Gorillas in the Mist

Mountain gorillas are only found within the Virunga mountain region straddling the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda borders, as well as the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. We chose to do our gorilla trek in Rwanda.

At the base camp of Volcanoes National Park, we were assigned a trek group of eight people, a gorilla group to observe and a guide who gave us a briefing on how to behave. Our group was assigned the Agashya gorilla group to observe. Agashya means "something special" and it was!

The dominant male in the group is Mr. Special, a beautiful silverback. There are approximately 24 members of the group including many babies and juveniles.

We were given the opportunity to hire a porter to help you with the trek and to carry your day pack. The porters are members of the local community and this is a great way for the community to benefit from good conservation practices. I hired one even though I really didn't need to.

At the stone wall entry into the park, we met up with our trackers and rangers whose job it is to follow the gorillas all day. They pretty much knew where the Agashya group ended their day yesterday so they knew where to begin to look for them that morning. We trekked uphill for over an hour - I didn't keep track of the time - until finally the landscape started to flatten out a little. We left our hiking sticks and day packs with the porters to watch while we approached the gorillas. (The gorillas do not like the sticks.)

on the move

Once we spotted them, we had about an hour to observe and photograph them. They moved quickly at first looking for food and a place to settle - it was breakfast time!

Finally they found a nice stand of trees and they settled in to eat the bamboo, tree mushrooms and just about everything else it seemed. Our guide estimates we saw about 20 out of the group's 24 members.

My favorite sightings were the babies and their mothers and of course Mr. Special.

More gorilla pictures:
Gorillas climbing.
Gorillas swinging.
Gorillas grooming.
Gorilla groups.
Gorilla portraits.
and ... More gorillas.