Face to Face with the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda – Part 2 | Janine Lazarus

Face to Face with the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda – Part 2 | Janine Lazarus

< Face to Face with the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda – Part 1

The next day, we opt for an ‘easy’ hike. Our bodies ache from the previous encounter, so we decided to cut ourselves some slack. Best laid plans and all that… While we sipped the most delicious Rwandan coffee at the gorilla trekking HQ located in the dusty town of Ruhengeri, the park rangers huddle together deciding which trekkers would be in each group and which gorilla family each group would visit that day. The trekkers are matched to a gorilla family based on the distance and terrain to reach them.

We drove a few minutes from the park entrance to the start of the hiking trail, the edge of the 160km square national park that protects Rwanda’s section of the Virunga mountains. This range of six extinct and three active volcanoes crosses the intersection of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo border and is home to the endangered mountain gorilla.

It’s a reasonably easy start. We walk on well-structured paths. Endlessly green, lush mountains surround us with the occasional splash of colour from the clothing of local farmers brightening the landscape. Smiling school children wave at us.

After a steady but comfortable walk of about twenty minutes across the relatively flat ground, we cross a tricky stone wall and head into the thick, humid jungle. And that’s when things get real.

It’s a good time to get to know our group’s ranger. Theo is indisputably the boss. Whatever he says, you do. There are no exceptions. He keeps things light and fun until we hit crunch time.

The Umubano gorilla family aren’t nearly as accommodating as the Sabyinyo family from the day before. They keep on moving higher and higher through the vegetation. We have little choice but to follow. There is less thick mud this time, but the steep ascent makes the previous encounter seem like a proverbial walk in the park.

My knees ache as I clamber higher and higher with Andrew, my porter for the day. He tells me that many of the porters are ex poachers who now earn their income through tourism. He admits that he was once a poacher too. A programme of education and training has created a livelihood for the local people and an incentive to protect the mountain gorillas and their habitat.

The same story applies to the gorilla trackers. These men have an admirable job. They get up at first light to pick up the trail of the gorillas and stay with the family until the group meets them. And there is constant radio communication.

After another hour of climbing up, Theo mouths ‘10 minutes.’ Our trackers make deep grunting noises to communicate to the gorillas that we’re on our way. We remain silent. The anticipation runs high.

But 10 minutes, becomes another 10 minutes, and 10 more, until if feels like I have no more juice left in my tank. I try to keep my eyes on my boots, but whenever I sneak a peak up, the path snakes its way relentlessly uphill. As it turns out, we have more than two hours of serious bundu bashing ahead of us. We battle on.

I hear our gorilla family before I see them. A rustling of leaves behind me, a face half in shadow and a low grunt sends a shot of adrenaline racing through me. We emerge into a misty clearing where nothing but a low hedge of ferns separates us from a sleeping Silverback.

We eventually spot the rest of his family climbing with amazing dexterity deeper into the jungle. Breathless, we perch on a ledge, watching these huge creatures move further and further away. The landscape below us seems to stretch into infinity. Bright green grassy fields, endless hills, rich brown tilled earth, interrupted here and there with wooden huts.

The birdsong is exquisite here. We’ve climbed 2710m above sea level. I suck in great lungfuls of air.

Our descent is pure bliss by comparison, most of it done sliding downhill on our backsides through the terrain. When we reach where we set off, Theo is profoundly apologetic that we didn’t get to see this family of gorillas up close. We assure him that this must be the very definition of trekking with the mountain gorillas.

Two entirely different experiences, both of which are equally unforgettable.  

According to a pre Covid census, around 1064 gorillas inhabit the misty jungle of the Virunga Mountains, a verdant chain of volcanic peaks. While still considered critically endangered, mountain gorilla numbers are on the rise, although with poaching an ever-lurching threat, along with habitat loss, disease and civil strife, their survival continues to rely on conservation efforts.

We visit the sprawling Ellen De Generes Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund at the foot of the Virunga Mountains.

For 55 years, the sterling work done here has not only protected gorillas with direct, sustained efforts, but has also facilitated significant scientific research, educated and supported local communities and trained thousands of students to become the next generation of conservationists.

Humans may be our planet’s biggest threat, but we are also its greatest hope.

Janine Lazarus

What started with Dian Fossey’s two tents in the forest of Rwanda, has grown into the world’s largest and longest-running organisation dedicated to gorilla conservation and research. Fossey, who once called these mountains home, said: “

I feel more comfortable with gorillas than with people. I can anticipate what a gorilla is going to do, and they’re purely motivated.

Dian Fossey, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund

This resonates entirely. It’s where the noise of the chaotic world stops.

I have travelled Africa, but Rwanda is unlike any place on the continent that I have visited. It is so lush and verdant that it feels like whatever you planted, something beautiful would grow. The perfectly tarred roads in Kigali surround picturesque gardens in which the locals take great pride.

And everyone seems to be doing something. Red helmeted motorcyclists ferrying their yellow helmeted passengers buzz around the city centre and the rural areas like busy bees. The traffic is delightfully organised chaos.

The system under the iron fist presidency of Paul Kagame works. No smoking is allowed in public, and plastic bags are prohibited in the country. Uniformed children attend school in two shifts: morning and afternoon so that they all get access to an education.

And it is a country that is safe for women. Women make up 64% of the country’s parliament.

The land of a thousand hills and a million smiles lives up to its name. The people here are incredibly warm and hospitable. Everyone smiles their heartfelt welcome.

This is a country in recovery from a traumatic history – the 1994 Genocide. One million people were brutally slaughtered in one hundred days when neighbours turned on neighbours and family turned on family.

Twenty-eight years later, this is a dark cloud in an otherwise perfect blue sky. But Rwandans believe that a clear blue sky awaits them. They just need the world to believe this too.

Gallery – Face to Face with the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda – Part 2 | Janine Lazarus

About Janine Lazarus

Janine has worked in the mainstream media as a journalist for the past 38 years, with her focus on securing exclusive interviews and news-breaking stories with top names in the news, public figures and celebrities. She has also gained valuable international exposure in the United Kingdom, Dubai, Pakistan and Lebanon. She has also worked as a media consultant across the African continent for the past several years.

As an investigative journalist, radio talk show host, television presenter and researcher/producer for both local and international factual television programming, Janine uses this experience as a credible platform to provide clients with ‘a bird’s eye view’ of the media machine, as well as a realistic insight into the dynamics of a news environment.

As a Media and Communications Consultant to several national and international blue-chip corporates, para-statals and government departments, Janine has devised a series of highly interactive workshops that go a long way in assisting select clients to develop the skills necessary for successful encounters with both internal and external audiences.