Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said 
‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, 
gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for 
shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was 
going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches 
in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
.
Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said ‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
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Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said ‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
.
Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said ‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
.
Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said ‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
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Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said ‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
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Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
Trip Report:
Rwanda's
Mountain Gorillas
Trip Report Trip One
Our 76-80th trek
2014
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is one of our all-time favorite locations. We're proud to say that we've now made 85 treks, more than any other tourist to Rwanda and our visits have only been exceeded by the researchers there. While that's certainly a brag, we have no apologies here, for the experiences and photography are so spectacular, we're okay with noting this accomplishment.
Rwanda is unique among all the East African countries we've visited, as the country is almost spotlessly clean. There is no litter, and one Saturday morning each month everyone participates in a National clean-up, and the results show. Further, our tourist dollars that are spent on high gorilla visitation fees are actually being put to good use. The Park and its management is well run, superbly so, and various community projects and improvements, generated by the gorilla fees, reenforce the value of the gorillas. Since we've started visiting Rwanda the mountain gorilla population has increased by nearly 100, and as much as an endangered species can be said to be thriving, these gorillas certainly are.
In short, we love the country, and we think that the Mountain Gorillas provide one of the most intimate, exciting, and unique wildlife experiences one could find anywhere in the world.
This year everyone followed our advice to bring a monopod for our gorilla photography. Mary and I have been extremely pleased with our Really Right Stuff monopods and their pro monopod head. Although a regular ballhead can be used with a monopod, when the locking lever is loose the head, and therefore the camera and lens, can flop, which is not only awkward but can also be quite painful if the rig flops down on your finger or the web between your thumb and index finger. The 'tilt' that a ballhead allows can be easily achieved with a monopod by simply slanting the monopod, or loosening the lens mount and rotating the lens inside the collar. Either way, it works and it is very effective. We carried our gear to Rwanda in our Gura Gear Bataflae bags, which we used throughout our time in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The bags are light weight and very water resistant, and extremely durable.
The following is the trip report, posted from Nairobi, on the day we returned back from our 81-85th mountain gorilla treks. That report is now posted - CLICK HERE. Here's the Report for our 76-80th treks.
Here's the Report for our 76-80th Mountain Gorilla Treks:
We arrived in Kilgali, Rwanda’s capital, around noon, had a quick lunch at the Hotel Milne, famous as Hotel Rwanda during the genocide, exchanged US for Rwanda dollars, and heading towards the park. It rained at times along the route, the for the most part the five volcanos that make up the gorilla’s habitat were hidden in clouds. Sabinyo, the jagged toothed mountain, showed most of its summit as we approached the park, but heavy gray clouds loomed everywhere on the horizon. That night it rained heavily, and several strong storms passed during the night. We wondered what our first day would bring.
Day 1. Hwira Group. It was raining before dawn, and after breakfast, driving to the park headquarters, it began to pour. Everyone was huddled in the pavilion to avoid the rain. We were assigned our gorilla trekking guide, but with the downpour we remained at headquarters for about an hour, waiting for the rain to abate. By 9 it had slowed, so we headed out, driving a short distance before our RangeRover started climbing a dirt track, bouncing and rocking as we drove a track that rarely sees vehicles. We were stuck once, but the porters who would later carry our packs pushed the vehicle out, amidst loud, jovial shouting.
It was drizzling when we began the trek, and we wore our rain gear – something I rarely do when hiking uphill. Our pace was slow enough that no one was overheated, and with the rain, there was little point in rushing. We hiked up through the farm fields, reaching the stone fence that defines the park boundary, where the trek would get a bit more challenging. A set of six logs spanning a moat, that acted as a further barrier to the buffalo and elephants that might raid the farm fields, presented a slick obstacle, the smooth, barkless logs slick with rain. Everyone made it across safely.
Our route took us through brushy shrubs and low trees as we climbed gradually, until we reached the dark band of bamboo where our path steepened. It had stopped raining, but a fog had settled, masking the surrounding ridges when we passed through a clearing. I worried that we’d find the gorillas here, where the light would be almost nonexistent. Our trail was a mix of mud and scattered rocks, with pools lying in low areas, and dotted here and there by formidable, slick patties of buffalo dung. The footing was easier off-trail, where a mat of brown, lance-like bamboo leaves littered the ground, but that way was often blocked by bamboo stems growing too thickly to permit a passage.
We reached the Trackers at the edge of the bamboo forest, where we assembled our gear, grabbing cards and extra batteries, monopods and cameras, before following our guide and the trackers further uphill. We traveled fifty yards or so where we left the forest, reaching a sloping clearing that we descended a short distance to where the Hwira group lay huddled, in the open, hunched and miserable in the drizzle and fog.
Truly, this was the cliché Gorillas in the Mist, and they looked fairly miserable. The Silverback sat facing us, his head down most of the time, but periodically lifting his chin and looking about. A juvenile near to us stretched, yawned several times, and rose to its haunches to thump his chest. Soon, a female carrying a young baby approached, and sat for a few minutes in the open, before walking through our line and disappearing into the forest. The other gorillas eventually followed, and we followed them. We met the gorillas at 10:45am, and for the next hour the shooting was fairly continuous.
At one point the Silverback did a pursing lip pout and our guide said ‘He’s going to beat his chest,’ and seconds later the gorilla rose and twisted, pounding his chest with his open palms, then settling on all fours feet from us. He walked on by, passing within a yard of me, where I kneeled, back hunched, appropriately submissive. Judy was videoing at the time and got a great video, perfectly framed, of the sequence. The first few seconds, as the gorilla simply sat there, gave no clue of the action to follow which, as I watched it later, was truly surprising.
The mist cleared, and the drizzle stopped, and our last fifteen minutes or so revealed the quilt work of farm fields far below, with a canopy of clouds masking the distant horizon and volcano slopes. The Silverback had changed positions several times, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes where, as our guide said, he ‘went shopping,’ and would return to a visible position with a load of bamboo. Some of these stalks were huge, four or five inches in diameter, which the silverback would reduce to rubble as he gnawed away with his incisors. Juveniles, the rare surviving twins, approached, making mewing noises that reminded me most of young hyenas at a den – of all things, perhaps hoping to get a bamboo handout. The silverback did not oblige, and the twins amused themselves by bouncing up and down on the springy vegetation, a natural trampoline in this huge clearing.
Our hour was up and we hiked a surprising distance downhill to meet our porters. Along the way it felt as if my right boot was thick with mud, but as I checked I found that my Cabela’s boots were losing their treaded soles. The heel of the boot was completely off, and when we reached the porters I had one of the trackers cut off the heel with his machete. As we hiked out, the entire upper sole pulled free, and I finished the walk out with a flopping shoe, the bottom smooth and slippery. Our in-country guide took the boots, assuring me that he’d be able to have the soles repaired by tomorrow. This seems impossible, but this is Africa … anything is possible.
By 4PM the rain clouds were gone and the surrounding volcanos were sharply visible, surrounding our lodge on three sides. Black Kites soared overhead, whistling, and Pied Wagtails and Whydas foraged in the lawn. Tomorrow looked promising.
Day 2. Sabyinyo Group
We awoke to clear skies, with all of the volcanos visible, although the tops of the highest were shrouded in clouds. At headquarters we were assigned the group we wanted, Sabyinyo, that has Guhonda, perhaps the oldest and certainly the largest of the Virunga silverbacks. Our Park Guide told us that Guhonda is no longer the top silverback in the group. His two sons are now top dogs, with one, Shirimpumu, now a silverback, second to the older silverback, Gihishamiutsi. Shirimpumu we call the crazy one, and we’ve known him since he was a young gorilla, very bold and aggressive. As a rowdy blackback he terrorized people, charging and pushing, although never doing harm.
The hike took us into and through the bamboo forest belt, and through semi-open fields that were lined with painful Stinging Nettle plants. The understory was thick with vegetation, and broad leaves and thin bamboo leaves littered the ground. The hike was a little harder than yesterday’s, but that may have been a product of the second-day hike, where we were all physically a bit more tired.
The trackers were waiting for us in an opening in the bamboo, and I feared the worse, that the gorillas would be in the thick forest. They were not, and instead the group was scattered in low vegetation in a large clearing. The sky cooperated, too, as the sun was now covered with clouds that would eventually bring rain. During the shoot we had a few minutes of sunshine, a few minutes of a drizzling rain, and the rest to perfect, ideal lighting conditions for shooting. Gorillas were everywhere, but the prime location, at least to start, had a tramped down arena where the top silverback held court, while two young juveniles from separate mothers rolled and wrestled and ran about. We started in a long line that extended from the bamboo edge to a viewpoint level with the silverback, but as the hour progressed we could turn in almost any direction and have action. A female sat nearby, making a day nest where she cuddled one of the juveniles that had wrestled earlier.
Gihis tolerated one of the two juveniles climbing about on his back, slapping his rump and chest at times, until the juvenile reached the silverback’s head, where the male grabbed the juvenile, and for a short time, tucked the small ape under his head like a pillow. The juvenile squirmed out, then climbed back for more interaction with the male.
Big Ben, an odd, rather ugly young male that was born bald, and even now has a bare crown framed by a normal ring of fur, giving him the appearance of a monk, and looking rather like a chimp, performed, and at one point charged by, seemingly aggressive to some smaller gorillas. Gihis sat up and yawned several times, and later posed in a fetching, thoughtful ‘thinker’ pose.
In our last minutes we photographed Shirim as he sat eating bamboo shoots. He got up and walked passed us, then laid down, and our guide beckoned Judy and I over for some final shots. Shirim is a crazy gorilla, and it was a bit unsettling to see him clearly watching us, making eye-contact and holding it. Most gorillas will avoid eye-contact, and will look away once made. Finally, Shirim had enough, got up, and walked towards us, and I was sure he was going to flatten me into the bamboo. I said to myself, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’ but I was surprised, he walked by without touching me and disappeared into the thick vegetation, our hour up.
As we left the mountain storm clouds were gathering and, as we ate lunch less than an hour later, it poured. Everyone was tired from the day, and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Day 3. Agashya Group
A broken, overcast sky greeted us at dawn, with Mocano, the volcano in the Congo, crowned by a low cloud and highlighted by golden light upon its slopes. The other volcanos were all visible, although the tops were shrouded in clouds. It looked extremely promising for a perfect weather day – overcast light, high clouds.
By the time we had our group assigned and reached the parking area where we’d begin our trek most of the clouds were gone. The sky was blue and clear, and only the volcanic peaks in the distance had clouds clinging to the sides. Our trek to the forest was easy, an about a mile long, with our guide taking his time showing us plants and chewing on trees, eating up time that gave the clouds time to build.
And that they did, with somewhat violent-looking storms rolling up from the north, and once again it looked as if we’d have great lighting. As we entered the forest, most of the guides and photographers suited up in rain pants, for the mud and the thistles. I get overheated, and prefer to get muddy and, if necessary, I’m willing to put up with stinging nettles. The route was muddy, but the pathway had enough clear areas along side that the hike in wasn’t too messy.
We entered the bamboo zone almost immediately and continued through that low, dark environment as we continued uphill. We met our guides within 25 minutes, in a clearing in the bamboo. After getting our gear we headed uphill, guided by the ‘pok, pok, pok, pok’ of gorillas thumping their chests. The first gorilla we encountered was a female with a small baby, sitting in the open, but underneath the canopy of bamboo. With slower shutter speeds we did OK, until she moved uphill, where within minutes other gorillas passed by, following the silverback that led them down the trail.
We followed, trying to keep abreast or ahead, but the gorillas outpaced us. Miraculously, the gorillas led us to a large open clearing in the bamboo forest, where twenty gorillas finally came to rest. This group has only one silverback, Agashya, and he soon appeared, emerging from the forest darkness to join his seven females. At one point, just prior to the gorillas entering the clearing, it seemed as if the entire family group was piled onto or alongside Agashya, who stood on all fours overlooking the trail.
For the next hour the shooting was almost frantic, as we had a flattened U of gorillas spread out across the clearing and along the edge of the bamboo. Three young males, still not to the Blackback stage but obviously feeling their oats, continually wrestled, chasing each other around a large tree or bounding into the bamboo to disappear, only to emerge minutes later to once again wrestle before us.
Three females had small babies, and another female had a baby that was about two, and all nursed or played with their offspring at some time. At one point, another female sat on a tree almost directly over our heads, giving us great shots of her in a tree. When she got up, she clambered to the end branches, which broke, spilling her into the clearing and compromising, somewhat, the wonderful shooting arena we had enjoyed. The guides cleared out the most offending branches, and our shooting really wasn’t too compromised.
Towards the end of the shoot Agashya mated with a female, doing, as the guide calls it, the gigi-gigi, mating, at the edge of the clearing. Gorillas, we were told, mate constantly until the female gives birth, whereupon for three years she’s not receptive. We’ve only seen mating a half dozen times or so, and this one, hands down, was the best, giving us front and side views. It lasted a long time, at least three minutes according to my metadata, and I may have missed the first few seconds. Nevertheless, it was long enough that I broke from that shooting to photograph females who presented their babies, then I’d jump back to more mating.
Interestingly, at one point the entire group of gorillas went into a screaming frenzy. Agashya, still coupled with his mate, gaped and screamed, and the juveniles that were wrestling raced about, screaming, and approached us quite closely. One of the trackers, who I think was a bit afraid of the gorillas, dodged away when they came close, while our gorilla guide calmly reassured everyone to stay still and calm. The ruckus lasted about a minute, a minute of mass confusion, and whose trigger we could not determine. It started almost simultaneously with most of the gorillas, and subsided almost as quickly.
The shooting, with cloudy bright light almost the entire time, marred for only a few brief periods of direct sunlight, was some of the best we’ve had. What had started out looked quite unpromising, with the gorillas in the deep bamboo, transformed into one of the most entertaining shoots we’ve had. As we headed downhill to the vehicle storm clouds loomed and threatened rain.
At lunch, we debated whether or not to go out into the countryside to photograph. Everyone was tired and elected to stay in, although at the time the skies looked promising. Within an hour, however, that decision was validated, as fierce storms rolled in from the east, darkening the landscape under heavy black clouds. It was good we stayed in.
Day 4. Hwira Group
During the night it rained heavily, thumping the roof of our cottage so hard we were awakened. Towards dawn it rained again, and we worried that the morning’s trek would be wet and dark. By breakfast, however, the rain had stopped, although all of the volcanos were hidden by the low clouds.
We visited the same group we had Monday, on Day 1, but this time we hiked nearly twice the distance across the farm fields, arriving at a new entrance to the stone wall that defines the park boundary. We had to scale the wall, and drop back down on the other side – the most difficult entry we’d had, but everyone negotiated the obstacle easily. After four days, everyone was strong and altitude acclimatized.
The vegetation near the wall was composed to ten-fifteen feet soft, vascular plants, but we soon entered a broad, extremely dark band of bamboo. When we reached the elevation we had on our first day our path took us east, and we walked quite a long distance, up and down, across two small streams, before descending again through the bamboo where we met the trackers.
Getting our gear, we headed further downhill and through a bamboo stand, finally arriving at a small clearing where the entire family was gathered. The light was perfect, cloudy without shadows, although the dense clouds dropped our speeds periodically. A mother with a small baby sat facing us, giving nice portraits, while the silverback’s butte aimed our way. At one point all of the gorillas seemed excited and rushed off, with the silverback lumbering on passed.
We followed, and photographed the silverback as it fed in a nice opening, before he again moved, eventually setting in an open glade beneath a canopy of bamboo. The rest of the family were scattered about inside the grove, and we were surrounded. The light was quite low, however, as it always is inside the bamboo forests, but the heavy skies lowered the light as well. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we wondered if we’d finish the shoot before the rains. Several times, young gorillas climbed trees or vines, and once, for a video moment in the dark bamboo forest, a young gorilla twirled repeatedly on a vine.
The gorillas stayed in the opening for the remainder of our hour, leaving and moving downhill, where we followed, hoping for a few last shots, but the gorillas were in motion. We left them, black rumps disappearing into the forest, and headed back for our packs. It began to rain, but lightly, and most of our hike back was dry. At lunch it poured, but by 2:30 the skies had cleared again, and Don and Judy decided to go out with our guide to photograph people. The rest of us downloaded, and rested.
Day 5. Sabyinyo Group
It rained throughout the previous evening, which we enjoyed at a private dinner inside the lodge. The management had set up a special table and grill, and drinks, while the other hotel patrons ate in the restaurant. It was unnecessary, but quite nice. As we walked back to our rooms the rain stopped, and began again shortly after we retired.
The rains stopped sometime during the night and we awoke to a broken sky, with the volcanos nearly visible, and patches of light sky visible between the clouds. We said our goodbyes to the Park staff, picked up our guide, and drove off, the earliest departure of the five days. We headed to the parking spot for Sabyinyo where we met our porters and started a long, but very easy hike towards the forest. After four days of trekking everyone was fit and strong, and the hike went effortlessly.
Passing through the stone fence, in a narrow, twisting Z rock gate meant to deter buffalo from going through, we entered the forest, and almost immediately entered the bamboo zone. We walked for only twenty minutes or so before meeting the gorilla trackers, where we gathered our gear and followed our guide and the trackers through meadows thick with broad-leaved stinging nettles. Most of the group were clustered in a beautiful open area, with vegetation tamped down around them. The Number Two silverback sat upright, while a female with a young baby sat on her haunches in the background. Repeatedly, the silverback yawned, revealing his orange-tinged canines and black molars, giving most of us some great shots. Eventually the silverback rose and walked passed us, followed by the entire group, and thus began a busy day of following the apes.
For the remainder of our hour we repeatedly encountered the gorillas either in a gap or opening in the bamboo forest or in a small opening. It was especially fun, as sometimes a silverback marched down a trail towards us, forcing everyone to step aside as a 400+ gorilla strode passed. Often a female, or another young male, would follow behind, sometimes after we had already begun trailing the gorilla, and we’d have a mixed species line of gorilla, human, gorilla, human, gorilla snaking down through the bamboo.
The crazy silverback, S, had acquired a new female but the largest gorilla of the mountains, Gahunda, who is now 44 years old and past his prime, disputed this, and the forest suddenly rang with high pitched gorilla screams. No. 2 raced passed us, and the trackers waved us on, saying their fighting, take pictures! When I arrived the altercation was now a stand-off, with the two silverbacks on all fours, squared off, while the female in dispute just jogged passed us and away.
The males followed, with No.2 settling in a small glade, and Gahunda nearby, both eating bamboo. It was an extremely intimate experience, and as the hour closed a female with a 6 month old baby appeared, and settled, facing us, in the opening. The baby left his mother and clambered about, providing great final shots before she turned, and the baby settled in with her, and our hour finished.
What a great way to end! We followed our trackers back to our packs, and hiked out, arriving at our vehicle at 11. After lunch, in gaps between rain storms, we packed and drove back to Kilgali, through rain and through sun, where we would end one of the five best shoots we’ve had with the gorillas.
.
Refer to our BROCHURE to get an idea of next year's trip! The brochure is not updated for 2015 (remember, I'm in Africa), but the itinerary wil be similar.
