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| Gorilla trekking in Rwanda with my father |
RWANDA – It's hard to find the words to describe the sensation of looking into the eyes of a wild mountain gorilla standing so close you could touch it.
Thrilling, mesmerizing, magical, awesome are just a few of the sensations rippling through me as I lock eyes with a female gorilla casually munching on a plant. It feels as though we're long lost friends. My heart fills with joy. I can't believe I am here.
I had just hiked two hours up the slopes of Mount Bisoke in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park with eight people, including my father. When I'm told to put on my rain jacket and garden gloves for protection against the stinging nettle bushes we're about to enter, nothing could have prepared me for what I would experience on the other side.
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| Trekking through the thick jungle of Volcanoes National Park |
On the ground lying on its side was a male silverback gorilla having a mid morning nap. Two smaller gorillas do the same behind him. One of them perks up and takes note of the people starring at him in disbelief.
A female gorilla and her baby sleep a few feet away. Another silverback — the leader of the group — lurks in the bushes nearby. I feel like I've been transported into another world.
"Holy mackeral!" says my wide-eyed father, soaking in the magical scene around him.
Travelling with Intrepid Travel, I came to Rwanda with my father to experience the thrill of being with the largest living primates in their natural habitat.
Less than 900 mountain gorillas are now left in the wild. They roam the forests of an extinct volcanic region along the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and remain an endangered species.
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| A silverback gorilla in Rwanda |
Each day, small groups of eight people are guided to spend an hour with one of the 10 habituated families used for ecotourism in the park. The other eight families are left for research purposes.
In order to find the gorillas, a team of trackers are out at 6 a.m. looking for the families, then radio their whereabouts to the guides. On this particular day, we're tracking the Ntambaru Group, which has 14 members lead by one male silverback.
When my dad turned 65 this year, he vowed to start doing things he's always wanted to do before it's too late. The last time he travelled overseas was 37 years ago. Now here we were, leaving our world and entering the lives of wild mountain gorillas. The feeling is surreal.
"You think you know what you're going to see but that first moment is like a snapshot. Time stands still," says my father.
Our guide instructs us to keep a seven-metre buffer zone from the habituated gorillas, but there is nothing stopping them from coming close to us. Adrenalin sweeps through me as a female with an eight-month baby on her back approaches us, brushing past a girl's leg like we're invisible.
The rest of the family begins to wake. We switch locations and nearly come face to face with an 18-year-old silverback — the youngest male in the group. He sits like a statue, looking at us with big brown eyes as though he's deep in thought. My heart is racing.
"Okay there's ten minutes left," says our guide. I don't want to leave. The hour has gone by in the blink of an eye.
The gorillas munching casually on plants around us have me cast under their spell. I stumble out of the jungle walking on cloud nine, holding the memory of a life time.
- published by Sun media July 2014
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| Getting up close and personal with a wild silverback mountain gorilla in Rwanda |