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Gorrillas in the Spuds

On a recent journey through Uganda and Rwanda, Richard Smith found the great primates were just the highlights in a vivid overland voyage through inland Africa.

It was one of those moments that live forever in the memory. A table had been laid for lunch just above Virunga Lodge, and I was sitting with Roberto, an Italian restaurateur who was part of my group. The morning had been exceptional, as we watched gorillas that had come out of the forest to strip medicinal bark from trees gambolling about amongst the local Rwandan shamba.  Now we were on top of the world, looking across at five great volcanoes of Rwanda’s Virunga Massif on one side, and on the other a range of hills that shouldered south down Africa, framed by two spectacular lakes. We just couldn’t imagine what we’d ever done to deserve this fantastic opportunity, the unique wildlife sightings of the morning, the lavish meal ahead and the stunning views on every side.

I’d joined a set departure trip to explore Uganda and Rwanda, two countries, two cultures and two mountain gorilla populations, and found it every bit as rewarding as totally tailor-made, individual travel.

Our group was made up of the Italian restaurateur, two older Austrians, myself and our Ugandan guide John Mugabwa. Our first drive from Entebbe was a long one, broken with stops for tilapia and chips and to see the equator, where a restaurant owner had painted the equatorial line along the floor of the dining area and turned out to have studied mechanical engineering at Leeds.

Our destination was Queen Elizabeth II National Park, with some of Uganda’s best game viewing.  There’s fantastic bird watching.  I’ve never seen such densities of the very territorial pied kingfishers as along the Kazinga Channel.   We had some other great sightings, including leopard, plenty of elephant and the luck to watch a huge python devouring an antelope. I also got to meet the chimpanzees in Chabura Gorge. Reaching them was an experience in itself, pulling ourselves across a river in full flood on an ancient pontoon made of oil-drums, and they gave us a great display in the trees. Mweya Lodge has got bigger over the years – it now has almost fifty rooms – but it didn’t feel too large, with great food, service, and a beautiful setting overlooking the water with hippo all around.

After three nights in Queen Elizabeth we drove south to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to half of the world’s 700 remaining mountain gorillas, where four groups of gorillas have been habituated to tolerate human contact and the revenue from tourism is being used to educate local people in conservation and fund schools and clinics in the area.

We stayed at Volcanoes Safaris’ Bwindi Lodge, close to the Park entrance, looking out onto the deep green rainforest. Gorilla tracking involved some steep climbs that felt even steeper at 1,500 metres above sea level, but we found the group and had a wonderful hour very close to the gorillas before our slippery descent back into the valley. It is certainly true that an hour is just not enough and I was glad we had another chance to track them again towards the end of our trip.

From Bwindi we drove south again to Mgahinga National Park, along a twisty mountain road through a lush and spectacular landscape, cultivated with bananas, beans, tea plantations and more.

Mgahinga borders both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and neighbouring National Parks in each country mean there is a huge area protected, encompassing five volcanoes and miles of surrounding rainforest. The family of gorillas that used to live in Mgahinga have migrated across the Ugandan border into Rwanda so most people give the park a miss these days, which is a shame. I’m glad we visited. Mount Mgahinga Lodge is close to the entrance to the national park and is set on a hill overlooking the valley to Lake Mutanda. The garden with its beautiful flowers is superb, giving you the chance to sit and watch the birds or marvel at the peaks of the three volcanoes within the National Park. You’re at over 2,000m here and the evenings are easily cool enough for a fire in the main building. This is a great place to relax with pre-dinner drinks and relive the day’s activities; nature walks, volcano climbs or a drive to Lake Mutanda.

The border crossing a couple of days later felt very African and chaotic. Not only were the usual shady characters in evidence but in no man’s land you put your watches back an hour and switch from driving on the left side of the road in (ex-British) Uganda to right side in (ex-French) Rwanda. On roads with few signs and not enough traffic to keep the different road rules uppermost in your mind this can be very confusing for motorists and I was glad we had an excellent driver.

At the Parc National des Volcans there is a choice of places to stay. Gorilla’s Nest has traditionally been the hotel of choice as it is closest to the park entrance, a significant attraction as gorilla tracking here starts at seven am. It’s a larger lodge however, and we stayed at a new smaller property, Virunga Lodge, a lovely place set on top of a hill where the views of the five volcanoes in the Rwandan section of the Virunga Massif and the beautiful lakes Ruhondo and Bulera formed the most lasting memory of my journey.

From this lodge it takes 45 bumpy minutes to reach the park entrance, but when we got their our gorilla tracking was embarrassingly easy. For the last few years I have been preparing clients for potentially long, steep hikes through stinging nettles and thorn-covered bushes, but on this occasion we strolled for ten minutes on flat ground to the edge of the forest where the Sabyinyo group had decided to come out into the potato fields to breakfast on the bark of eucalyptus trees. In a way it felt very odd to see gorillas gambolling across the tilled earth however it meant that our viewing was fantastic and photography much easier than it can be in the dark conditions of the thick rain forest.

Judging by the amount of bark they stripped and ate in the hour we were with them it is fortunate for the local people that gorillas haven’t developed a taste for cultivated crops. Although the locals kept their distance from the gorillas, the minute the silverback rounded up his group and took them back into the forest the Rwandans were back preparing the fertile ground for the next potato crop and it was fascinating to watch the interaction.

We have had a fair number of clients visit Rwanda for gorilla tracking. Access from Nairobi through Kigali is easy with less than three hours by car on good roads to Parc National des Volcans.  Three nights here combines well with a safari in Kenya or Tanzania.

For those who enjoy hiking there’s much more to do here, and a longer trip such as the one I did allows the time to meet different groups of gorillas as well as climb a volcano or two along the way. The journey can be done as a private trip or in groups that depart year-round, and though some of the drives are quite long they’re also fascinating, through Africa at its lushest and happiest, with spectacular landscapes and stunning views at every turn.

And I can’t think of anywhere else you could you move your cup of coffee from one hemisphere to another while reminiscing about 1960’s Leeds with a retired engineer.

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