gorillas

Wednesday 6^th June 2007 Vurunga Hotel Camp

6.30am we left to do the whole thing again! This is the second time we are going to the DRC! Going on the road bumpy bumpy, windy windy, to the base of the jungle-covered volcano. Instead of, like yesterday, no guards, today there were 13 waiting for us. Off we set with two guides and two armed guards with rifles and machetes to ward off the elephant and buffalo which sometimes appear. After walking through the jungle for about 3Km, 1.5hours, there they were. A huge, alpha male gorilla, the ‘silverback’ and five females, four babies and two youngsters, a troop of twelve in all foraging on the leaves of vines on the ground. We got within half a meter of the babies and two meters of the adults. Their gentle eyes and manner belies their strength, and the guides were very wary, grunting and cutting the branches to warn them we were changing position. The babies swung around playfully with each other in the trees while the adults looked at us slowly straight in the eye then carried on eating. The huge, massive silverback would not look at us at all and carried on slowly stripping the leaves from the vines and slowly munching them. We stayed a very short hour and then trekked back down through the damp, (muddy in places) rain forest. The rain forest experience itself would have been worth it, without the gorilla encounter. The once in a lifetime remote touching of souls was moving beyond the telling.

Tuesday 5^th June 2007 Vurungu Hotel Camp

We thought we had arranged for five of us to go tracking gorillas in the DRC, but on arrival at the camp Thomas wouldn’t accept our ‘old’ 1999 dollars. (We have been having this trouble in most parts of east Africa) After canceling and making arrangements to go in the Uganda side of the Virunga mountains (Ruwanda, Uganda and DRC Volcano Parks back onto each other), he suddenly changed his mind and ‘Hakuna Matata’, now accepted them. So we decided to stick with our friends and went with Thomas as he said he had a ‘professional operation’.

This morning at 6.30 we left in a sedan to go to the border. I had to sit on Nev’s lap in the front seat with the other three in the back. Sometimes he takes seven people in a car the size of Tori’s!! After a terrible road, scraping the sump and chassis on the rocks in the road we arrived in 30minutes. We went through the border with no problem, some stranger welcomed us into the DRC with a warm handshake and “welcome to DRC”, and were taken to the office of Daniel, the Wildlife Officer in charge. Here we were subjected to a long lecture about how gorillas were wild animals and we were not to go nearer than 7m to them, cough and sneeze away so as not to spread infection, and if they were to charge us, to crouch down and look away. Also we were to be patient as this was not a tour like that in Serengeti where one is taken directly to the lion, Africa time is “flexible”, and we were not to talk like the Americans who want to see the gorillas at exactly 10am, as they had a plane to catch. He then proceeded to write out the permits, but didn’t have a pen and had to borrow Ingrid’s. He wanted to make a phone call and had to send out for more air-time. He then wanted to dial the number, but couldn’t see because his arm was too short and didn’t have any glasses, so had to ask one of us to do it. Man, it tough getting old.

We were then loaded into a very decrepit, no shocks or springs Landcruiser, and were warned that the roads were much worse in the DRC. We were told, Hakuna Matata, its just a short ride to the jungle. We arrived at our destination an hour and a half later, and they were right about the roads. We parked on a slope as the car couldn’t start without a run. Another spectacular drive, scenic wise, similar the Ugandan steep slopes, but here all the hills are terraced and planted mostly with runner beans climbing up poles, and the other crops. It looked more fertile than Uganda and in the road cuttings we could see the layers of volcanic ash as it had settled after pouring out of the eight free standing volcanoes, two of which are still active but dormant at present, last eruption as recently as 2002. There are lots of fizzy rocks from the lava around.

When we reached the park we found the guide had turned up missing!!! Our driver who couldn’t speak English only French, left us with the two armed guards, and sprinted off into the jungle. After an hour and a half he returned, and communicated in broken English, Swahili and French that the guide could have gone in any direction, and we had better come back tomorrow. We of course were furious, but this is Africa, and instead of Hakuna matata (No problem) we heard a lot of Matatas, which we had never heard before. We got back to the border (it seemed twice as long because we were disappointed) and while waiting in Daniel’s office for him to sort out the matata, my troubles started. First a chap stormed into the office and started swearing at us, and only after someone had removed him did they tell us he was mad. We then went down to customs, and while we were waiting, a second man sat right in front of me on the floor and started eating dried fish. He suddenly stood up and aimed his clenched fists at me, I got the fright of my life, and after he was removed by the locals, I couldn’t help but burst into tears. They told us he was also mad, and there many like him because of the war, but are now very happy with Kabila as the new president. To cut a long story a bit shorter, we have to do this again tomorrow, when we hope to see the gorillas.

The DRC people seem to be poorer and dirtier than those in Uganda, who have better housing and seem more industrious, from the impression we got.

The bicycle has not evolved here, they are using hand-made wooden scooters to transport their goods to market. The wheels are made of wood with a strip of tyre around the outside.and a hole drilled through the middle with a pipe for an axle. Just in front of the back wheel a piece of tyre sticks up which the driver pushes down on the wheel with his heel as a brake. They travel downhill at death-defying speeds very similar to the “Flintstones”. Two people usually handle a loaded ‘vehicle’, one steers and one pushing from behind. Except downhill, when they both jump on together with the load. We have seen them loaded with 200Kg. The front even has a suspension made out of tyre strips. Man, its tough in Africa.

These countries are so backwards but their telephone system is as good, if not better than ours, although there are virtually no telephone lines, cell phone coverage is excellent and cheap. 10 minutes on the Internet cost R2.50.

Monday 4^th June 2007 Vurungu Hotel Camp

We proceeded to Kisoro south west Uganda along one of the prettiest and most interesting drives yet. It was like the Valley of a Thousand hills X10. All the natural forest jungle has been removed and the Ugandans cultivate from the top of the hills to the bottom of the valleys – every square inch, up and down hills so steep no mechanical devices can be used, only hoes. It is unbelievable that people have to climb up such high steep mountains, do a day’s work and cart their produce down on their heads. We would be exhausted just getting to the top of the mountain. And this went on for 150Km. They then have to caryy their produce by head or bicycle to the markets. Although it is 2500m above sea level, they grow bananas, pawpaws, madumbes, maize, sorghum, wheat, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, avocados, pineapples, sugarcane (stems thicker than Nev’s wrist) and wattle, gum and pine trees. It is still very fertile, but continual cropping is taking its toll and in certain areas there is evidence of lack of fertility. The government is promoting timber production in the areas of lower fertility. There are thousands of people and only the proclaimed areas are natural, which is minimal.

Sunday 3^rd June 2007 QENP Ishasha Camp- ant camp

We went for a game drive along a long-disused track and found an open plain with a variety of animals, but not in large quantities. We came across a hippo carcass with vultures still pulling at the meat. On further investigation Nev discovered it had been poached. The animals are fairly plentiful but only a few types eg Kob , Waterbuk, Topi (similar to Hartebeest), Buffalo, Elephant, Hippo, Babboon, Monkey and birds of course.

Saturday 2^nd June 2007 QENP Ishasha camp- ant camp

Nev woke up ecstatic with hippos and his favourite animal, spotted hyena having shouted all night long. We made our way slowly down to Ishasha camp, still in QENP. The road was rather bad in places, potholes and mud, exacerbated by the graders churning up the mud and making the conditions temporarily worse. We made it in the end, having called in at fishing village on the edge of the Lake Edward. Lots of the mottled, hairy/bald, ugly yet graceful Maribu storks were the official rubbish collectors, and since the people were too poor to buy anything disposable, the Maribus feasted on all the rubbish, which was biodegradable anyway. The smell of fish was overpowering. They fish, dry the fish, bag them and transport them out for sale. A lot goes to the DRC. We then proceeded to Ishasha camp. We set up camp and were attacked by large, big, ants that got into Nev’s pants and BIT HIM hehehe. He jumped around in pain and eventually managed to remove them. We moved our Landy three times trying to get away from them, but it didn’t help. Only Dave and Beryl weren’t worried by them. The soldier variety would bite into our shoe/skin and hold on tightly, as if their pincers were trapped, and drew blood when pulled off. Some were still holding onto our shoes the next morning!! Safari ants. The Hardmans used antkiller and Ingrid still got them in her pants. The sounds of lion, hippo, hyena, baboon and red-tailed monkey were around all night.