Face to Face with Magnificence in the Mist

The second day started off as did the first. “Moon River”, followed by grabbing the camera gear, hurriedly eating some breakfast, meeting Jimmy, driving to the NPHQ, checking in, getting our permits, watching local dancers.

Jimmy then came back with our assignment. Today’s group was “Hirwa”. It was going to be an easier hike than on day 1. I was happy about that; I wasn’t sure I could do a difficult hike two days in a row.

Our group today consisted of myself, Kathy, a family of 4 from Boston and a couple from Russia. We had two guides, Augustine and Lois, who was in training. Four trackers (two here and two already in the jungle) and two guards, all different than from the day before, rounded out the group.

It was a short 20 minute drive to our starting point. I hired my own porter for the day. Kathy had her own as well. I unfortunately didn’t write down their names. We were all set to start the second adventure.

It was 8:10am when we started off across the fields. It took about 30 minutes to reach the boundary between farmland and jungle. The terrain was much less difficult than the previous day. It was not as steep and also not quite as high, only about 8600ft for the entire hike.

After about 45 minutes of hiking we encountered the gorillas. This family consisted of a single silverback, named Munyinya. He had several females and lots of children, including Isango Gato and Isango Gakuru, the only known gorilla twins. At about one year old, they were very cute to observe.

This particular gorilla group was hanging out inside some very dense bamboo groves. For that reason, it was quite dark during this encounter. I was unable to take many pictures, as flash is not allowed, and it was just too dark for the camera to work properly. So Kathy and I shot a little video and just enjoyed the hour we had to spend with the gorillas.

The gorillas eventually moved into a little better light, but overall not very photogenic. A couple of young gorillas were playing right in front of us. At one point a young adult male gorilla climbed up into the bamboo over our heads. He then decided to pee. It came raining down squarely on Kathy’s head. How many people can say they got peed on by a gorilla? Kathy wears it like a badge of honor.

A Note From Kathy:
We were standing among really tall bamboo. Everyone was pretty much in a straight line, watching the gorillas. There was a young gorilla hanging out at the top of the bamboo, moving around above our heads. We all knew he was up there, but for the most part ignored him since he was hard to see among the leaves of the bamboo. After we had been standing there awhile, our guide said “let’s move in, it’s starting to rain”. We all moved further into the bamboo, then I looked around and noticed I was the only one getting rained on! The gorilla was peeing on me! The guide wasn’t sure how I would react to being peed on, so he was trying to make me think it was just rain. I said “he’s peeing on me!”. I have to tell you, this was one of the best experiences of my life!! Really how many people can say they’ve been peed on by a gorilla!

A short while later, two female gorillas were wrestling around on the ground, sort of like they were having sex. Apparently their antics came to the attention of Munyinya, the Silverback, as he came charging up and frightened one of the females away. He then took the other female right then and there. I guess gorilla sex is a rare event because even our guide whipped out his phone and started videoing the event. So yes, we all now have gorilla porn on our cameras, filmed from 10 feet away. After the silverback finished his business, he relaxed there for a little while.

We continued to observe him and the juveniles playing all around. Then the silverback became agitated. Augustine, our guide, told everyone “DOWN!” We all dropped like rocks immediately in place. He astutely picked up on the gorilla’s change in behavior. I was at the front of the group when the silverback came charging and growling. One of the trackers stepped in front of me and put himself between me and the gorilla. The silverback was really close to me! The trackers and guide all started talking their gorilla language. Grunts and moaning, all sounds to say it’s OK, all is peaceful. The Silverback stopped for a moment, and then started towards me. Augustine told me to back away. I started scooting backwards, and Augustine responds with “Slow down, slow down”. I guess I was backing up a little fast for Munyinya’s liking. Munyinya stopped, hesitated a moment and then turn and walked away. The trackers showed their experience and skills. They talked him down and got him to relax. The tracker kept his position in front of me until Munyinya was no longer a threat. Augustine was very pleased we all listened to him and dropped quickly to the ground when told to do so.

Augustine told us we could get up and proceed observing the gorillas and taking pictures. I got up from the ground and moved closer to where the silverback was sitting. I started making the moaning and grunting sounds, mimicking the sounds I heard the guides and trackers making. I was hoping this would keep him calm and soothed. Kathy turned and looked at me quickly and said sharply “Shut up, you don’t know what you’re saying!” She was right, I did not know what I was saying. My foray into speaking gorilla lasted all of about 15 seconds!

The rest of the adventure was spent watching the juveniles play and observing a mother taking care of a young baby.

When our hour was up, we started back. About 30 minutes later we were at the wall between jungle and farmland. 20 minutes later we were back at the car, another 30 minutes had us back at the park headquarters, and 20 minutes after that we were back at the lodge. It was only about noon.

This day’s adventure went by much quicker than the previous day’s. We had a nice lunch and then spent the afternoon going through the pictures. We were lazy the rest of the day. We needed to be lazy. We were really tired after all this adventure.