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Rwanda 2010

Day 13 – 13th October – Gorilla Trecking – Masaka Resource Centre

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It felt like no sooner had my head hit the pillow than we were back up again, with a 4am start to make the drive back to the Northern Territories to spend a day trecking the mountains gorillas. We arrived at the Karisoke Research Centre around 6.30 and had about 45 minutes to kill with a couple of cups of tea (British style not African thankfully). We were then separated into groups and assigned a gorilla family to visit, there are 16 different ones and Vincent our guide informed us that we were to visit the Ntambara family which consists of 14 gorillas in total, with 2 silverbacks.

It was then back in the 4×4 which was now a real squeeze as we had Vincent and 2 other people who were put into our group but had no vehicle. Around 30 minutes later after some very dodgy dirt tracks we were out and starting to walk up to the Volcanoes National Park where the gorillas live.

The hike up to the park was a pretty tough uphill slog but made easier due to the stunning scenery of the surrounding volcanoes and the friendly people in the little farming villages that we passed through. After just over an hours walking we arrived outside Volcanoes National Park. He were we given a briefing on what to do in the park and told that the gorillas were about another 5-10 minutes away.

We then entered the park and put down our bags and walking sticks and made our way up into the more dense forest, almost as soon as we entered the forest you could hear the gorillas and see trees shaking about. We first spotted one of the silverbacks the number 2 of the group who was sat watching the world go by. We then spent and amazing hour hacking our way through the trees watching the whole family. The rule is that you have to keep 7 metres away from the gorillas but I don’t think anyone has told them that as if they want to come closer they will do and at times they were right next to us. One even gave me a cheeky slap on the bum to get me to move.

At just short of $400 including transport it is not cheap to go and see the gorillas but believe me it is absolute value for money to get up close to these incredible animals.

It wasn’t a total day off for the CWB team as Ian and Dan decided not to make the trip and instead continued the good work by visiting the Masaka resource centre for the blind where they worked with around 20 people giving an introduction to the game of cricket.



Click here to view all the videos from the trip on our YouTube Channel.

Click here for the full photo gallery of the trip.

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