Gorillas in the Mist

Okay, it was actually gorillas in the rain and hail, but it was gorillas nevertheless. After a three-hour hike through a bamboo forest and up into the jungle of Mt. Kirisimbi, the highest volcano in the Virunga range on the Rwanda/Uganda border, we encountered the Susa group. The largest of the 18 groups of mountain gorillas in the park, there are more than 30 gorillas in the group, including three silverbacks (only the dominant one gets to get sexy with the ladies, though) and the only twins to have both lived past age five (they are seven years old now). My photos don’t do the experience justice, but here they are…

Interestingly, I learned this morning that the Project Rwanda headquarters we are staying at used to be the offices of the Dian Fossey gorilla research centre, and they used to dissect gorillas (that had died naturally) in what is now the bike shop. Apparently during the war there used to also be gorillas living here in the compound for their protection.

I wonder if they ever told that joke: “Where does a 500lb. gorilla sleep?”

(Answer: “Wherever it bloody well wants”)