Andrea in The Mist

As I awoke at 5:15am on July 25th, I began to seriously question my decisions from the previous night. This morning was to be the pinnacle of my trip- I was finally getting to go trek and visit with the gorillas that MGVP works so hard to protect!

Unfortunately, my dear friend Molly was preparing to return to the US. We held a bon voyage party for her during which she announced that she would actually be returning to Rwanda as she had been offered a permanent job! There was much celebrating….which in Rwanda meant lots of goat brochette and large quantities of boxed wine. This party began at 3pm, and around 10pm (with party still in full swing) Jan looked at me and said “Aren’t you trekking tomorrow?” Crap. Jan then suggested I switch to water- as she handed me another large glass of wine. Life is all about decisions, and I admit this may have been a poor one on my part.


As I awoke before the sun, I was kicking myself for all the fun I had the night before.  I waited out front for my driver and just prayed that there would be old fat people in my group going up the mountain. Since they allow any tourist with enough money (and who booked 6 months ahead of time) to climb without any sort of physical requirements you never know what you are going to get.  I have heard horror stories of very out of shape slow people taking all day to go a few miles up the mountain.  I see myself as being not the most out of shape, but certainly not super fast or fit.  I am more acclimated to the altitude than I was for my previous climb but the hangover was definately going to work against me.

 Of course as I climbed into the back of the truck there was only one girl in there. She was about my age, way too perky for that early in the morning, and was going on and on about how she just climbed Kilimongaro and how she is a competitive mountain runner at home country Sweden. Just as I was thinking a few choice words about my luck, we picked up the rest of our motley crew which included nobody under the age of 60 and one woman who has severe asthma.  Sometimes I really do think there is someone smiling down on me....

After a long wait at park headquarters and being briefed by Hope, our very friendly knowledgable guide (who knows all my coworkers here) we took another drive up an almost non existent road to the park enterance where I decided I was not going to hire a porter this time. I figured I could manage my bags myself.  We started our trek up Bisoke by ascending up through all the farms that had been built up the mountain before protective laws went into place.  My head was aching already and my stomach was not happy with me after that drive but we pressed on up the hills.  My shoulders began to burn a bit from the weight of my bag, but I was faring better than with my first climbing experience.

 The poor asthmatic woman we were with had us stopping every few minutes.  As I watched her struggle and express the same feelings of doubt about making it that I had while climbing Ghahinga (although I think that I did not start that until at least 2/3 of the way up) and I assured her it would be fine, we did not mind waiting because everyone goes at their own speed.  The truth was that my body was grateful for the constant breaks.  About 2 and a half hours later, we reached an area where we left our bags with trackers and continued on for another  15 minutes to where Ugenda (groups are generally named for their silverbacks or leader of the family) group was hanging out. Thank goodness they were hanging out low on the mountain this fine morning.

 The groups that tourists visit are habituated to people being around.  Tourists are asked to stay 7 meters away from the gorillas to decrease disease transmittion.  Groups of 8 visit these gentle giants for 1 hour maximum once per day to keep everyone's stress level down.  These groups live on several mountains in the park and its really just a crap shoot which group you get and where they will choose to spend their mornings.  Right now is the busy season so they are trying to get as many tourists in as possible so in addition to the normal habituated groups, there are some research groups being visited.  Ugenda is one of these groups so we were very fortunate to be able to see this particular family.

Up to this point I had managed to steer clear of the stinging nettles that we had been warned about but now I was getting stung over and over through my jeans and on my hands.  Fortunately the pain was not as bad as I had thought it would be and each one only lasts a few minutes.  I did manage to achieve my goal of not tripping and falling into a huge pile of them.

As we quietly approached the area where Ugenda was, the only sounds were of our careful footsteps over the nettles and other bush and clicking cameras.  I tried to really enjoy my hour with my eyes rather than my camera, but I was still able to get a few good shots.

This family did not seem to mind  us being there at all.  They occasionally stopped to look at us as if to ask "what are you looking at?" I saw a mother nursing her baby, several youngsters playing and climbing trees, and then the majestic silverback of the group emerged.  Ugenda is about 200 kg (more than 400 lbs) and just incredible.  He noticed us but did not seem to mind our presence.  We watched him eating for awhile before he went to spend some quality time with one of his females and their baby. 

As with my previous climb, I was not able to appreciate the true beauty of the forest until my descent.  No wonder this is where Dian Fossey chose to be buried.  I was close to her grave and would have like to have seen it, but that was not our goal on this trip.  So close.  Turns out many of the main things I want to see are atop mountains, which goes against my "no more moutain climbing" policy.  Things to look forward to on my next trip.