Gorillas in the Nest.

Well I give up on uploading the photo part of my blog but I am excited to tell my story.

I tracked the beautiful mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. There are 700 mountain gorillas left in the world...and I got to see 7 of them.

First of all Rwanda is a beautiful country. The first thing we notice is it is not only lush and green but clean too. Plastic bags are illegal here,you have one you go to jail! I am ok with making this concept universal fyi. We also see that there are traffic lights and the motor cyclists are wearing helmuts and vests with a regristration number. No litter at all.

My day starts early and me and a group of 6 others drive to the park entrance where we wait awhile,read some gorilla facts and have a
coffee. There are other tourists,the first real group I have seen since I arrived in Africa.

We hike past villages,farm land and then up into lush rainforest. It is amazing. Our guide is "Ignateous"(some pretty cool names here) There are also porters that can help the group. After 2 and half hours we are told to drop our stuff becausethe gorillas are near. We track again through stinging nestles that go through clothes and just when I think to myself, God dam it why can't I just stay at home and scrap book! We see the gorillas,in the long sharp grass,in a big nest.

Ignateous tells me where to squat and as soon as I get my camera ready he pulls on my arm and says Get up there! I am starting to think Ignateous is just Ignoramous but then I see I had a gorilla walking past me..I just see his back and I have the quick shot to proove it.


We have an hour to observe them and we are the only 8 people they will see that day. Click click click.....

When we get back I see the other people in my tour are showered and bored. Apparently the guides put people in groups according to cabability appearance. I am just lucky it didn't take 5 hours one way to find them. I realize the old guys in our tour seen their family of gorillas after only 40 minutes AND also they got full frontal shots of silver backs eating. I feel annoyed....anyone feel sorry for me? Hey,I did my research and I believed and still believe I am Dian Fossey.

I have a long day after and do not lay my head until after midnight.
I seen the fricken mountain gorillas and the genocide memorial in Rwanda...I am a lucky girl. Gorillas in the nest is still good.

Timid Traveller.