24 April 2006


Yesterday my friends Hilary and Felix and I visited the mountain gorillas of Volcano National Park. It was a truly amazing experience to see gorillas in their natural habitat. To watch them eat and clean each other, to hear their grunts of communication, to stand and sit five feet away from them. We arrived the night before, stayed in a town nearby and began our trek at 7 in the morning. It took us around 2 hours (we were very lucky) to find the gorillas. The troup we visited has 14 members: two silverbacks, numerous females and two young babies. They spend their days foraging for food, playing with each other, fighting off potential gorilla intruders, and patiently allowing human visitors to photograph them for an hour each day. I was amazed at how willing they were to allow us to join their group, even for such a short time. In the guidebook it says that visitors are required to stay atleast 7 meters from the gorillas, but we were often much closer than that. At one point we edged around one of the silverbacks resting on his, well, back and we were only feet away. One sweep of his giant paw and we would have been right there on our backs beside him. The mama gorillas looked like little pots, fat with forest bamboo and other plants. The young gorillas were so prescious and once they warmed up to us they seemed to like to show off, climbing bamboo stalks and twirling in circles. Of course, our hour flew by and soon we had to leave the gorillas to themselves. As we left a loner silverback sauntered towards the other gorillas. Our guide told us that he has been trying to join the troup but has been met with violent protestation from the other two silverbacks. I guess it was a good time to leave, wouldn't want to get caught inbetween two of those giant angry hairy beasts. Below are some photos of the gorillas and the area. Enjoy, I know I did.

The patchworked and mist puddled landscape outside of Volcano National Park in the north of Rwanda


My friend Hilary (another Watson fellow!) and I getting ready to enter the forest to track the gorillas.


Our first glimpse of the gorillas was breath taking, to see such large animals so close.



The big daddy silverback. He eats around 30 kilos of plants a day and can way up to 200 kilos, that about three times the average man. Cool huh.


Here's one of the young babies and her mom.


Me and Felix and Hilary and one of the mother gorillas. The four of us are around the same age so you know, we chilled.

Oh, these humans are exhausting!

These two were so cute. The silverback is in the background keeping watch over all of us.

Really really exhausting.

I couldn't bring myself to turn my back on the big guy (his face is as long as my arm!) not even for a photo.

No, that's not another baby on the way. That's a bamboo belly.

When we left the park, these guys were waiting to greet us and ask for empty water bottles. Well, I've been downloading for hours now, so I have to go. Can't wait to show you the rest of the pictures when I get back!