Rwanda—Part One

Saturday, February 20, 2016

On the afternoon of 18 February, we flew from Lake Manyara Airport to Kilgali, Rwanda (and had a view of Ngorongoro Crater from the plane). We had two stops; one was at Mwanza Airport on the shore of Lake Victoria to clear Tanzanian immigration.

Lake Victoria is enormous, just smaller than Lake Superior. We landed at Kilgali International Airport and after clearing immigration, were met by our guide and driven to the center of the city to our very nice hotel. 

The next morning our guide picked us up and we drove off in a northwesterly direction to Volcanoes National Park and our mountain lodge. Here’s the interactive map.

At the lodge, we were near the borders of Uganda and Republic of the Congo. There are three parks, once in each country, that circle the area where the endangered Mountain Gorillas live. Our lodge is about 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) up on the side of one of the impressive volcanoes. 

That afternoon, we were given a walking tour of the nearby village. The structure on the left is a typical house. The structure on the right is the kitchen. A lot of sorghum is grown on local farms—some is drying on the mat by the side of the house.

As we went along, our guide delivered supplies (paid for by fees levied on tourists) to residents. Here, he is letting mom choose a shirt for her child.

By now, a crowd of children had fallen in with us.

Next on our tour, we met a woman weaving mats for sale.

A musician greeted us at our next stop. Here’s the video of his song.

Next, two women were weaving beautiful baskets. Our friends bought a half dozen for gifts.

We then returned to the lodge and got up early the next morning to go to the Park Headquarters to be assigned to a gorilla group.

There were nearly eighty tourists at the headquarters. Each group has no more than eight (a maximum of ten groups) and there is a lengthy negotiation among guides as to which group a person is assigned. Our group had the four of us and four other, um, older tourists. We got back in our guide’s truck and drove off to the trail head.

We were met there by a group of porters, who carry our packs (the only thing a tourist can take into the forest is a camera). We set out towards a shady looking forest, with a ranger leading the way and the porters walking behind us.

It wasn’t long before we knew that it was shady in the forest. Much of the forest floor was broken bamboo, making for slow walking. Here is our first gorilla, a member of the Sabyinyo Group. Interesting hairline!

About fifteen minutes later, we came upon a small group of gorillas. Here is a big Silverback! We were told he’s 44 years old.

The big one was very cooperative, and walked past us to pose for our cameras. He was about 20 feet (6 meters) away and sat without much movement for ten minutes.

Here is a close up of his face.

Here’s one of the other very cooperative gorillas that we came across a few minutes after leaving the big one.

Here is a younger gorilla absorbed with eating.

We were back at camp by lunch, and the walking was not too difficult. Another group got back to the lodge at one o’clock, and they said it rained on them the entire time. A group back around three o’clock saw a lot of gorillas, did not get rained on, but they had to climb on steep and muddy trails for hours.

We got the easy trek!

We also learned today that three trackers follow each gorilla family all day, until the evening, and then they return to the same area very early the next morning. That’s how our ranger found the gorillas this morning—they had been spotted before we got to the area and the position was radioed to the ranger.

While we waited this morning for the rangers and guides to sort out which group we would be in, there was a musical and dancing performance to keep the tourists entertained. We asked if they could come to the lodge in the afternoon, and they did!

Here is a small clip of the Intore performance. Check out their wonderful smiles. This was a great way to brighten up the afternoon! 

We arrived by plane in Kilgali, the capital city of Rwanda, spent the night there, and then drove for about four hours to Volcanoes National Park and our lodge. We took a walking tour of the nearby village, and the next day went looking for Mountain Gorillas.

Next—Gorillas and golden monkeys.