Gorillas in the Mist

     I haven't been in the mood to write recently despite having so much to tell. Not sure why, perhaps it's because I spend at least 80 hours a week doing work on my computer for my job, or maybe I've just felt like being lazy. The last few weeks have been busy and I have been all over the place and while life is an adventure, sometimes, I just wish I could sleep in past 7 am. Anyway, we last left off with Amy, Julie, and I heading back from Akagera to Butare...
     I really needed to get some work done and unfortunately, it turned out to be a super busy week that Amy visited. So she busied herself with exploring Butare (I will admit not a whole lot) and watching town go by while I worked. She was able to come to the hospital and I was able to give her a grand tour and introduce her to Dr. Thoégène and some of the staff nurses and USI Faculty. She spent much of her time Thursday with our housekeeper Vanessa and Stacey and Sam while I was occupied with assisting in BLS class and I think she really enjoyed herself just soaking up Rwanda.
     Friday of the week she was visiting arrived and I was hoping for an easy morning before enjoying "sports Friday" and heading home at lunch so that she and I could hit the road north. It was anything but, however, that's another story for another time. I got home and Amy was packed and we loaded yet another thankfully borrowed car from friends and off we went. We drove an hour towards Kigali to Muhanga before turning left onto the new road and heading north. I had never driven this road before and it was absolutely stunning. It was by far the most beautiful twisty curvy drive I've done here in Rwanda. Amy and I stopped several times and got out just to look and snap some photos.

     Four hours later we reached the northern town of Musanze and settled into our hotel for the evening. Dinner wasn't anything super spectacular but it got the job done. I had trouble sleeping but was raring to go the next morning. I was really excited to see the mountain gorillas! Along the way to the meeting point we stopped and picked up two of the park rangers who ensured that we would get a good group. We discussed the gorilla "attack" that had occurred a few weeks earlier and they assured us that it was the photographers fault for not listening to the trackers and guides, but no, they wouldn't put us in that group.
     We hung out at the meeting spot enjoying the crisp morning and volcanoes and mist and then I noticed and Orioles baseball cap in the crowd. Sure enough, there was an entire contingent of people from Hopkins doing a 1 week surgical mission at King Faisal. I had to giggle a little. Faisal just has so much more resources than CHUB. I'm sure they came and thought, "how do they do everything they do here with so little?!?" Now imagine having 1/4th of the material and that's my hospital. We get it done with nothing... I like to brag. Regardless, it was super nice to talk to people from home and wish them luck in their week stay here.

DRC/Rwanda/Uganda border on the mountain behind me.

In the mist.

     We were placed in the Titus group with 8 total hikers. I was hoping for more details on the formation of the family, but in my excitement, I actually forgot to ask. But as some of you may know, Titus was the Gorilla King made famous by Dian Fossey and we got to see some of his direct descendants! Titus sadly passed away in 2009 at the age of 35. More surprising, his replacement into the Titus Family was Rano, who died young at the age of 21 last summer. Which meant that our silverback was very young at only 18 years old. Titus Group is a small family with only 7 members. The silverback, 3 females, 1 male juvenile, 1 female youngster (2-3 years old), and 1 baby (3 months). To put it in perspective, some of the families have over 40 members and there are 480 mountain gorillas on the Rwandan side of the Virunga Mountains (Volcanoes National Park) with another 400 in the DRC and Uganda. One of the volcanoes is actually the border where all three countries meet, so not only did Amy get to wave to Tanzania while we were in Akagera, but now she was able to wave to both the DRC and Uganda too.

Man picking flowers on our hike up.
Not sure for what they're used.

All of our trackers

Our Ranger/Guide

     Our hike was moderate, a little steep in places, and mud up to our ankles but it was only about an hour and a half long. We crossed back into the park (we drove about 30 minutes from the meeting point to the hike start) and within ten minutes we were told to leave everything but our cameras in a spot because we were going to get our hour with the gorillas. And man was it quite the experience. The family was spread out over a small, incredibly densely forested area. So dense that all of our trackers had machetes to get through the brush. The first gorilla we saw was the silverback. He was hanging out eating some plants, roughly 200 kilos, and he hit me.

Yep. You heard me. I got whacked by a 200 kilo silverback gorilla in Rwanda. According to our guide it was a playful movement, but it sure as hell felt like a ton of bricks went into my thigh. Everything was fine initially. The website and the guides all say that you are to stay 7 meters away from the gorillas. But we were much closer than that and the guide and trackers seemed ok about itt. I was about 6 feet away from this guy (as was the rest of the group). He was fascinating to watch and roughly 10 minutes into observing him I crouched down to get a photo of him at eye level. As I was looking at the camera I realized this silverback was staring right at me. The guides told us it was ok to look them in the eye so I wasn't worried. Then he batted the plant stalk directly in front of him to get a better look at me. I slowly stood back up and glanced towards the guide and Amy about five feet to my left.

Last zoomed photo before he whacked me... the brach to the
left is the one he batted down before approaching me.

     My attention was immediately drawn back to the silverback as he stood up and came to all fours. Now when gorillas stand up they naturally come forward onto their extremely long arms, thus closing the distance between him and me by 2 feet. Then he started to walk towards me. He made no noises, he wasn't running, it was as if he was just done with the spotlight. He was within a foot of me when he veered slightly to my left to pass and then it happened. WHACK! His left arm went out intentionally and he walloped me in the thigh. It almost knocked me over. Then he decided to climb the tree behind me and continue with his day. Since he didn't charge me or make any noises the guides said it was friendly play behaviors that he exhibited. I wasn't so sure, but I figure if he wanted to, the gorilla could have done some serious damage. And after all of that... I didn't even get a bruise. I have no idea how because I bump my legs into things and bruise easily and yet, nothing. It was sore for several days, but nothing to prove it. It was incredibly disappointing, I'm not going to lie.

Then he decided to climb a tree

And eat some more

     We next found one of the mothers with her 2 year old again, just hanging out and eating. Beyond them in the trees were two more, mother and child. And finally, the mother with her 3 month baby. It was utterly fascinating. Gorilla's DNA is 97% similar to our own.

Much closer than 7 meters

Sure they look different and their arms are long and they don't speak our language... but wow. They are freakishly similar to us. It was one of the most thrilling hours of my life to just observe them.

The infant's head almost gave the impression of a full head of human hair, particularly with his little ears sticking out. The gorillas reproduce very similar to humans, however we were told that up to 60% of the babies die due to hypothermia. I was not expecting that when residing 200 miles from the equator. But our guide indicated that during rainy season it can get quite cold in the mountains, which I certainly believe. I sometimes think I didn't pack enough warm clothes for Rwanda, but I never translated my feelings of cold to what it might do to the animals. Eight hundred, eighty gorillas might sound like a lot, but when they are only located in this region... that's all the mountain gorillas in the world. The guides told use they were due for another census of the gorillas soon, the 880 number is from 2012, so hopefully, the numbers will be higher.

Hiking down

     All in all it was a fabulous trip that Amy had and I'm glad I got to experience both Akagera and Volcanos Parks with her. It was very good to have a piece of home with me despite it being such a short time.

Lessons Learned:

1) Gorillas aren't very warm and fuzzy no matter what your roommates say (Me: So I just got whacked by a 200 kilo silverback. Vanessa: Awww he was just hitting on you!)

2) Near or far your friends will always be your friends, but having them closer is always better.