I think we were all a little subdued at breakfast, no doubt wondering what the next few hours had in store for us and whether or not we'd manage "the trek". When Olly was here 2 years ago several of his group announced the day before the trek that they had various ailments which would make even an average trek impossible and so he/Gerald had no option but to request an easy visit - as a result they encountered their troop very close to the visitor centre and on a flat level path, which was rather disappointing.
Starting off our experience with Gorillas, we headed to the main visitor meeting point where we were then briefed on the order of the day and what to expect. We met our guide Omax and
There were quite a few people already there when we arrived at the visitor centre and as we fiddled around donning our gaiters (£7 EBay) we watched an introduction and dance from the Ride 4 A Woman project, empowering women in the local community. Rubbish pics as very dark.
I thought this artist's work was fabulous.
We then had a briefing from the head ranger about the dos and don'ts of gorilla trekking before being called up in groups and allocated our trek/gorilla family. We were to visit the Mubare troop which is led by a 27-year-old silverback Kanyonyi, who defeated a previous leader of the troop, which has been going since 1993, the longest of all the studied troops in the forest.
Finally, we were allocated our guide Omax, armed guards (against possible forest elephants) and porters (for those who wanted help with their belongings).
We quickly said our farewells to Charmaine and Frederick and headed off to meet our porters. The role is much coveted and each day many more turn up than are needed but it's dealt with quite fairly on a rota system so they all get a turn. My porter was a quiet, chubby fellow named Nelson and Ian's a rather more engaging chap by the name of Moses; both were more than happy to carry the back packs and in Nelson's case my monopod too. And then we were off; the speed at which we started was a total shock and I doubted we'd be able to sustain it for long. Luckily it hadn't rained too much yesterday but nevertheless the track was quite slippery in places although with a guiding hand from our porters we made good progress. And then it got tough!!!!!!!!!!!!
Poor Ian, I really don't know how he managed as we were going practically vertically up a slippery mountain side having to take huge steps and his hips were really hurting. Without my cameras on my back I found the going a lot easier and so asked Nelson to help Ian and with him pushing and Moses pulling between them they got him up the worst of the track. We had to keep stopping but the rest of the group were very gracious and assured us that they were grateful of their rest time whilst we caught up. I think Olly started to feel that perhaps he'd over estimated Ian's fitness/stamina and despite me telling him to push ahead with the others, he hung back and stayed with us.
All this time it was simply impossible to take any photos; my cameras were safely tucked up in the back packs on the porters' backs and I'd stupidly left my phone in mine too.
A couple of times Ian went a very strange colour and I seriously thought we'd need to turn back; even he began to question whether he could continue but fast forward 2 1/2 hours and we've almost reached our group ............... except we've taken so long they've moved on.
We finally caught up with them and the trackers then had to hack their way through the vegetation for about 200m and we followed. Normally the porters have to stay behind at this point but Moses was allowed to continue to help Ian and suddenly we were in an open clearing and there right in front of us were 7 of the 9 gorillas in the troop.
Despite them not being in dense foliage, photography was rather difficult as a) I'd had absolutely no time to get organised and decide which lenses to use, b) we were on the side of a steep slope which made balancing hard, c) I was still out of puff from the climb and d) with trekkers as well as clients there were more than 12 people all in a relatively small space and all keen to get the best view. These are mostly SOOC (straight out of camera) and so a lot have leaves in annoying places etc.
The magnificent Kanyonyi
It's hard to believe these huge animals survive solely on vegetation.
He soon wandered off and I was worried that'd be the last we saw of him but he settled down again not too far away.
Quite well hidden behind a bush was a mother with a youngster
The way she handled the baby was just like a human, tickling its chin and kissing it - so sweet.
This would have been a lovely shot but for the branch in the way.
This American woman was an absolute pain, she sat herself in front of the Silverback and just took photo after photo and even got the guards filming video footage on another camera. She repeatedly took off her face covering and when Omax finally snapped and told her to let someone else have a good photo opportunity she really took offence.
This one was very amusing and kept pulling silly faces.
Ian and Olly
Finally I was able to get a clear shot of the baby.
All too quickly our time was up - it's astonishing how quickly an hour can pass when you're engrossed. Given my time again I would have tried to be more creative with my shots but to be honest it was all a bit overwhelming!
I did manage a shot of the two silverbacks together.
Then Olly took a couple of us on his phone (and he calls himself a photographer!)
Ian with his saviours Nelson and Moses. I asked Nelson what he did when he wasn't portering and apparently he has a banana plantation, well only 30 trees but he said they take a lot of looking after.
Once we were clear of the troop we sat down on logs and ate our packed lunches which other Ian's porter had been carrying, but as neither Ian nor I were particularly hungry we gave most of it away to the porters.
Fortunately we didn't come across any elephants so our armed guard didn't need to fire his weapon.
Nelson diligently waiting to help me negotiate a puddle. He really was very good and put out a steadying hand whenever he thought it might be needed.
Then we began the descent and rather than go down the same way we went across the top of the mountain ridge and down a less steep way but it was still quite tricky.
Still halfway up the mountain we came to a clearing where we would wait for Landrovers to pick us up and drive us back to the lodge. About 25 very scruffy children were there and they'd laid their (really bad) artwork on the ground in the hope that we would buy it - my cameras/phone were packed away so no pictures. Unfortunately we had to wait well over half an hour in the hot sun with no shade and then the drive back around the mountain took a good 20 mins so it goes to show just how far we'd trekked.
Exhausted but elated that we'd survived we stopped at the visitor centre to collect our certificates before having a well deserved rest back at the lodge.
