From Eddie: Teamwork:: The Gorilla Trek

Another late night last night for after finishing dinner in Kigali we retired back to the ASYV guest house, so we could get some sleep before the 4am alarm. However, Zoe, Dana, Rob, Joseph and I stayed up until about 2am chatting about life. Great conversation.

We were in the waiting car by 4:15am, and arrived at Volcanoes National Park a few hours later. The word from previous village people was that the Susa family of Silverbacks was the one to request (also the furthest hike). We put in our request to track the Susa's, and we were told that since the Susa family is the most popular, many people make the same request. In the end, we won the request and we were all excited.

After about an hour drive (mostly by off-roading in rough terrain), we met up with the guides and porters. We hiked up for about an hour before reaching the entrance to the jungle. Then we hiked about another hour or so up through very thick brush, which at times had cleared with one of the guides by using a machete.

We found the Susa family! We were VERY close to them, and as we first interacted with them, one silverback walked by us and reached out for Zoe. Other than Dana getting nervous and upset about the close encounter, everything was fine and we spent an hour taking many incredible pictures.

We then hiked back down the mountain. I've hiked before, but I have never been in a jungle, and have never been near wild gorillas like that.

Other than spending time with the gorillas, I loved the TEAMWORK aspect of the gorilla trek. We helped each other up and down the mountain, pushing each other, calling out steep drops, slippery areas, pricker bushes, etc.

This was an experience that I will never forget.

Now it's 10:30pm, and we are back at the ASYV, in a Scrum meeting. More work to be done tomorrow.

Looking forward to sleeping tonight.