Silverbacks and Lakes of Lava (DRC, Rwanda)

Lindi was good company for me on the hard hikes over the last couple of days...

Bonjour! Happy Birthday to my lovely sister, Mae Mae.

I've had a pretty epic half-week, let me tell you. I left Kenya on Wednesday and flew into Kigali, Rwanda, to experience another side to East Africa. I wasn't sure what to expect, but Rwanda has totally blown me away. Most people, when they hear the name "Rwanda," immediately think of the terrible genocide of 1994, in which tribal tensions which had been growing more and more volatile finally erupted. Over a million Tutsi were killed, and some 2 million were displaced into refugee camps in the Congo and Tanzania. The international community did nothing, which was shameful, since the signs were there to many who were watching.

With such a turbulent past, it's easy to imagine a war-torn, dangerous, volatile country. On the contrary, Rwanda has made unimaginable strides toward putting tribal differences, and indeed even tribal identities, behind them, instead working toward a common "Rwandan" identity. Today, Rwanda is peaceful and, while not fully healed, looking forward to the future.

I left Kigali right away (I'll be back there starting tomorrow) and took a bus to Musanze in the northern part of the country. The countryside in Rwanda is really something - it's called the "Land of 1000 Hills," for good reason. Not only is the whole country covered in hills, but every inch of those hills are covered in farms. It's really impressive how thouroughly the Rwandans have converted the space available to them.

Farms as far as the eyes can see

Part of my reason for coming to Rwanda was the go track the endangered Mountain Gorillas, which requires a hard-to-get permit. From some sleuthing I did in Nairobi it seemed like there was a permit available from a local tour operator, which buys extra permits from the park, for tracking on the 22nd, which I then reserved. When I got to Musanze, however, they told me that there was a mix-up and that the permit was actually for the very next day, the 21st! No problem, I said, I'd go... gorillas here I come!

...Or so I thought. That night, the tour operator tracked me down at my hotel and said there was another mistake and they needed my permit back, but they had one I could definitely have for the 25th. It was obvious they were in trouble, and they promised they would find a way to repay me for my flexibility. In truth, it wasn't a big deal to me, I just needed to find something to do between then and the 25th.

The volcano is behind me, in the mists

Enter Nyiragongo, Africa's most active volcano, which blew its top in 2002 and turned nearby Goma into a miniature modern-day Pompeii (luckily, there were very few deaths). Rwanda is bordered along the west with the massive Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which encompasses an area the size of Western Europe. Travel to the DRC is severely restricted - it's one of the most volatile countries on earth right now - but after doing research on the current situation on the ground with the people who know best (the locals), it was clear that travel in the border city of Goma, and between Goma and the southern part of the Virunga National Park (home of Nyiragongo volcano), was safe. The tour operator in Musanze agreed to arrange permits, visas, and transportation for me, and I headed out to Gisenyi, the town in Rwanda on the DRC border.

I spent a night in Gisenyi, which is on Lake Kivu, a massive fresh water lake, and one of the only lakes in the region which is safe for swimming (although I didn't).

The next morning, I was picked up early from my hotel, taken across the border, and then up to the park headquarters. In total there were 11 other people hiking the volcano - 9 UN/Unicef/IDF aid workers to the DRC, and two NGO workers from Rwanda, all taking a break from work to enjoy nature. We met our guides and set off.

The hike up the volcano was really, really hard. No switchbacks, just basically straight up the side of the volcano. The scenery was lush and tropical to begin, turning more and more sparse as the elevation increased. It was misty all day, which made for poor pictures but great atmosphere. After a full day hiking, we made it to the top.

Nyiragong is one of only a few volcanoes in the world that have a standing (well, boiling) lake of lava visible down in the crater. The lava lake at Nyiragongo is huge - pictures don't do it justice - but during the day the haze and smoke can make it hard to see. Luckily, what really set Nyiragongo apart form any other volcano on earth is that you get to spend the night on the lip of the crater... and once the sun goes down, the light show really starts!

The lava lake was contantly boiling and turning over, and even from a kilometer away on the lip, it sounded like a not-too-distant waterfall. You could also feel the heat from it, like you were just stepping out of the woods and approaching a campfire from a distance. Sitting on the lip of the crater with a view of the very center of the earth boiling up at night was undescribable.

The hike back and subsequent journey back to Musanze left me thouroughly exhausted, but there's no rest for the lion-hearted - I had gorillas to see in the morning!

A view of the Volcano National Park

The Eastern Mountain Gorilla is critically endangered. Currently, there are only 764 alive, spread between Rwanda, Uganda and DRC. The Eastern Mountain Gorilla is the largest species of gorilla - one of the reasons it was hunted so vigorously. Dian Fossey, an American zoologist who became famous for her work with the gorillas, and her subsequent murder at the hands of pro-poaching thugs, is a local celebrity here. Her pro-conservation stance is being aggresively pursued by the authorities and researchers here. For the protection of the gorillas, only 48 people per day are allowed to trek to see the gorillas, which are divided into families. A few families are set aside for research, and a few are open to visitors, like myself, who fought tooth-and-nail to get a premit. It was obvious that Rwanda is putting a lot of effort into gorilla tourism, which has proved to be a huge money maker for them - they greeted all the trekkers with a traditional dance show as we filed in early in the morning.

Then they sorted the trekkers into groups to go to different families. Only a maximum of 8 people are allowed to visit each individual family per day, and only for an hour total. Our group was chosen to visit the Ntambara (Warrior) family, which has 14 gorillas, including four babies, and is famous for invading other families and stealing women back with them. Normally this family is only accessible to researchers because they are particularly active, but since another of the families (which is normally open to visitors) had migrated into an unreachable part of the mountains, we got to pay a visit to the Warriors.

The trek to the Warriors was difficult. It was over an hour of clawing our way through dense jungle, straight up the ridge of the mountain. Besides the exertion, there was stinging nettle everywhere, and we were all burning by the end of the day. But, for great sacrafice comes great rewards.

Obviously it was amazing to see. Pictures don't do any of it justice, especially because everything was happening in such thick jungle that getting a picture of any kind, especially a clear kind, was hard. They were also right when they said that this family was active. Normally, the gorillas just kind of sit around and eat, but this family was all over the place. The big male silverback challenged our group a number of times, and even though you're not supposed to get closer than 7 meters to the gorillas, we found ourselves within inches of the males, huddled on the ground in a ball (the proper response to a challenge) more than once. I think we all nearly had a heart attack a couple of times. Afterwards, the guide was describing that the gorillas don't ever hurt anyone - mostly it's just a game to them. Nevertheless, he said it was good that we all listened well and huddled when were told, because big silverbacks don't take well to any precieved counter-challenge. After an hour, we reluctantly descended back to the park station.

After the hike to the Warriors, on top of the volcano, I'm throughly burnt out. I'm so thankful for the last few days - what an adventure! I hope everyone's well. Give me updates on your lives!

Love always,

Clay