This was the sort of trip where it was pretty much all ‘go’, all the time. There’d been some long days over the last week, and yesterday having run a marathon was no exception. I’d been lucky I hadn’t had any further cramp in my calves, but I’d had restless legs which resulted in very little sleep. My watch told me it was 3.5 hours spread across the night, so an 05:20 breakfast was not easy.

At 06:15 I was in the reception with the others, where Bea introduced us to Bosco: our driver for the next couple of days. For this section of the trip, it would now be just myself, Adrian, and Scott. A large portion of the rest would be heading to Uganda instead.

We arrived at the visitor centre at 07:00, where they offer complimentary hot drinks. There’s a reasonable selection, but I wanted to steer clear of milk, and I don’t like coffee, so I felt that of the tea choices, the spiced tea was the most appealing. I could not have been more wrong. The ‘spiced’ part of the tea is ginger, just as it had been in Musanze, but I’d been watering it down there. Here it was full strength and strong enough to make your eyes water. I couldn’t drink it.

After registering we had an initial briefing from Danny of what to expect. He would be our guide for the trek. The family we’d be looking for is a recent breakaway named the Isimbi family; meaning snow, named for the part of the mountain they were found. Tracing this family back, the Isimbi broke away from the Karisimbi group, which in turn broke away from the Susa group. The gorillas we would be tracking, and hoping to see, were descendents of the ones that Dian Fossey had studied before her death.

Adrian and Scott used this time to hire some gaiters for the hike for 5 USD each. They were strongly recommended not because of the mud, but because of the nettles and brambles we’d be walking through.

At 07:40 we began the drive, our driver following Danny, unsure of where he was leading us as the starting points for hikes can vary. After about an hour, the smooth roads ran out, and we then spent the next hour driving along the bumpy dirt roads through Butaka. We heard the occasional shout of “umuzungo,” a Kinyarwandan word meaning “white man.”

Bosco explained the meaning to us, and added that they’re using it in the context of them thinking that we bring money that will help their infrastructure. I cringed at that, have we unintentionally slipped into the white saviorism? I think in reality that really isn’t the case though; our presence in the country was as a partnership, and for learning about the challenges that they face. If we’d been volunteering it wouldn’t have been assuming we know best, it’d have been listening to them, and doing what they ask of us. We’d have been just some additional workforce. Fortunately the volunteering I’ve done on trips so far has never fallen into that trap. For these next few days, they were providing a valuable service to us and other tourists, which in turn allows them to help themselves. From everything I've seen so far, I think they really do want more tourists to visit, and go to a lot of effort to ensure we’re happy.

We were so close to the Democratic Republic of the Congo when we stopped, just north of the Ingo Crater. What we could see was the real-life representation of what we’d seen at the Gorilla Fund’s campus. Where we were was farmland and houses, then there’s the abrupt change to forest on the side of the volcanoes.

In addition to the three of us, there was another landcruiser with three Americans that would be joining our group for this hike. They do like people to hire porters as it helps the local community, but only one of us really needed one. I’d got two cameras to carry, but there was zero chance I was letting anyone else carry them. Before the trip I’d wondered what restrictions there might be, but actually, it was quite relaxed. I only took water and cameras with me, but I think taking a snack would have been okay. I’d misunderstood the rule on snacks, and it’s actually just when you’re with the gorillas you can’t have any with you.

Each of us was handed a wooden walking pole. They were fantastically carved with gorilla imagery - very suitable for where we were. The hike started uphill across the farmland, heading directly towards the trees, and then continued uphill along the managed treeline until we reached a tracker that was standing guard on a bridge. It didn’t actually feel too bad, despite yesterday’s marathon.

Once across the bridge the hike got harder as we waded through the nettles, ducked under branches, and climbed over some too, all whilst continuing up the side of Mount Karisimbi. It was understandable that we needed long sleeve shorts and long trousers for this. We stopped briefly for a water break, which was handy with the high humidity here. As it got harder I started to question why I was doing this, and had to remind myself that the gorillas would make it worthwhile. I’d paid more money than I was comfortable with for this privilege. The longer it took to reach them though, the longer it’d take to get back down.

After about eighty minutes, Danny stopped us. We were asked to leave our bags and walking poles here, and to put on facemasks that he then handed round. I was very hungry now though, and wished I’d had more for breakfast, or a snack to have on the way up here.

“David!” I heard my name called in a slightly hushed tone, to call me over, as Scott and Adrian had seen the gorillas. There was a clearing created by the gorillas as a nest for sleeping in. It was that close to the DRC at only two kilometres, that my phone connected to their mobile network. There were so many of them, of various ages, and just about to lay down on its back, was the silverback of this group: Muturengere. I couldn’t believe my eyes!

We had an hour with them to enjoy as much as possible. To start with we were all constantly taking photographs, but then it became more reserved and thoughtful as we just watched. When you take the time to watch, you see how much like us they are. The younger ones would play fight and roll around, some would pester their Dad to his dismay. When they annoyed them, he’d move them so he could carry on resting.

There were 23 individuals in this group, and whilst we couldn’t see them all, we could see quite a few. We’d heard rustling in the bushes beside us, and whilst the ones in front of us were definitely not the recommended seven metres away, the one(s) hiding in the bushes beside us were certainly much closer.

We mostly ignored the bushes after a while, until one strolled out of the bushes, and stomped right past us, and through the barrier of branches that lay between us and the nest. The trackers and guide would make a grunting gorilla sound every now and then to put the gorillas at ease any time it looked like they were going to pay attention to us.

As the end of the hour approached we started to turn to leave. It seemed they didn’t want us to leave just yet as one charged at us, and then stopped less than a metre away from one of our group. He dropped to a crouching position as we’d been advised of previously, and a second later I did the same when I realised I was very close too. I quickly took a few photos whilst the others were backing off, and then we were told we could back away as well as the gorilla turned around and went back to rejoin the group.

We looked up to see the silverback now sitting, watching us intently. We left quickly.

We collected our bags, tipped the trackers and the guide, and continued on. It took seventy minutes to hike back down, and from there it felt like the drive back to Musanze lasted forever, or at least the bumpy dirt track did anyway. I got a bottle of coke there from the supermarket I’d bought tea from a couple of days ago.

Our next stop was around 17:00, in the outskirts of Kigali. I bought a gorilla statue from the gift shop there for 10,000 RWF. I think we could have done with a longer stop as a couple of hours later we came close to having a car accident. Bosco had lost focus and had almost gone into the back of a Toyota at speed. He swerved to the side, onto the section that acts like a pavement, missing the deep drain, and stopping several car lengths later. It was an amazing recovery from what could have been very serious.

Apparently you’re allowed three fatal accidents before they take your driving license away, suggesting there must have been a significantly higher number causing three or more to set the limit there. I did notice something after that though, drivers will indicate left when it’s not safe for people behind them to pass.

We arrived at the Rutete Eco Lodge at 20:30. It might have been a few minutes earlier, but Bosco stopped to take a call that I assume was one asking where we were. The reception looked really nice, and we were told we could go for dinner first. It seems it’s something that they do for all guests at the same time, so she thought us arriving late was a nuisance. We’d asked the driver to join us for dinner, and had a carrot, pumpkin, and onion soup for starter. The next course was a samosa containing rice, spinach, and beans. This was followed by a main course of turkey, mash, rice, vegetables, beans, and something that I think was a sauce but looked and behaved more like minestrone soup.

When we were led to the house that the three of us would be staying in, it was already 22:00. I was so tired now, and felt unclean. For now though I’d be happy to just sleep. The house looked unfinished, but looked like it had a lot of potential to be something really good, especially for groups. The person showing us the place found the boiler didn’t work and insisted on fixing it tonight. Of course though the boiler was in the ensuite that didn’t have a door, attached to the room I’d managed to pick. If I’d picked either of the other rooms, I could have been asleep now.

Adrian went down to the main building, using his phone to light the way, and was told they’d known it was broken for weeks but hadn’t gotten around to fixing it. It was going to take around forty minutes.

Great! I just want to sleep. I thought to myself. We’d got an early start tomorrow, and I’d not slept much last night. I just felt so exhausted. It felt so annoying, but was out of our hands.

Despite this estimate, the workman arrived about ten minutes later and after five minutes was done! I considered using the shower, but with the ants flowing out the taps. I decided to just remove the insect crawling across the bed, lower the mosquito net, use earplugs to block out the sound of the boiler, and just sleep.