By Trudy and Stella

At a distance of about fifteen feet a mountain gorilla with her baby appears. She comes out of the bushes, looks at me and lies down. My presence does not seem to bother her. She just wants to rest, whether I am there or not. I can almost touch her. My heart dances with joy. I am in a good position to take pictures, so I let my camera do its work. It took a three hour hike to bring me to these gorillas.

When we leave the main road, just outside Ruhengeri in Rwanda, the car in front of us, filled with soldiers, disappears in a big cloud of dust. The soldiers will see to our safety on our visit to the gorillas. We have some trouble following their car. Higher and higher we crawl up the green hills, finally we reach the damp forested slopes, the habitat of the endangered mountain gorilla. An hour earlier we crossed the border between Uganda and Rwanda for a gorilla-tracking in the Virunga Mountains.

The Volcanoes National Park is home to the ‘gorillas in the mist’ that Dian Fossey lost her life for. Half of the remaining population, about 355 mountain gorillas, still lives on the slopes of the Virungas.

In the 1990s, the dreadful genocide in Rwanda during the civil war, cost more than a million lives. At times the forests hosted more guerrillas than gorillas. The Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda was forced to close in 1994. The government reopened the park for tourists in 2001.

The first hour of our track we walk through potato fields and various crops. Children of local farmers wave when we pass. They are used to tourists who come to climb the slopes. They benefit from the fees visitors pay, and in return they help preserve the forest. A lot of money is spent on rebuilding the park and saving the gorillas. "If there are no tourists, these gorillas will die", our guide tells us. Bringing humans to visit may save the species. In the Virungas there are four habituated gorilla groups. We visit the Susa group, which has 35 members.

The terrain changes dramatically when we enter the forest. The trail, or rather a path overgrown with plants, is very narrow. Trackers must use their machetes. The steep ground is covered with slippery branches, volcanic rocks and mud. Two of my bottles of water are already empty. We are almost at the top, it cannot be far now. After three hours our uphill climb finally comes to an end. The guide tells us we can now take our cameras. He reminds us of the safety rules, both for the animals and ourselves. Contact with the animals is limited to a distance of 15 feet. And though the animals at times might come closer, we are not allowed to touch them. This rule must protect the gorillas’ fragile immune systems.

I walk behind the guide and suddenly I see a first glimpse of a gorilla, and then another one and look, one more. The 35 members of the Susa group seem to be waiting there for us. Everywhere I look I see them. It almost makes me cry. The guide shows me one of the three silverbacks (males). He is enjoying his morning snack of bamboo. The three silverbacks have nicknames: the president, the vice-president and the secretary-general. Right in front of us two adult females with infants are lying down. The little ones are teasing each other . The females tend to their babies with remarkable tenderness. A tiny finger disappears in the big hand of mama. We are almost close enough to touch them. It is unbelievable.

Suddenly, the eating silverback become a bit distracted, by one of our group members who is moving too much. After all, this silverback has to protect all of the group’s females and infants. The German lady has to step back a bit, she is told. Our guide tries to reassure the gorilla, making a sound similar to ‘ahum’. It works, it seems and nothing happens. The females continue playing with their babies. I take many pictures, to share this experience with my family and friends at home. Tourism can mean survival.

This one hour is overwhelming and much too short for me. But that is the rule. This is a fabulous sight, and I have never before experienced anything like it. It is a thrill of a lifetime. I cannot but agree with the American zoologist George Schaller, the first to study gorillas in the Virunga volcanoes, who once said: "No one who looks into the eyes of a gorilla, gentle and vulnerable, can remain unchanged".

Trudy and Stella. Email: vrouwen28@hetnet.nl