Day 4: Gorilla Trek to the Hirwa Group (www.pbase.com/cwillis/hirwa)

The next morning the routine was the same: up early, eat breakfast, drive to the ORTPN office and check in. We were assigned to the Hirwa Group, a group that was opened for tourism only in 2006. The group was formed by a silverback that had defected from the Susa Group, and who had then stolen females from Sabinyo, Group 13, and other groups in Volcanoes National Park. The group has 9 members: 1 silverback, 5 females, and 3 babies.

This trek could not have been more different than the previous day’s Amahoro visit. First off, the weather was not as good – the sky was solid overcast, with no hope of good lighting for pictures. Instead of trekking uphill on one of the volcanoes, we instead went to the large, dense, but relatively flat bamboo forest between Mt. Sabinyo and Mt. Bisoke. Francois, the most senior of the rangers in Volcanoes National Park, and the most famous (because we had seen him on several TV specials) was our guide for this trek, and he lived up to his reputation. We had about a 30-minute walk through fields, with Francois stopping to show us various plants, to explain local agriculture, and to show us a small chameleon. Naturally, he ate some of the plants as well.

We then arrived at the wall and had a lot easier time crossing it than the previous day. Upon entering the bamboo forest, we had about a 20-minute hike to reach the Hirwa Group. The hike was not uphill, but was difficult anyway because the ground was muddy and we had to push through branches, duck under limbs, and the like. When we reached the group, they were near a stream bed in the dense forest. The silverback was in the middle, with females on either side, and the youngsters playing in some nearby bushes. The forest was so dense that all of the viewing we did of the Hirwa group was at very close range – usually 5-10 feet. Taking pictures was difficult because of poor lighting and lots of vegetation getting in the way.

Our initial encounter with the group lasted about 10 minutes, and then suddenly, the entire group got up and walked off into the forest. What followed next was an incredible display of teamwork between Francois and the rangers. The Hirwa group moved – very rapidly – through the forest for most of the rest of our encounter with them, and the trackers did a superb job of keeping track of where the gorillas were headed. We moved very quickly through the bamboo forest for at least 25 minutes without seeing the gorillas again, and I was beginning to wonder if we would catch up to them. We learned later than the Hirwa Group had gotten into an “interaction” with Group 13 the previous day, and the Hirwa silverback had roughed up the silverback from Group 13 pretty extensively, and Francois believed that the movement was to stay away from Group 13 and avoid another fight.

Finally, we caught up with the group again, and for the remainder of our hour (which Francois extended because of the time we lost chasing them through the forest), we had encounters with individual gorillas – first the silverback, then a female, then one of the females with a young baby. Each time, the gorilla would be stationary, generally eating, but only for a few minutes before moving again. There were always gorillas around us in the forest, and several times our group got mixed in with the gorillas, and they would walk through our group, or would break our line by passing in the middle of us. When the silverback did this, I assure you that every member of our group was dead silent as he passed within touching distance of several members of our group!

The great thing about these encounters was that we were REALLY close to the gorillas each time – the dense forest made viewing a close-quarters affair. So, we got a great 5-minute session with a mother and her baby, and another really nice one with the silverback eating bamboo. The viewing was so close that our 100-400 lens was too long even at the 100mm end, and we had to switch to our wide angle (17-85) lens, and we were still filling the frame with the gorillas. A faster lens would have been nice, since the light wasn’t great, but we still managed to get some pictures that we really liked. But this was a day when a 70-200/2.8 lens would have been ideal.

Finally, after moving yet again, we found the group all together in a small clearing. The silverback was eating, and the baby gorillas were playing in a tree. The babies were making a curious “squeaking” sound, and the females and the silverback were vocalizing too. We enjoyed this scene for a few minutes, and then our time with the gorillas was over, and we hiked back out of the forest with Francois.

Even though this trek was different in almost every way from the previous day, it was still excellent. More strenuous, sure, but getting so close to the gorillas, and actually having them move through our group several times, made it a very rewarding experience. Having Francois as our guide was an added bonus – he was a celebrity to us, since we had seen him on TV and heard about him in so many other peoples’ trip reports.

We returned to the Lodge and enjoyed a traditional Rwandan dance and music show put on by the people living near the lodge. We said goodbye to the other people we had met at the lodge, as we and the Canadians were going north into Uganda the next day.

Next up: Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Chris
I'm really enjoying your report. I do a similar trip beginning about the first of July. Stella from Ngamba Island tells me that at this time they don't anticipate discontinuing the forest walk. So, I want to thank you as it was your earlier information that made me decide to do Ngamba Island even if the forest walk was discontinued, now it looks like, I will get the experience.

Shari

Shari, you won't be sorry you went. Ngamba Island is a wonderful place to visit, and if you get to do the forest walk, you will never forget it. Be sure to tell us about it when you get back.

Chris

Day 5: Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (pictures at www.pbase.com/cwillis/mgahinga)

We slept in today and left the Virunga Lodge around 9am to make the short drive up to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda.. Basically, this involves driving around Mt. Muhabura to get to the northern side of the three volcanoes that form the Rwanda-Uganda border (Muhabura, Gahinga and Sabinyo). We crossed the border into Uganda at Cyanika (no problems there), and drove to the Volcanoes Mt. Gahinga Lodge. Upon entering Uganda, we were immediately struck by how different it looks from Rwanda. To start off with, the roads are not paved, but rather are dirt and gravel roads with lots of ruts, mud puddles and other obstructions. The villages do not have the same well-kept, tidy appearance that we had grown accustomed to in Rwanda. Groups of children by the road side would wave as we approached, and then when we got nearer, would stick out their hands and yell as loud as they could, “GIVE ME MONEY!!!”

The Volcanoes Mt. Gahinga Lodge is in the midst of farmland just north of Mt. Gahinga. The Lodge has views of the three volcanoes shared by Uganda and Rwanda, and has lovely landscaped grounds with lots of trees and flowers. The Lodge grounds have abundant birds as well. The guest bandas are round, with bathrooms and showers in separate rooms. It is the most rustic of the Volcanoes lodges that we stayed in, and the guest book suggested that it was far less busy than the Virunga Lodge. In fact, we and our Canadian co-travelers were the only ones staying there. The comments I made earlier about the quality of service at the Virunga Lodge were equally true of the staff at the Mt. Gahinga Lodge: excellent, attentive and courteous service from every member of the lodge staff at all times.

After we settled in and ate lunch, the rain that had been falling all morning had subsided, and the Canadians and I decided to go visit the Mgahinga National Park while my wife took a nap. From the Mt. Gahinga Lodge, the park entrance is about a quarter of a mile walk, and we found several park rangers there who greeted us and welcomed us to the nearby visitor center. The center itself looks extremely modern – definitely as nice as any visitor center you would find in an American national park. It has informative displays, brochures and pictures, and small areas for visitors to hear presentations from the park rangers. We had planned to go visit the observation platform in the park on the lower slopes of Mt. Gahinga, and one of the rangers named Charles gave us a brief orientation and then led us up the short hike (15 minutes) to the platform.

We were joined for this hike by three Germans – a couple who was probably 55-60, and their son who appeared to be about 30. They were birders, and came equipped with their spotting scope and bird books. They explained that they were in the area to see the Rwenzori Turaco, which they described as a splendid bird that was found only in this area of the world. Seeing it involved a long hike to a gorge on the side of Mt. Sabinyo, which they were planning to do the following day.

The observation platform lived up to its billing – it offered a great, panoramic view of the three volcanoes, plus an area of many miles to the north toward Bwindi Impentrable National Park. We could see the DRC-Uganda border town of Bunagana with Ugandan military outposts nearby, as well as Lake Mutanda. Several birds of prey wheeled overhead as we watched the peaks of the three volcanoes come in and out of the clouds swirling around them.

Not having more time in Mgahinga is one of the things I regret about our itinerary. The park has a lot of activities to offer. You can go gorilla trekking there if the one habituated group (Nyakagezi) hasn’t gone over the border into Rwanda (they were in Rwanda during our visit). But the park also has a group of habituated golden monkeys to visit, as well as the Sabinyo Gorge, climbing and camping on the volcanoes, as well as a huge cave that you can visit. I wished we had been able to do some of those activities, but our schedule didn’t permit it. If we were going back I would spend more time there, because the park is very nice, has a great deal to offer, but seemed to have very few tourists around.

We returned to the Mt. Gahinga Lodge and relaxed for the rest of the day. As night fell, it grew quite cool outside (felt like about 45-50 degrees), which was cooler than what we had experienced at the Virunga Lodge. We were all worried about the physical efforts that we would be making the next day on our gorilla trek to the Nkuringo Group, which we had read involves some pretty strenuous hiking. So we all went to bed fairly early, a little nervous but also excited about the next day’s gorilla trek.

Next up: we entertain some local children while trying to follow the Nkuringo Group.

the mountains are just as breathtaking on the Uganda side as on the Rwanda side :D

Day 6: Gorilla trek to Nkuringo Group (pictures at www.pbase.com/cwillis/nkuringo)

With the Nyakagezi Group from Mgahinga Gorilla NP out of reach in Rwanda, we instead drove north from Mt. Gahinga in the early morning light to Nkuringo, on the southern edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This area of Uganda is absolutely beautiful, especially at sunrise, with mist still clinging to the hillsides and sometimes obscuring the valleys. We had a nice, clear day shaping up, and it took us about an hour to drive to the small UWA office in Nkuringo to check in. There is only one habituated gorilla group here, so there were no crowds – just 8 gorilla trekkers and a small array of shops near the UWA office.

Upon arrival, we checked in and got the same sort of briefing we had received in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. However, rather than driving to the starting point of our trek, we just started straight from the UWA office.

Nkuringo is unique, in that the UWA office is at about 7,000 feet, and you begin the trek by going DOWN a very steep, rocky trail to reach the gorillas. The good news is that you start off going downhill, so it’s a little easier; the bad news is that you have to climb up the same hill to get back to the office! The trail has a lot of loose rocks on it, so footing is treacherous, and frequently the porters were assisting various members of our group. The trail down from the UWA office is in an open area through farmland, so we encountered various local people along the way, including a good many children. Near the bottom, we diverted off the trail onto a much narrower, muddy/grassy but equally steep one to rendezvous with the gorillas. We found about 5 members of the group (which numbers about 15) in a heavily overgrown valley between two really steep hills. Interestingly, they were outside the park boundary in a “buffer area” that is cleared of most trees, but which was not being farmed. The gorillas were absolutely buried in vegetation and very difficult to get a clear view of.

The gorillas in Bwindi immediately look different from those in Rwanda. The difference is obvious, and it’s no wonder some researchers want to classify them as a separate subspecies. The noses seem longer and don’t have the same texture above the nostrils that you see in Rwandan gorillas, and the nostrils themselves seem a lot bigger and rounder that what we had seen in Rwanda. They are both incredible animals, but I hadn’t realized that they would look so different.

As we maneuvered clumsily along this narrow valley trying to get a clear view of the gorillas, we saw other members of the group high above us on a steep, green hill. After a few minutes the gorillas in the valley near us started walking right in front of us and then climbing the hill to join their comrades at the top, which was probably about 300-400 feet above us. We followed suit, but with considerably more difficulty. The hill was so steep, and the footing so unreliable, that we really needed to hold on to something (like vines or roots) at almost all times to keep from falling. The sun was out and it felt like it was about 80 degrees outside. The gorillas were casually but very quickly ascending this hill, and we could not come close to their speed. It was a massive effort for us to haul ourselves up that hill, and one of our group actually fell and rolled about 10 feet down the hill, stopping only because one of the UPDF guards was there to catch him. All the while, on a neighboring hill, a group of local children had gathered to watch the action – they had a perfect view of the gorillas and an equally perfect one of us clumsily trying to climb up to reach the gorillas. I am sure they were very entertained!

When we finally got up to where the gorillas were, they were scattered over a large area near the top of the hill. Some were in trees, others sitting around the bases of the trees, and they were all eating bark like crazy. These gorillas did not seem too keen on having their picture taken, because they kept moving around the trees to get out of our view, or burying their faces in the tree trunks. We managed to get a number of good views in, particularly of one of the silverbacks, but generally the Nkuringo Group was our least cooperative group in terms of both viewing and photography. I don’t mean to imply that they are always this way – other members of this Forum who have visited the Nkuringo Group have found them in a very different attitude. It just depends on their mood at the time you visit them.

After the hour was up, we had to hike back up to the UWA office, with a stop for lunch along the way. By now, we were very tired from all the effort it took to follow the gorillas up that hill, so the hike back to the office entailed a good bit of suffering. The rangers and porters were patient and helped us up, and eventually we made it out. Back at the office, they actually did a little ceremony to give us our gorilla-trekking certificates, which were actually little nicer than the ones we had gotten in Rwanda. The trek, from leaving the UWA office until we got back, took about 5 hours. We returned for the afternoon and to spend the night at the Mt. Gahinga Lodge.

Next: we travel to Ruhija and Buhoma, encountering “Drug Belly” along the way. Stay tuned!

Oops, I forgot to add that, when we returnde to the Mt. Gahinga Lodge, we encounted the same three Germans we had met the previous day -- they were eating lunch at the Lodge. They had succeeded in seeing the Rwenzori Turaco in the Mt. Sabinyo Gorge earlier that day, although they commented on the difficulty and treacherousness of the hike. They are an important element to the upcoming "Drug Belly" encounter, so I wanted to include our second meeting with them.

Wayne, your comment is right. In fact, I think I preferred the views from the north -- you can see three of the volcanoes very clearly instead of having one be hidden behind another.

Chris

Loving this report Chris - Nkuringo was the group that I saw, so it brings back wonderful memories.

I recently finished one of the books you mentioned (Shake Hands with the Devil) - one of my Canadian friends(Dalliare obviously gets much more coverage in Canada!) mentioned that Dalliare plans to make a pilgrimage on foot through Rwanda, offering help to farmers and others along the way. Although I didn't like his writing style, I liked the message and am hoping he writes something about any return trip to Rwanda.

I had my heart set on spending two weeks in Rwanda this summer, but am now committed to a much more sedate family vacation in Europe, so your report is also making me a little sad. :'(

Linda, I am sorry to hear that you'll be going to Europe instead of Rwanda ... I'm sure you will have a good time, but I doubt it will compare to Rwanda...

Your mention of Gen. Dallaire reminds me of something we saw at the memorial to the Belgian soldiers in Kigali. There was a chalk board in the room where the soldiers had been executed, and the families of the soldiers had been permitted to write things on the board, and it was then covered with glass. There were several derogatory remarks about Gen. Dallaire (in French of course), explained as having arisen from his directive to the soldiers to surrender rather than fighting the Presidential Guard soldiers who were surrounding them. That didn't really seem fair to me, since Dallaire was operating under very strict orders from the UN not to engage in combat in Rwanda, and he was pleading for authority to be more aggressive, but was not permitted to do so.

Chris

Day 7: From Mgahinga to Buhoma

Today was a travel day: we were making the long drive from Mgahinga to Buhoma, the main tourist access point to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. We left the Mt. Gahinga Lodge around 10am, and first passed through Kisoro. As we did, we saw trucks full of Congolese refugees who had fled into Uganda in early December as a result of rebel activity just over the border near Bunagana. They were being taken back to the Congo, as the fighting had subsided (at least for the moment). We also passed what remained of the refugee camp outside of Kisoro, which thankfully had only a few hundred refugees instead of the 12,000 that had been there a month earlier.

As we continued northward over hilly, twisting dirt roads, we passed by Lake Bunyoni. We saw a tourist vehicle pulled over on the side of the road. We slowed down and realized that it was our German friends and their guide. They were having some sort of problem with their vehicle, and Freddy pulled over and got out to try to help. This left us sitting in the Land Rover, getting a bit of attention from passersby. One of our Canadian companions started snapping some pictures of children nearby, and this set off a chain reaction. Almost instantly, the Land Rover was surrounded by about a dozen children – all boys, and all about 10-13 years old. At first they wanted to be paid for having their pictures taken, but when they didn’t get that, they moved on to demanding various of our possessions, addressing us each time as “mzungu.” So, they would say “mzungu, give me your shoes.” “Mzungu, give me your camera.” Things like that. Fortunately, they didn’t get too upset when we said no. After that phase of the encounter passed, they contented themselves with looking at images of themselves on the back of the camera and generally just talking to us. All the while, Freddy was totally engrossed in helping the Germans’ guide try to fix their vehicle.

Things took a turn for the bizarre when an additional child approached. Unlike the others, he was carrying a panga. Well, carrying isn’t really the right word. He was so obviously enthralled with this giant knife and so impressed with himself in general that he was sure to show off the panga by holding it high and waving it around. Needless to say, we were not thrilled by his approach. He came up to the vehicle, pushing some of the other boys out of the way, and started demanding money and various of our possessions. Fortunately, he was distracted by having his picture taken and then looking at himself on the back of the camera, proudly brandishing the panga in every picture of course. He then volunteered loudly that his name was “Drug Belly.” At first we thought we had misunderstood, but no, it was actually “Drug Belly.” We didn’t get any explanation of the origin of the name, and we didn’t really want it. Fortunately, by this time, a mechanic had arrived to help the Germans and Freddy returned to the Land Rover. the children scattered with one word from Freddy, and we continued our journey north. We all agreed afterward that, in 20 years, we would probably see Drug Belly highlighted as some sort of rebel strongman.

Having left Drug Belly behind, we drove north and eventually entered the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park at the Ndego Gate. We had a very nice drive through the forest, and saw several groups of black and white colobus monkeys, as well as a couple of other monkey species. We stopped at the guest house at Ruhija for lunch, and learned that it is a popular birding spot. As we sat and enjoyed the birds all around and our view of the forest, who pulled up but … the Germans! The had gotten their vehicle working soon after we left, and were planning to spend the night at the Ruhija Guest House and do some birding the following day. The mother appeared less than enthusiastic about the rudimentary guest house, and even suggested that she might come to Buhoma with us, but ended up staying anyway.

After lunch, we were off to Buhoma, and eventually arrived at the Volcanoes Bwindi Lodge. The construction and setting of this Lodge made it our favorite of the Volcanoes Lodges we stayed in. It is built on a hillside and faces a huge, forested hill that is part of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The cabins are spacious and well-appointed, and the central bar and dining area are also comfortable and have the same spectacular view. As with all the other Volcanoes properties we stayed at, the entire staff was friendly and courteous.

That night at dinner we talked to the other guests and heard about their gorilla trekking experiences that day. We were still a little tired from the Nkuringo trek, and my wife decided to forego the last trek in favor of getting a massage at the Bwindi Lodge. So she gave the husband from the Canadian couple her permit, so the plan was that he and I would go trekking and the ladies would relax and get massages. Our permits were for the Rushegura Group, and we heard that this group had been only a 30-minute easy hike away on that day, so we were eagerly anticipating an easy trek for the last day of our trip.

Up next: the Habinyanja Death March

Day 8: Habinyanja Group Gorilla Trek (pictures at www.pbase.com/cwillis/habinyanja)

This was the last day of activities on our trip, and by this time we felt like we had been traveling forever. We got to sleep a bit later than on previous gorilla treks, since the Volcanoes Bwindi Lodge is so close to the gate of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. We leisurely made our way over there and checked in around 8am. A couple of things stood out to us as being different from Rwanda. First, as I noted above, we already had our group assignment (Rushegura) on our permits, instead of being assigned a group when we arrived. Second, the demographics of the gorilla trekkers in Buhoma were very different from what we had seen in Rwanda. The crowd was definitely older, with a substantial number of people in the 55-60 age range. In Rwanda the average age had probably been about 35.

There are three habituated groups open to tourists from Buhoma – Rushegura, Mubare and Habinyanja. Of these, Rushegura is generally considered to be the easiest/shortest trek, Mubare in the middle, and Habinyanja is Bwindi’s equivalent of the Susa Group in Rwanda, as it is the largest habituated group (23 gorillas) and also requires the most strenuous hike.

The pre-assignment of tourists to particular groups and the age of many of the visitors created a problem, as many people were desperate to switch groups and get into the Rushegura Group to obtain an easier trek. A lot of this group-switching appeared to have occurred before we arrived, and shortly we were separated into our groups. Midway through the briefing from the UWA ranger, an American woman approached me and asked me to switch into the Habinyanja Group. She explained that her husband had heart problems and could not do the Habinyanja trek, and that he would not be able to go trekking at all if he didn’t get into the Rushegura Group. I was not happy about the situation, as I was pretty tired and my expectation had been set on going to Rushegura, and on top of that I had not brought enough water/food for a long trek. But I really did not want to be in a position of depriving someone of one of their gorilla treks, so I agreed to switch groups. Now I was dreading what was to come.

The positive thing was that I would see Bwindi’s largest group of habituated gorillas open to tourism, and the people in the Habinyanja trekking group were excellent company. The UWA ranger, Christopher, was very friendly and helpful as well. We drove a short distance to a brick church and started the trek from there.

The difficulty of the hike was every bit what I expected it to be. The first hour was spent climbing a steep, rocky trail through farmland from the church (4,800 feet) to the top of a nearby hill (6,000 feet). At that point, we entered the forest, and it surely lived up to its “Impenetrable” moniker. The jungle was dense and hilly, and the temperature was climbing because of the bright, sunny weather. There were a lot of insects in the forest – mosquitoes and ants being the most annoying to our trekking group. The trek took about 2-1/2 hours total, and we then reached the gorillas. We had the extreme good fortune to encounter them in a very large clearing in the forest, where there were only a few trees, but lots of chest-high bushes. Two of the silverbacks were in the midst of chest-beating and roaring at a solitary blackback who had visited the group hoping to lure a female away. The blackback slinked away into the forest as we were arriving, and after that, the group calmed down. Mercifully, the clearing was relatively level, and the gorillas were not moving very much. Christopher did a great job of moving the group around to get the best views and pictures.

The lighting was excellent and we had clear views of several gorillas at all times throughout our hour visit, so it was photographic heaven. The star of our visit was a 3-month-old baby belonging to one of the females named “Rukundo.” Christopher saw that the baby was visible through a hole in the bushes and maneuvered the group to get a clear view. What happened next left us all dumbstruck. The baby saw us and came out of the bush where his mother was sitting and just stared at the people. Its expression gave you the impression that he had never seen humans this close, and he was clearly fascinated by us. He alternatively stared at us, made various faces, and played with his mother for at least 20 minutes, right out in the open about 6-7 feet away from us. Rukundo wasn’t bothered by the situation at all – she just sat inside a bush and ate like the forest was going to run out of food. But the visitors – Christopher and the tourists alike – were dead silent the entire time, with the only noise being camera shutters clicking away. I must have taken at least 150 pictures of this baby! It was an experience beyond description, and was easily the highlight of all of our gorilla treks.

Eventually Rukundo gathered the baby up and headed up a nearby hill that the group was moving up slowly. We spent a few minutes watching the gorillas come in and out of view as they negotiated the dense vegetation, and two of the group juveniles were rolling around and playing about 150 feet away, but the intervening vegetation made it very difficult to get a picture of what they were doing. Rwansigazi, the group’s dominant silverback, abruptly broke up the play-fight, and that marked the end point of what seemed like a VERY long hour with this group of gorillas. In fact, I had really thought that Christopher had stretched our time with the gorillas because it felt like at least an hour and a half, but when I went back later to look at the time stamps on my pictures, the first and last pictures were separated by exactly 59 minutes.

This left us with an elated trek back to the church. For the first 20 minutes of the trek or so, we heard several instances of gorillas beating their chests nearby in the forest – perhaps the blackback had returned to harass the group. The trekking got hard as we ascended to the 6,000 foot summit of the first hill we climbed, and it had gotten hotter too, so I was suffering rather visibly. At one point, my porter actually grabbed me by the arm and physically pulled me up the trail. We stopped and ate lunch at a leisurely pace at the summit, then made the tortuous descent that we had climbed earlier that day. Honestly, it felt like it was never going to end, but in reality the descent took about an hour and 15 minutes. We drove back to the UWA office, I reviewed my pictures on the way back, and we got our certificates. The trek, which had started at about 8:45 am, finished at about 1:45 pm.

I returned to the Bwindi Lodge by hitching a ride with some other tourists, as my Canadian co-trekker had stayed in the Rushegura group and had finished his trek hours before. I ate lunch and then took a nap to try to recover from the effort. The Canadians and my wife took a tour of a nearby Batwa village, to see a medicinal healer, a banana brewery and to buy handicrafts sold by the local children. We enjoyed our last dinner at the Bwindi Lodge that night and were treated to a spectacular, clear starry sky.

Day 9: Back Home

There’s not much to tell about our final day, other than to mention that it was a long travel day and we experienced significant irritations at the Nairobi airport and then again with Ethiopian Airlines in Addis Ababa. We did, however, make all of our connections and all of our flights were reasonably on time, so we got home with no real complications, and our luggage even made it with us. Tired but satisfied, we faced the prospect of returning to our jobs and starting to plan our next trip.

Up Next: Conclusions

That's great that your difficult trek, which was not what you had anticipated, was rewarded with outstanding gorilla viewing.

Chris! Chris, wait! I'm still on Ethiopia. Almost done with that report and then will move on to this (though I had to peek). Really enjoying your accounts of all your travels. What a trip.

AWESOME report.

Yes I have heard the Impenetrable Park earns its name. And yes the gorillas look extrememly different from the ones in Rwanda

Chris,

Are you not allowed to take pictures inside the memorial to the Belgian soldiers?

Thank you all for reading and for your comments.

Wayne, you can take pictures inside the Belgian soldiers' memorial without restriction. I have a number of pictures that we took inside, but I didn't put them on our PBase gallery because I didn't think they were as reprsentative of what we saw as the outside ones, or perhaps because the lighting or composition wasn't good. We took over 11,000 pictures total on this trip, so what you see on PBase is only the ones I selected out to share.

Is there something in particular you want to see? If I have it I can put it on the gallery temporarily for you.

Chris

Wow! I'm so psyched now for my gorilla trek in May. I think we're trekking the Nkuringo group but I am awaiting confirmation now that our permits have been purhased. Thank you so much for taking the time out to write up this trip report and for posting your pictures. Greatly appreciated.

Juliet

I guess I want to see the board framed in glass (even though I can't read french)

and just to be able to get a sense of the room

Wayne, I will go back to the originals tonight and put a couple up, then e-mail you a link so you can see them. The chalk board messages convey their sentiments quite clearly even without an understanding of the language. I think our picture of the chalk board had some unsightly glare on it, which is why I did not put it up originally, so I apologize for that in advance.

Juliet, good luck with your permits! We were told that he Nkuringo Group frequently hangs out in the cleared buffer area outside the park -- I will be eager to know whether that is the case when you see them.

Chris

Concluding Thoughts

It will not surprise any of you that this trip was an incredible adventure and gave us a great many experiences that we will treasure forever. Uganda and Rwanda are beautiful countries with friendly people and exciting activities for adventurous travelers. Gorilla trekking is surely one of the most rewarding wildlife encounters you can have, anywhere in the world. And the Ngamba Island forest walk was a powerful experience that let us see a side of chimpanzees that we never would have appreciated otherwise.

Another remarkable thing about this trip was the total absence of any major logistical problems. We did not have a single flight canceled, bag lost, or have any missed pick-ups, delays or other problems like that. The entire trip went as planned from start to finish, which was partially the result of some good luck, but also comes down to good planning, which our travel agent (Marie at African Horizons) gets a lot of credit for.

The other really great thing about this trip was Volcanoes Safaris. It is rare in our travel experience to find a tour operator where every single employee is courteous and professional every time you interact with them. But that is exactly what we got with Volcanoes. Our guide, Freddy, was superb, and we were impressed by the service at all three of the Volcanoes Lodges. It must be a reflection of the way the company is run from the top, because service that consistently good does not happen by itself. I would recommend Volcanoes enthusiastically to anyone going to that part of the world, and if we ever go back, we will certainly use them again.

Contact Information for our Travel Providers:
Travel Agent (US-based): Marie Lecoupt-Blesius at African Horizons, www.africanhorizons.com
Volcanoes Safaris: www.volcanoessafaris.com

If anyone has any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.

Chris