I wrote this back in 2017 but never got around to posting it!
From September 15, 2017:
Set high on the jungle-covered slopes of the volcanic Virunga Mountains, the Volcanoes National Park is best known as a sanctuary for the region’s rare mountain gorillas (think Harambe). There are currently 10 Gorilla groups left that are accessible to visitors. There is also a limit of 8 visitors per gorilla family (per day). At the time of our booking, permits were around $750USD pp. It was soon increased to $1,500USD pp. YIKES!
The trek will vary in length depending on a) which gorilla group you’ve been assigned and b) where the gorilla group has ventured for the day. Highly regulated treks allow visitors to spend an hour at a time with these gorillas in their natural habitat.
The experience:
All groups head to the welcome site by 730AM. Greeted by african drums and tribal dancing is an alternative method to waking your senses in lieu of coffee. At this point, your guide joins a meeting with other guides to “negotiate” how the human groups are assigned to their gorilla family. Not exactly sure what happens behind closed doors as gorilla families range from small groups of less than 10 gorillas to groups of nearly 30 gorillas. Some are close by and some are hours away. Nonetheless, after a few rounds of negotiations, you are assigned your family for the day and off you go!
We were assigned the 2nd largest gorilla family (the Igisha Family) with 26 gorilla members. AMAZING. The trade off? They were very.. very far away. So our morning started off with a 2 hour drive towards the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thank goodness our driver/trek guide were so experienced with the unmarked “roads”. The further they drove, the less we had to hike. Alas at some point, they could drive no further and we had to start our trek. As the day progressed, the gorillas were getting further and further away so we had to speed things up.
Our hike started at around 2,700m above sea level as such altitude sickness is a definite possibility. By the time we finished our 1.5 hour hike, we were at around 3,000m. Now the hike itself is not hard for any fit traveller (I am not one) but the terrain makes it difficult as the path is simply carved by our trek guide and his trusty machete.
I remember the last few steps before laying eyes on the first gorilla. My heart was pounding increasingly faster and my palms were starting to sweat. Soon my eyes realized there were 20+ more gorillas inches away and the Male Silverback leader, 3x the size of an average man, just steps away. The next hour was spent with endless attempts to capture every movement with my eyes, iPhone and DSLR. Talk about multi-tasking. Time flew by quickly and before we knew it – it was time to head back!
Typically the trek should have you back at the lodge by noon for lunch. Not sure if we were just SLOW or if our Gorilla group was just THAT far away but we didn’t get back to the lodge until a little past 3PM. Just like that, another bucketlist item was crossed off.
Summary:
Accommodation: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Local Tour Operator: Primate Safaris
Clothing: Kigali is hot but Volcanoes National Park is chilly. In anticipation of the trek, for top layers I wore a beater, turtle neck, fleece and vest. Layering is key. Also, try to avoid flashy colours. For bottoms, I wore pants that were water-resistant & skinny legged. Water-resistant was a must for me because you never know where you may sit (or fall) and skinny legged because I didn’t want any creepy crawlers making their way into my boots. The lodge provides free gator shoes so have no fear if you are not a fan of the skinny pants. For shoes, I wore blundstones. The lodge does an amazing job at cleaning your shoes afterwards so suede = no problem.
Difficulty level: LOW . Honestly, I’m just very out of shape. Also, there are porters available for hire ($10USD) to carry your backpacks or camera gear. I had my husband aka free porter :)