(Photo © John Geary)
We have had a few years to adjust to the fact we are now in the 21st century. However, there are still a few wild, remote places left on the planet, although they are disappearing rapidly.
One of the few places that still has some remote pockets of wild rainforest left is central Africa. This is home to one of the planet's most endangered animals: the gorilla.
We met our tour guide and company (Guerba) in Burundi before heading off to Zaire to track lowland gorillas, Berengei berengei, in Kahuzi Biega National Park. Just getting into that country proved to be an adventure in itself, particularly when procedures considered to be routine operations at home - i.e., border-crossings - could be turned into such difficult ordeals. Complicating our plans was the fact that the road we had planned to take directly from Burundi to Zaire was washed out completely. That forced us to detour through Rwanda, our first of a series of unexpected events we experienced on safari. Despite our difficulties, we managed to make it into the country and the park in time for a late supper.
It quickly became apparent why this part of Africa is called "rainforest." It poured rain and thundered for two hours, a nightly occurrence you could set your watch by. The next morning, however, we awoke to a glorious sunrise. After a quick breakfast, we headed into the jungle. We were grouped in crews of eight, a necessity when approaching gorillas, because they get nervous when approached by larger groups. The last thing you want is a nervous 200-kg gorilla, 12 metres away!
We spent three hours tracking the gorilla family we hoped to see. We trekked through a swamp full of sucking bogholes and cutting sawgrass, had to fight off a column of soldier ants we stumbled into - their bites are like bee stings - and past recent evidence of a herd of elephants.
Eventually, patience rewarded us. The first gorilla we spotted was Maheshe the silverback, the dominant male of the group. He was magnificent! To be able to see a creature like this, in the wilds of his natural environment literally took our breath away. He actually saw us long before we saw him. When he realized we posed no threat, he turned and walked back toward his family. We followed him, and came upon a mother nursing one of her babies. After marvelling at this for several minutes, we trekked to a spot where they were all eating, up in a huge tree. It was an incredible experience to sit there and watch them interact. We hardly even cared that some of the younger gorillas used us as targets for their fruit-throwing practice!
After a time, they climbed down from the tree to move on into the jungle, and it was time for us to move on, also. But I will never forget the experience of watching Maheshe climb down from the tree at the end, eyeing us before sauntering off behind the others: a rearguard primate, following the same path his forebears had followed for centuries, protecting his family and ensuring the survival of his kind.
Grisly Postscript: A few years later I discovered Maheshe was shot just months after we had seen him, a casualty of the civil war that broke out a few weeks after our visit. His body was found with his hands and feet cut off, no doubt to be turned into ashtrays. (Details at "Maheshe's Tragic End.")
Conservation Corner
Learn how mining for cellphone, computer chip parts in Central Africa is KILLING GORILLAS. Go to
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Interested in doing more to help save gorillas? Visit these sites:
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Travel Tips
These websites offer travel opportunities to see these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat (this is not necessarily an endorsement, simply a resource):
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Continue on safari with us ...
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Gorilla Trek: Into the Rainforests of the Congo |
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Lions & Cheetahs & Rhinos, Oh My! |
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Challenging Nyamanyami: Up and Down the Zambezi by Raft and Houseboat |