Day 79 – Taken down by a gorilla (a birthday K will never forget….!)

Kinigi, Kinigi Guest House

We arrived at the PNV headquarters before 7am, along with many other trekkers. We were hoping to visit the “Susa Group” – the largest gorilla group, so our driver spoke to the guides there so we could get into that group. We were told that the group was too far away, so no one would be visiting Susa today. The group we were given was “Amahoro” which means “peace”.

After a briefing on what not to do (don’t touch them, don’t sneeze on them, don’t stand too close to them, speak only in whispers) we were driven to the village at the starting point of our trek, which included a long stretch on probably the worst and bumpiest road we have ever been on in our life!

Our group of six trekkers plus gorilla guide then headed up, past fields of potato and pyrethrum daisy crops, to the edge of the park, where we were met by an armed ranger (the gun was for poachers and wayward buffalo). Our guide was constantly on the radio to the gorilla trackers inside the park, so the location of our gorillas was known.

The trek there wasn’t too bad, but at times quite steep. The track went through thick vegetation, lots of stinging nettles (which the gorillas like to eat), bamboo thickets, and every now and then we came to a clearing and had some great views of the nearby volcanic peaks.  

When we finally arrived at the trackers after nearly three hours of trekking, we left our packs with them, and went to meet the gorillas. There were a couple of groups lying on the ground having a siesta, they had just been eating bamboo shoots, which apparently can make them “drunk”.

We had only been there less than five minutes when they started waking up and moving about, so our guide said we should follow them. K was at the back of the group when a lone male silver back walked past. As she watched him he ran at her incredibly quickly and started tugging at her coat, she pulled a couple of times and he pulled back harder each time, then pulled her so hard she was pulled off her feet and towards him. He then brought his other arm up and pushed her down. K says she has never felt strength like that, so she decided to just go along with (we hadn’t been prepped how to handle this situation!). By then the guides had realized what was going on and arrived back, making gorilla noises and beating sticks, so the gorilla let K go, and moving toward the rest of our group. Everyone started running away (including the student guide, who got into lots of trouble for it) – the only people not running away were the head guide, and M right behind him running towards K.

The gorilla  then came back for another go and this time the guides got really aggressive with machetes & sticks, and kept him away. Gorillas don't harm or attack humans, but as we were later told, about once a year one of the males tries to “play” with a tourist after they have had “too much bamboo". After this dramatic start, the rest of our hour with gorillas was uneventful as we followed them around and watched them eat, climb trees, sit around, and carry babies on their backs.

We then headed back up and down the mountains for the 3 hour trek back. We had been warned how wet and cold the weather could be on the mountain, so we were surprised by the beautiful sunny day, and we ended up getting quite hot on the way back.

By about 4pm we had arrived back to our starting point, and our guide told us that the trackers who left around midnight to locate the Susa group still hadn’t found them - just as well we changed to another group. As we approached our car the rain started – so we were very lucky to avoid getting cold and wet today!

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We had originally intended to go on to Gisenyi immediately after our trek, but as it was so late and we were pretty tired, we decided to stay another night in Kinigi.