you think you might need to keep yourself comfortable in a place where it might be wet, full of vegetation, ants and exhaustion. We also suggest that you wear your socks over your pants while trekking as the region is known to have red ants and they can surely deliver a painful bite and you should try to avoid it at all costs. We also were informed of and noticed a fair bit of stinging nettles, so your gloves as well. So in conclusion you can understand why we prefer the latter - go covered.
One of the interesting things about the gorillas groups that we heard from our guide was that most groups had babies during pandemic and no one necessarily knows the reason why ^^ So, after the orientation is complete, we proceed in our respective vehicles as a convoy to the decided meetup point. The park ranger usually travels in one of the group member vehicles. Once we reach the meetup point, we can get hiking sticks and avail of porter service if needed. Porter fees were USD 10 + tip as needed. Availing a porter service is recommended - in addition to providing them with a livelihood, they help carrying your backpack and help us with walking uphill / downhill without losing our footing in the terrain. If you see the trackers that means you are close to your goal - Gorillas! or Golden Monkeys! Once the distance is deemed close enough by the ranger, we leave our bags with the porter and can take our phones/cameras and proceed gently to see the gorilla family. Wearing face masks while in the midst of gorillas is still required. Not comfortable after an uphill climb but cannot be skipped. The rangers provides us with a mask if we don’t carry one. The clock starts ticking at this point and you have an hour until you start your trek back to your starting point.
Gorilla Tracking
Every morning the trackers go in search firstly for where the gorillas had built their nest the previous night. Gorillas being diurnal build their nest around 5.30 pm or so every evening and sleep (no late night snacks for them!). So once the tracker finds the nest they have an idea of how far the gorilla troop might have moved from the time they saw during the last trek and relay the information to park ranger / warden. Your tour/ safari guide will convey certain details like the number of members in your group, age, health challenges, request for a certain trek difficulty (easy, moderate , difficult) other preferences etc., to the park office through an online update to their system. On the morning of your trek, the park authorities who have similar details relayed to them by other guides about their respective parties match the information and assign you to a best-fit group and also the gorilla family you will visit. The park guides are assigned by the warden but we also understand that it is possible to put in a request if you have any preference for a particular guide or a guide with particular abilities, but it’s not a guarantee. In Uganda where also you can visit the gorillas, this process is very much still a manual process. This is something we learnt from our guide and you can check with your tour operator for any personal requests or needs. Hopefully it helps you other there.
About Gorillas
Did you know that gorillas have a unique nose print similar to our finger prints? We did not! Their nose print is used by researchers in the identification process, particularly helpful with individuals they work or observe routinely. A troop could have multiple silverbacks. The dominant or lead silverback is not identified by size but based on his strength. There is an absolute hierarchy within each family - you will see silverback # 2 bowing to #1, # 3 bowing to #1 and #2 and so-on showing their respect. Even us humans when we meet the gorilla family are required to show respect and submit to them. You will get thrashed otherwise >_<
Gorillas are not territorial and move for food. Being mountain dwellers their primary diet is bamboo shoots and leaves as finding fruits can be tough in their habitat. They get their water intake usually from the food they eat like Thistle. One of the possible reasons you see blackbacks (subadult male) having a lot of energy can be attributed to the bamboo shoots diet. For example, 20 shoots equals about a beer and 100 shoots equals a shot of whiskey and we know gorillas spend a good part of their daytime eating.
Every evening the gorilla family builds nest with leaves. Each family member except babies build their own nest. They have an amazing upper body strength and use their knuckles while moving around. The females have a gestation period of 8.5 months. The naming through their ages is like so - till 3 years of age they are considered a baby or infant, 4 -7 years is juvenile, 7 -12 they are subadults and at 12 they become a silverback or essentially their grays start to show. Suppose there are many babies in a troop and not all belong to the leader/ dominant silverback, they are still the dominant silverback’s babies! Once they reach 11 years old, boys start eating and working out more so that they can finally move out and form their own group. Females stay within the family.
They are known to make around 16 different types of sounds. While it makes no difference to them, humans might call out a few as good and bad sounds. Don’t go around messing with the bamboo, unless of course you want to hear the bad sounds. Sometimes, it’s not a sound, just a lift, drag and drop! So, beware and pay attention to them. They are powerful and fast and we humans can be a bit too pre-occupied to see them coming at us if that were to happen. As part of the orientation we were taught to make good sounds (something like “ma.. hmm” or “mm.hmm”) when communicating with them. We don’t necessarily have to make sounds if not comfortable. I tried making the sound once and the mom took her baby and turned away from me - so there goes my expertise in making that sound 😂
The Families
Igisha gorilla family was the first group we visited. Their name means ‘mover for pasture’. They have 35 members in the group with 6 silverbacks. One of the challenges we faced when visiting such a large family is that there’s a lot of action happening and the family is spread all over. So there are some decision dilemmas as to which members to focus for watching their behavior or photograph. We found quite a few of the members out in the open that definitely helped with uninterrupted viewing since usually the family members are settled among the bamboo shoots. The family has quite a few young adults and they can get quite mischievous among themselves and towards us.
Kwisanga gorilla family was the second group we visited. Their name means ‘feel at home’. The group has 3 silverbacks and contains 20 members. The group was formed in 2021 after they split from a large group of 40 members. Days before we visited, there was a fight between silverback #1 and #2 over two new females that joined their troop causing head injury wounds to silverback #1. I had a pretty scary experience with this silverback #1. We were watching the silverback from a safe distance. The guide informed that the spot where I was standing for photographing is the path from which the silverback will walk if he plans to move and suggested I should move to the side where the rest of our group was standing. Now the terrains are not that easy to move around if one’s not much experienced with walking in such terrains. I tried moving to the other spot as suggested and fell down. The next I see is the silverback#1 making some sound possibly telling us he’s going to move. The guide asked me to get up from the pathway and the next thing I noticed is that both my feet are tangled in some vines and I am on my knees. A lot of things went through my mind as to what this big boy might do to me especially since he was involved in a fight few days back and had some injury wounds and now I am blocking his path whereas we are expected to show respect to the dominant silverback. My posture was thankfully full of respect. The big boy starts walking and he’s just behind me. I guess he expected me to move. I am still on my knees and the guy is sitting right next to me among some bamboo shoots where as I am blocking his clear open path. I was shit scared to say the least and was thinking that even if the big guy didn’t want to intentionally hurt me and just continues his walk - his muscular upper body and knuckles could crush my lower body as I was in no position to move myself. I have to say I witnessed one of the most gentlemanly behavior from the silverback # 1, Kigoma. After sitting right behind me for possibly few seconds which felt like minutes for me - he continued his walk by breaking past the bamboo shoots. He did not show any aggressiveness in terms of sound or physical behavior the whole time. I have to admit they are very intelligent creatures - he possibly understood the situation I got myself in and adjusted his movement accordingly. Or I was just plain lucky like Divya says :)
Comparing against my gorilla treks in Uganda, strictly from gorilla trekking experience, I found the terrain to walk in Rwanda to be relatively easier primarily due to the fact that its all uphill for finding the gorillas. Coming back, its downhill. This is different from Uganda’s rolling hills i.e., you have to walk both uphill / downhill while going towards / coming back from gorillas. I also found the forests in Rwanda less denser compared to Uganda. There is a reason they call it the impenetrable forest there.
My recommendation for the best time to visit Rwanda to see these endangered species will be during the months of October and November, particularly if the objective is to simply see them and not requiring a longer hike. We understand many do these hikes to also spend a longer time in the mountains. So while these months usually happen to be the rainy season, they tend to rain mostly in the afternoons, so if yours is an easy/ medium trek you should be back before the downpour. This is again our observation, so would definitely suggest you check with your tour guides before making a decision on when to visit. The primary reason as mentioned to pick this time of the year is due to the gorillas being easier to reach. When it’s dry season, the food sources will usually be available at higher elevations and that means we have to walk quite a bit to reach them. When it’s rainy season the food sources are available closer to the foothills of the mountains and there’s a high chance for us to see the gorilla family without walking too far.
If you have visited these gorgeous creatures or are planning to and have stories to tell, please share them in the comments section below! Thank you for reading!
