Volcanoes National Park


Day 48 & 49 – 26th & 27th July 2019



We left Kigali for Volcanoes NP after breakfast and arrived at Kinigi Guest House just after lunch – a fabulous road all the way.  Because we’d have an early start the next morning, we decided to stay in rooms instead of camping.  Wow, three nights’ accommodation on the trot – we were really spoiling ourselves 😊.

You can imagine the excitement in the morning - time to see the Gorillas!!!  The briefing at Volcanoes NP HQ took place at 07h00, however the entourage consisting of our group of four, two porters and our guide commenced the trek at 10h00.  They don’t call them Mountain Gorillas for nothing – a steep hike of around 5 km’s and although I had to stop to rest and get my breath several times, I was ably assisted by the porter on the very steep and rugged terrain.  During the return down the mountain we couldn’t believe that we had actually climbed all that way up, although it did take half the time going down than what it took to go up.  This was classified as a moderate trek.

We were allocated the Titus Group of Gorillas that consisted of three Silverbacks, four females and a baby, a year and a half old.  Our first sighting was of the one Silverback, which absolutely took our breath away!  We spent an hour with them.  The youngster was really amusing and showing off, whilst the one Silverback had attained an injury to his eye from a fight with one of the other Silverbacks in the group over what most males fight over - a female.

According to our guide, there are currently 1004 gorillas living in the wild in the three countries (Rwanda, Uganda & the DRC).  According to their census, this is 164 more than what there were 10 years ago, so there is at least progress in preserving these great apes.  We thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience – one of the biggest ticks on our bucket list.

https://youtu.be/hAi-agzK4Uc (try this address if the video doesn't work)


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