The Gorillas of Rwanda

In a new travel article up on GoNOMAD, Gabriel Constans writes about his trip up into the mountains of Rwanda and his experiences with the gorillas there. Besides the gorillas, Constans talks about the beautiful scenery and the people he met. Here’s a sample from the article.

The scenery during our two-hour ride along the Ruhengari Road (built by the Chinese) was spectacular, but even that lovely assault on the senses didn’t prepare us for what was to come.

When we arrived at The Gorilla Nest Lodge in Ruhengeri, just outside the Volcanoes National Park, we were stunned. Imagine a luxury hotel, superbly crafted from local stone, wood and bamboo, tucked into the jungle at the bottom of a blue-green volcanic range.

Top that off with spacious rooms, fine dining and friendly service from people that speak English, French and Kinyarwanda (the national language) and you have a virtual Shangri-la in the middle of Africa.

After a peaceful night we were driven to the Virunga Park entrance and met our guide, Fidel, who has worked as a park ranger for thirteen years. He informed us that we would be walking for about three hours to find the family we would be observing.

We set out, nine in all and made our way up the hillside past planted fields and traditional mud huts; over the stone wall, which was built by villagers (who were paid by the government) to keep out elephants and buffalo and to delineate the park boundary.

We were well prepared for what is usually a wet misty experience (with our boots and raincoats), but were in luck with sunny weather and clear trail.

You can read the rest of the article at GoNOMAD.com