Two messages I have received from two of my friends complaining about the change of style in my recent updates made me think that I need to find a solution to my "grievance about me" which I made apparent to all in my last update. At the end of the day, taking this route with a car is once in a lifetime experience (isn't it?). Notice how I used the term "this route".

I decided to snap out of the mentality of "a kid who lost his toy". Nevertheless, I want to apologize in advance for any slip of the tongue during the transition phase.

Rwanda
I am certain; many of us imagine Rwanda as a country where millions of people have been slain brutally not so long ago. Unfortunately the haunting images from Rwanda in Coskun Aral's photographs still linger in my memory. The trauma of such awful images etched Rwanda into the memories of many as the country where people are being massacred. Until I began to do research about the current situation in the country, regretfully, I had the same misconstrued belief about Rwanda.

On Friday, February 24th, I went from the left to the right side of the road when I crossed the border from Uganda to Rwanda. My entire trip from Kenya onwards includes countries where traffic drives, unfortunately on the wrong... sorry, on the left side of the road, with the exception of Rwanda. Should you get into a debate with the English people about it, they will argue that it's not them but the others who drive on the wrong side of the road. That's when I tell them our famous Laz (people living in the north east of Turkey) joke. One of our Laz (No offence to the Laz!) is driving along a very busy intercity highway, but on the side he is familiar with, on the right side... Of course this causes absolute chaos on the road, people blowing their horns, jumping out of the cars, etc... In the meantime a radio broadcast announces a warning that there is "a crazy person" driving on the wrong side of the road. When our Laz hears this he grumbles "Which one??? It's all of them... All of them, I say." Anyway! Until the end of my trip this is the last time I get to enjoy being on the "right" side of the road. After Rwanda the agony will resume but I think I've gotten used to it by now.

After a simple passport and triptyque ceremony I entered the country. Since Kenya they haven't been even looking at the car or its contents during triptyque and customs controls. Should I put up a sign on the window that reads "All kinds of smuggled goods available"? Human trade, guns, drugs, and the very popular: diamonds, etc... All I need is just to cover the cost of my stolen stuff. (Argh, I mentioned the stolen stuff again)

The border point I crossed to enter Rwanda is not the main border gate between Uganda and Rwanda. Like I did at the Kenya - Uganda border, I used a secondary border gate. There were two reasons for this: First, a change in the plans to include a short Congo visit from Uganda, and the mountain gorillas. Actually these two reasons are linked together. Let me explain. When the world learned about the mountain gorillas from late Dian Fossey and the movie "Gorillas in the Mist" which told her life story, and the region was flooded by visitors, first Uganda and then Rwanda figured out that this could be an important source of revenue, hence transformed it into a paid attraction. Interest in the mountain gorillas increased despite the cost and the local authorities learned by trial and error the "demand / supply" rules. This encouraged them to push the budgets of the tourists even further. In the meantime Congo whose plate has been full with domestic matters did not catch on with this frenzy. Those who discovered this country where it didn't cost an arm and a leg to see a few gorillas began to change their route. To give you an idea about the prices, an hour of gorilla-watching costs USD375.00 in Uganda and Rwanda, whereas this fee is USD225.00 in Congo. At the end of the day, they are all the same; they come from the same mountains. The Virunga Mountains, home to these gorillas, are situated where the borders of these three countries intersect. They consist of a chain of nine volcanoes, three of which are still active. That's where all the gorillas and their families live.

To make the long story short, I was still going to enter Rwanda from Uganda and was going to pay USD60.00 for visa in any case. I would be paying this fee even if I entered Rwanda from Congo. So the only difference was in that I would pay USD30.00 for visa to enter Congo from Uganda; stay there a few nights, see the gorillas at a reduced cost and then cross into Rwanda. But when Uncle Daniel, the "friend" who was going to accompany me from Uganda to first Congo and then to Rwanda ripped me off, I got angry, changed my mind and crossed over to Rwanda instead. So this is the story of why I entered Rwanda from Kisoro instead of Butare like everyone else.

Ruhengeri / Volcanoes National Park: Golden Monkey and the Gorillas
First destination is Ruhengeri, a town about 40km from the border. I will replenish my supplies there and make an appointment to see the gorillas and then go up the mountain. The plan is to go to the Volcanoes National Park (Parc des Volcans) situated on the Rwandan part of the Virunga Mountains. This 13,000 hectare park's highest point is the 4,507 meter summit of Mount Karisimbi, which is right on the border between Rwanda and Congo. The national parks in Rwanda are part of an organization called ORTPN (Office Rwandais du Tourisme et des Parc Nationaux) which stands for Rwanda's Office of Tourism and National Parks. ORTPN has an office near each and every national park and they have a very efficient organizational structure. Well why not, with all the money pouring in. Each office has satellite connection to the head office in Kigali. The appointments, especially for the mountain gorilla tracking, are all arranged by the head office. But here they allow people to make bookings at any of the offices, so as not to inconvenience the tourists like they do in Uganda.

Now I want to answer your question "what do you mean by appointment?" Well, there are only about 300 mountain gorillas left in the Virunga Mountains region, and they need to be protected against the poachers (unfortunately there are also people who hunt these animals for different reasons) and the infectious diseases. Soldiers patrol the mountains continuously to solve the first problem. For the second one, they implement some limitations to tourist exposure. For instance, you can only view them for an hour. They don't let you stay for another extra minute on top of that hour. A gorilla family can only be visited by a single group of a maximum of 8 people per day. You have to maintain a distance of 7 meters between you and the gorillas. If they try to approach you, you have to move away, slowly and without turning away from them. It is strictly forbidden to throw on to the ground any of the food you brought on the excursion, so that the gorillas won't pick them up and eat later. If you need to go to the toilet, the one of the trackers dig a hole on the ground with his machete and once you are done it is covered by earth. When with the gorillas it is forbidden to sneeze or cough towards them. There are many other rules similar to these.

There are few gorilla families living in the park. The reservations are made according to the rule of only one group of max 8 people per gorilla family per day. In the high season sometimes weeks and even a full month of gorilla tracking events maybe fully booked and reservations need to be made well in advance. My attempt coincided with the mid-rain season when not many people do this so I only had to wait for a couple of days.

Now, you can't just go visit the gorillas in their house for this one hour "meeting". Trackers get in the forest long before you do and track the gorillas. When they find the gorilla family they get on their radiophone and inform the guide leading the tourist group. The guide then takes the group to this location. Group members meet at 07:00 in the morning at the meeting point and are briefed about the gorilla family they will be seeing and the rules... Then everyone drives their vehicles as far as they can towards the location of the gorillas; then leaves the vehicles there and starts walking. It is more than a walk, more like a "climb", and in a jungle.

So! I booked my place for the event at ORTPN Ruhengeri office for the 3rd day of my stay. In the meantime if someone cancels their booking I might be able to go on an earlier than that. To do this I have to be ready at the meeting point on the mountain every morning at 06:45. This means 3 nights on the mountain. I will stay at the Kinigi Guest House close to the meeting point. I arrived at Kinigi after driving on a 25km rough (or rocky) road. This guest house actually belongs to a local NGO called ASOFERWA (Association de Solidarité des Femmes Rwandaises / Association for Rwandan Women's Alliance Solidarity).


Farmers on the field, Kinigi Village


Shepherd kids, Kinigi Village

ASOFERWA is an association formed in August 1994 for the women and the orphans affected by the genocide in 1994. This organization is trying to extend a helping hand and services to a wide range of "genocide victims"; people "affected by the genocide"; women who became widows, children who became orphans, victims of emotional and physical violence and abuse, and people who were raped and contracted AIDS during the genocide, and even the people who are accused of taking part in the genocide and are included in the "re-training" programs.

These genocide victims are provided with shelters in the "Peace Villages" built in various parts of Rwanda. These villages consist of around 100 - 150 houses and accommodate for 600 - 1,200 people. Job training is also provided to these victims and the orphans are placed with families.



Kinigi Guesthouse, Volcanoes National Park

In short, staying at this guest house which belongs to ASOFERWA means that you contribute to a great cause. Here are the contact details for the guest house for those who are visiting Rwanda and Volcanoes National Park (which is something I strongly recommend):

Kinigi Guest House
Tel : +250 8533606, +250 8848061, +250 8515146 and +250 547156
E-mail : kinigi-guesthouse@rwanda1.com
Guesthouse director : Ms. Beatrice Mukangenzi
Receptionist : Ms. Rosetter Mbabazi
Both of these ladies speak English and French.

Kinigi Guest House offers quality service; it is an inexpensive, clean, peaceful and modest place, and the staff is friendly and helpful. And it is almost within walking distance to the meeting point.
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Guest house, and behind it the majestic Sabyinyo Mountain (3,634m)

The next morning at 06:45 I am ready at the meeting point. Since no one has cancelled their reservation I could not get in one of the "gorilla tours" for the day. So I will go to see the Golden Monkeys (whose Latin name is cercopithecus kandti), something I planned to do earlier. This species of primates are unique to the Albertine Rift area of the Great Rift Valley and their habitat is mainly the Volcanoes National Park. It is said that there is a small group of them living in the south, in the Nyungwe Forest, however, the noteworthy majority of them live around the Virunga Volcanoes region. According to the 2004 census, there are approximately 40 golden monkeys living in the Volcanoes National Park. The World Conservation Union included them in the list of endangered animals, and they have been allowed to accept visitors only since 2003. These golden monkeys do not have anyone who looked after or made a movie for them so they are not as famous as their mountain gorilla brothers.

Golden monkey takes its name from the golden colored hair on its body, cheeks and tail. Our tour guide is Francis Ndagijimana. First he briefed us. There are 6 Germans (whose ages I assume range from 60 to 75) and I (age 47). The Germans are in one car, Francis and I are in mine, and we drive to the village where the walk will start from. At this point five soldiers joined us. Two of them will wait by the cars; the others will come with us. This is some serious organizing. We felt it even at the meeting point. They spared no effort in providing a proper service for the money they are getting.


Came across a little chameleon during our walk across the potato fields

We walked across the potato fields and reached the national park boundaries. The national park boundary is defined by a 1.5 high wall of piled-up stones. Francis tells us that this wall is built to stop the buffalos from leaving the park and damage the crops in the fields that belong to the villagers.


A forest village just outside of the boundaries of the Volcanoes National Park.

As soon as we enter the forest the ground becomes muddy. It was muddy since we got out of our cars but it wasn't that bad. Once we entered the bamboo intense forest at places we sink in the mud up to our ankles. The German troops are well prepared; with their gaiters covering the ankles and the calves, they are relatively protected from the mud. And yours truly is walking on in the mud up to my ankles. In the beginning I found the Germans' outfits and equipments a little over the top but now I see who was being the real smart aleck. In the meantime our guide Francis is continuously talking to the trackers on the radio and receiving information on the whereabouts of the monkeys. After a half hour trek he told us that we were close, then we came across the trackers. Francis told us that we needed to leave our bags here, since it was going to be difficult to walk through the thick forest of bamboos from this point onwards. Two of the soldiers were going to wait by the bags. I asked Francis how long we had to walk; it was another 500 m to 1 km. Since it didn't look like we could come back to get the camera, so I had to pick the most suitable lens out of my backpack (which is actually my camera bag) and put it on my camera. I thought dense forest would prevent much zooming, so I put on the 17 - 55 mm (it corresponds to 25 - 85 mm in the conventional cameras). Later I would want to hit myself in the head with that lens and the camera. Of course it was insufficient and I regretted that I didn't take the bigger lens, or rather, that I believed Francis and didn't take my backpack with me. Granted, it was not an easy path but I could have handled it with my backpack. I could have taken better photos.

Finally we arrived at the location where the monkeys were. First we spotted one. Then a few more appeared. Shortly after they were all jumping and bouncing around us. I think there were about 20 of them. Some of them were only babies. I even saw a little one hanging on to its mother's belly. The monkeys were feeding on fruits and seeds off the trees and when there weren't any left they were moving on to the next one, jumping from one tree to the other. They were moving fast so it was only possible to capture them in photos when they stopped to eat. The dense trees, branches and leaves were also obstructing the view. It was almost impossible to get a clear picture of a monkey. Here are some of the better ones I could take.


One of the golden monkeys, heading to its next place of meal.

They were looking surprised to see me in front of them trying to take their photos.

Same 7 meter rule applied to the golden monkeys as well. The monkeys themselves never let you get any closer than that anyways.

Our 1 hour was up and we made our way back by slogging through the mud. When we returned to the spot where our cars were I tried to scrape the mud off my shoes and pants with a piece of wood I found. I dropped Francis back at the meeting spot and returned to the guesthouse. My pants and shoes were covered with mud and if I washed them they wouldn't be dry the next day and I didn't have spare walking boots. So I decided to leave the mud to dry and brush it off. The cleaning lady must have felt sorry for me when she saw me in front of my room trying to clean up because soon she handed me a wooden brush which made my job easier. I was ready for the next morning. I showered and headed to the restaurant to unwind with a cold beer and work on my updates.

Guesthouse consists of a few single storey buildings. The main building is the largest of one and has the reception, office, a lounge with a fireplace, cafeteria and the kitchen. The building where my room is has two lines of 10-12 single rooms back to back and it also has a garden in front of it. There is another building where there are dormitory style rooms which accommodate about 6 - 8 people. The last one has a laundry and also the rooms where the staff members stay. These buildings are scattered in a large yard.

The next morning at 06:45 I am at the meeting point again. This time there are a few people who didn't make it and they will add me to one of the groups. ORTPN's Ruhengeri office director Anaclet Budahera is at the meeting point every morning conducting a meeting with all the guides to decide who leads which group. Previously I have told Anaclet that I wanted to see a gorilla family that wasn't difficult to get to. Sabinyo Family seemed to be the best for this but there are no spots for me in the Sabinyo group. The group visiting the Umubano Family is the only one I can get in and my guide book doesn't have any information on this family. Guides don't really tell you about the level of difficulty involved. Oh well, I will just have to do with the information I get. This is not the first time I will embark on a difficult trek, even if that is what is ahead of me.

Another briefing session. Our guide is telling us about the Umubano Family. It has 8 members. As we conclude that the leader of the group is probably pretty clued on the family planning concept, we find out the real reason: There is only one silverback in the family. Silverback is the name given to the mature male gorillas. When they reach sexual maturity, a saddle of gray or silver-colored hair develops on their backs. Each family of mountain gorillas has a leader; of course it is the silverback. In a family there can be more than one silverback, but only one undisputable leader. All the females belong to the leader. Other silverbacks in the group can mate with the females provided that the leader allows them.
As to the family that we will be visiting, the Umubano's, there is only one silverback. His name is Charlie. His aggressiveness is the reason why he is the only one. I guess that's why no other silverback survives in the group. Charlie has recently kidnapped a female from a large family with 8 silverbacks in it, after beating up the silverbacks. Ok, this makes things a little complicated. What if he tries to beat us up, too?

The briefing is over; we get in the cars and drive to the spot where our trek will start. This time we have 2 guides, one of which comes with me in my car. It took us 35 minutes to get to the place where we park our cars. It is not only further than the place we went to yesterday but also the road, especially towards the end, was very rough. The mud became very slippery and cars began to skid. It's not a good sign.
We are 6 in the group, and they are all young, just like me! J In the previous group I didn't get to interact much with the Germans but we mingled quickly in this group, maybe because they all come from different countries and are younger.


We are climbing up a rain forest.

One English (male), one American (female), one Canadian (female), a young French couple with Rwandan background (naturally, one male and one female) and a Turkish (male) person. We enter a dense rain forest and start a very steep climb. It took us 2 hours 45 minutes of continuous climbing and two stops to get to the area where the gorillas were. I wonder if we climbed a good thousand meters.


Signs of exhaustion show during the second stop for rest.

At last we meet the trackers. We must have reached our destination. Our guide, like the previous one, suggests that we leave our bags there but I have wizened up. I won't give up my backpack. We reached the Umubano family after a 20 - 30 m controlled descent down the slope. The first one we saw was a mother from the harem. The next one a little one, and another little one, then another mother... And here in front of us is "Charlie the Magnificent".

Charlie is feeding; no not feeding, eating up the forest. His occasional grunts of contentment are returned by similar sounds that the guides and trackers make. This is to let him know he is in his own space not an unfamiliar place. He looks quite happy anyways. Charlie is familiar with the guides and trackers, but how about us? We are strangers to him. What if he gets angry? They told us to avoid making eye contact. What happens if he fixes his eyes on my lenses? I press the shutter. As I take one photo after another the Canadian girl yelled with delight and excitement "Ali, he is looking at you!" Shh, don't yell. Let's not spoil the chief's good mood. After all he weighs about 200kg. There is always the risk of rolling down the hill.

Making eye contact with Charlie. We have about 10 meters between us.
I hope our "contact" doesn't go any further than that.

I hear grunts behind me. As I stand on slippery ground and about 50° slope, I turn my head back while trying to keep my balance. One of the mothers is playing the "fighting game" with one of the sons. Every so often the son gets excited, stands up in that familiar fashion, and beats his chest with cupped hands inviting the mother to a fight. A rough and tumble fight begins. Usually the mother wins, thanks to her size but the kid just can't get enough of a beating, the game continues. Somehow they ended up climbing up and we had to slide down some to get away from them ("7 m rule"), just then they tumbled down and the son dropped right in front of me. There was only 2 meters between him and me. I immediately began to move away while trying to adjust the zoom to get a sharp image. I tell you, it wasn't easy after all; the little cheeky one was right in front of me.


One of the mothers, name irrelevant.


...and this is her brawler son.

We went from one spot to another in excitement and astonishment "Ooh, Charlie looked at me! Wow, the baby bounced! Look at the mother, she jumped!" And our hour was up before we knew it.


Our little baby. Only 6 months old.


...and the little one with its mother

Gorillas as well as many other primates don't drink water. Their foods provide them the hydration they need. Gorilla gorilla beringei, their Latin name was dedicated to German scientist / explorer Captain Robert von Beringe who was the first to discover the mountain gorillas. DNA tests showed that the Virunga mountain gorillas are different from the Bwindi mountain gorillas. There are about 300 of them left. Nearly half of them live in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

Before I conclude my story about the gorillas I want to give you some information about Dian Fossey whose name I briefly mentioned earlier. Dian Fossey was a primatologist, a specialist on mountain gorillas to whom she dedicated most of her adult life prior to her death. Fossey introduced the mountain gorillas of Virunga to the whole world. She spent the most part of the last 20 years until her death doing research at Karisoke Research Center located on the Virunga Mountains on the Rwandan side. There she was killed brutally in 1985. Her death remains unsolved and killers still on the loose. One of the theories is that the killers were the poachers who Dian fought against bravely since the beginning of her research. Another claim, although not supported as much as the "poacher" theory is that the government decided to eliminate her since she chose to ignore the authorities and carried out her research independently which caused a huge rift between her and the government during the entire time she spent in Rwanda.

Three years into her death, Gorillas in the Mist, a movie was made based on Fossey's autobiography, and it created a huge sensation. The attention of the whole world was now on these endangered animals. This also contributed to the Rwandan economy by generating revenues from the tourism sector.

What do the poachers do with the gorillas they hunt? They sell their hands and heads at incredulous prices to the rich people who take great pleasure in proudly displaying parts of rare animals in their houses for the viewing pleasure of their guests. Ok, they put the heads up on the walls, but what about the hands, I hear you say. Apparently they use them as exotic and original ashtrays. I am not kidding.

When the hour was up we head back down. It is a shortcut, a little steeper than the difficult path we took up the mountain. We tried to stop ourselves from sliding by holding on to the trees and vines in the dense forest. This didn't produce the best of results and we fell many times during the descent. The Canadian girl and I continuously compete against each other on who can fall the most number of times. At the end she gave up and decided to slide down in a sitting position and I won. The clouds were pretty low as we were climbing up. A light rain followed the thunders we heard at the beginning of our descent. In short time the rain gained strength and towards the end it was pouring down on us. At one point I thought of wrapping my raincoat around my camera bag even though I was told that it was waterproof. We were almost at the end of our walk. There wasn't much to do if water has already penetrated inside the bag. I read in Nikon's manual that the camera was water resistant, to a certain extent. When we reached the cars we had water dripping from our bodies. The American girl who came on the trip unprepared; her sweatshirt was soaking wet and she was shivering with the cold. We got in the cars in haste. I began to drive down backwards, sliding occasionally. It was no use trying to use the breaks to stop the car so I drove down for about 2km in reverse gear. I turned the car around on level ground where grass began.

When we got to the meeting point all my clothes were soaking wet and sticking to my body. I wanted to go back to the hotel as fast as I could to get rid of the wet, muddy clothes and to dry my camera and the lenses. Our guide filled in our "certificates of participation" and presented them to us. Thankfully my hotel was nice and close. I don't know how the others will manage all the way back to Ruhengeri.
All my clothes, including underpants were soaking wet despite the fact that I was wearing a raincoat. I don't even want to imagine the condition of those without raincoats. The sponge reinforced lining of my camera bag was wet too but the wetness did not penetrate through to the camera and the lenses. I still wiped them and lined them up on the bed. I wanted to dry the backpack too so I opened all the pockets and sections... I have never noticed one of these pockets; a little hidden one under the bag had a raincoat for the bag. Better late than never, I will cover the bag next time when walking in the rain. Though I am not sure if there will ever be a next one like the one we had... This time I don't think I can even scrape the mud off my clothes. I leave them with Jan who is the hotel cleaning person and knows what to do with all the mud.

I showered, wore dry clothes and had my dinner. I am tired and I have to get up and leave early tomorrow so I go to bed early.

In the next Rwanda update I will talk about the Lake Kivu, chasing after the chimpanzees in the Nyungwe Forest and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Stay tuned.

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