Jambo,
Well we are now in Tanzania after spending the past few days trekking with gorillas in Rwanda. Was a pretty amazing experience, as much for the study of human behaviour as that of the animals.
Day 1 started with an early morning wake up, and a trip to our meeting point where we were greeted by African dancers yelling, belting on drums and jumping about with bells wrapped around their legs – if you closed your eyes it sounded like an African Santa all-in brawl. Then it was introductions to our group before we were off in search of the Rwanda mountain gorillas with tales of potential 8hr treks to locate them ringing in our ears.
After about 30mins of weaving haphazardly through the bamboo forest cut for us by a crazy eyed local holding a large machete, something didn’t feel right. I’m no Albie Mangle, but it felt like our route was far from direct as we weaved this way and that, but always seemed to double back on ourselves. Sure enough we eventually stumbled across the gorilla family about 100m from where we started our trek – it seems the gorillas had decided to trek to us instead but our guide didn’t have the heart to tell us that the 8hr trek he had prepared us for was only slightly longer than the walk to breakfast – so he walked us in circles for a while to make the trek seem worthwhile.
The gorillas themselves were amazing; one huge silverback leading a family of 17. The gorillas just carried on almost oblivious to us following them. Babies clambered onto mums backs, the juveniles scampered up trees while stripping them with their teeth, and the silverback gave a slap to any part of the group that got out of line. Then it all got out of hand; two different gorilla families came together – and it was on.
It was our silverback vs 3 silverbacks in the other family. And he did us proud; charging down and slapping heads, and despite being outnumbered he forced the other family back from where they came from. No wonder this guy had 6 wives following him around; I was so impressed I almost lost myself and started following him too. One thing I don’t understand about gorillas though is that the more dominant the male, the more wives he takes on. I thought if anything it should work the other way, where a dominant male can restrict his obligations for picnics and shoe shopping expeditions to Westfields Miranda by keeping his wife numbers to a minimum.
Anyway, what was more interesting was that the meeting of the gorilla families meant a meeting of two different human tracking groups as well. Our small, polite and quiet group came face to face with every travelers worst nightmare; a large group of quintessential middle aged American tourists, dressed like they had each swallowed a Kathmandu catalogue and lugging cameras that could have spotted a mouse farting on Mars. One lady went so far as to have one camera strapped to her head while she snapped manically with another that looked like it was capable of firing a rocket into space. Unless she was trying to capture on film the birth of Jesus Christ, or Jessica Alba getting out of the shower, her equipment seemed like pretty severe overkill.
And they jostled with our little group to establish a vantage point to capture what they were convinced was going to be the next cover for National Geographic. And when the gorillas did anything as exciting as urinate, the cameras would fire off like rapid fire mini-machine guns. I reckon Brad Pitt could drop his pants at the top of the red carpet at the Academy Awards and not get as many camera firings as what a bladder emptying gorilla got in the hills of Rwanda. So while our silverback won the battle of the gorillas, our human group was no match for the sheer enthusiasm of our massive camera sporting, adult diaper wearing, every thought vocalising, American interlopers. It was a relief for the two gorilla groups to part so we could make a dignified retreat.
Trek number 2 was also fantastic but for different reasons. This time the gorilla group was deep in the forest so we eventually found ourselves in a small hacked clearing while little gorilla babies ran around us. The only downside this trek was during the ‘what do you do’ chats with our other trackers during the walk. My dribble about equity markets was quickly made to seem as irrelevant as it is by 2 girls who were in the Peace Corp teaching in disadvantaged African communities, and another studying International Nutrition and embedding herself within a Rwandan village to assist their diet and wellbeing. All of a sudden our societal contribution of 2 World Vision kids and the occasional buying of the Big Issue were made to look pretty pathetic. Self esteem also wasn’t helped when I got bitten by ants and yelped like a girl – no one else yelped during the trip so I assumed I was the only one who got bitten. But it turns out that most people got bitten, and it was just that I was the only one with the pain threshold of a particularly feminine 5yr old girl.
When we got back from our trek, Krys wanted to buy a pair of gumboots from the local town (I told you one wife was all the shoe shopping a person could handle). So down we went into the village to hunt for a pair. We stuck out like….. well like 2 white people in a sea of African faces. We felt like 2 little Kool Mints in a swimming pool full of Maltesers. And didn’t we get some stares to the point of feeling uncomfortable. Now I know how a poor African feels when they stumble into the foreign environment that is Cronulla Mall.
An impressive aspect of Rwanda has been the multi-employment. You will have a guy serve you at your lodge, then see him giving the traditional welcome dance at the gorilla trek before then re-appearing as your guide. Unless I was instead seeing the Rwandan equivalent of the Baldwin brothers, this one man was accounting for a significant amount of Rwandan employment all on his own.
And now we are in Tanzania. Have seen some pretty amazing things so far, including a little zebra lose a running race with a pack of hyenas. Let’s just say that the repercussions for him were far worse than when I got run down by Ken Chu in the Year 9 running race (man that guy could move). But more on that later.
Kwaheri.
A reconsidering their contribution to society Trent and Krystal
smallthoughts 