On Sunday we had organised through a friend to visit the Kahuzi Behega National Park, the only place in the world where you can see highland gorillas. John, our guide has worked with the Gorillas since he was 18 years old and has set up his own foundation (the PolePole foundation- www.polepolefoundation.org/ ) in the aim of protecting the Gorillas through educating and including the local communities.
We met John at 7.30am and took the car 30kms out up the rolling hills to the park, were we stopped at the Park headquarters to get our briefing. At one point the mountainous park was a haven for wildlife they had 9 family of Gorillas, hundreds of elephants and water buffalo, but all of the elephants and buffalo were killed during the wars in the Kivus, with militia and locals alike trying to find a away to feed their families. They had tens of skeletons of gorillas and elephants that had fallen victim during this time.
We met our rangers, who have been working in the park for years and took the Land Cruiser up the mountain, and one the slippery dirt track towards the spot where the gorillas had been spotted by the guide earlier that morning. We climbed up the track until we reach a particularly steep spot and the car ground to a halt. The thunderstorm that occurred the night before had left the ground in a frictionless muddy stake more akin to an ice rink than a road.
After a bit of wheel spin, we reversed back down to a decent gradient and made a second attempt. No luck.
A third attempt. Much wheel spins and groaning of the car ensued at the same spot, so the guides with their machetes jumped out and tried to reposition the car across the small patch of grass that remained.
Suddenly arms were waving everywhere, hollers and hoods pulled up as they jumped back into the cars to a chorus of BEES! BEES! It turns out the exact spot that we had stopped in the exact point where a swarm of bees had chosen to be. Defeated we reversed back down the hill and got out.
I was wrapped up in a very fetching green poncho and told to pull it tight around my face so that only my eyes were visible. 'Right, if I say run, we run' directed one of the guides - apparently you really do not want to be stung by one of these bees. It made for quite the adventure as we were quick marched up the hill. I felt like Bear Grills and was narrating my imaginary show to my imaginary audience in my head. 'The killer bees are a tricky African beast, you've got to go and you've got to be fast' (said in the bear grills voice of course -otherwise it would just be silly) It had in fact turned out that the swarm had moved on. But was highly entertaining nonetheless and escaped without a sting.
We reached the point where we would enter the jungle, had a small briefing about the family that we were about to see and the do's and don'ts of watching the gorillas; Photos ok, Flash not. Got to wear a mask, if you have to sneeze turn around. Keep back from the gorillas and do as the guides say.
Briefing over, we started our trek into the rainforest, along a narrow 'piste' in a very dense jungle, being hacked by the guides in front of us with their machetes and AK's on their backs. Although the park is now reopened to tourists and without incident it is still a good place for militia to hide, and in case a gorilla goes ape - if you pardon the pun. The guides all local pygmys not taller than 5 foot, with their huge machetes and guns did make me giggle a little - they looked just like little boys kited and painted up in old man make up, making me feel like a giant, as they walked under branches I had to duck under.
We treked through the jungle for a about 45 mins, having to cross streams by cutting down pieces of bamboo, and avoiding thorny vines and stinging leaves that started to make your knees tingle a little through your wet jeans from the moisture left on the vegitation.
We left the jungle and started to walk through the swamp, when we saw a tree rock in the distance - we'd got them!
We masked up to avoid transfer of diseases, coughs and sneezes, and crept up towards the moving trees in the middle of thr swamp. There they were - sitting and having their lunch completely ignoring us, and gettting on with their day. We got closer and close until we were opposite them barely 10ft apart, as they moved from one pace to another. Of course I was probably taking 50 photos a minute, and we spent almost an hour with the family. From the GIANT silver back to several tiny little babies, the family were very content and barely noticed us, as I stood astounded by these gorgeous creatures.
It's very hard to describe how prilivaged I felt at that moment.
After the hour was up (the guides ensure no more contact than an hour a day with tourists) we split up into two groups one taking the short cut towards the road close by -the other back to the car, who would then pick us up.
We waited for ages, before we started to walk up the road because, unsurprisingly, the car had gotten stuck.
No comments:
Post a Comment