Gorilla trek podcast and photos
Category: Gorillas, Podcasts | Date: Jun 27 2008 | By: admin
Hello everyone, Paula here and this is the moment of truth !!! Here’s my promised podcast. Listen with headphones gorillas are very quiet creatures so listen carefully, I hope you feel immersed in the jungle. Look a the photos as you listen - I’ve put them in chronological order.
The day started at 4.30am after a very long night of very loud Oliver N’goma concert!
The experience begins with a talk from our guide Francis, who was absolutely brilliant. ….he takes us on an extraordinary hike through the jungle introducing us to much more than gorillas,….
Here’s the volcano, Mt Bisoke, we had to climb it!
We first walked through farms to this wall, the “buffalo wall” demarcates the edge of the park protecting it from incursions as well as protecting the people from buffaloes.
The houses in this area are made of sticks and the walls of leaves, the soil here is not sticky enough to plaster the walls!
The trek we were told would take anything from 10 minutes to 3 hours. Every time someone asked “are we nearly there?” we were told the same thing, “just ten more minutes”. It took us nearly like 3 hours! From Left to Right these are Joe Summerhays (animator), John (assisting guide), Bill Gorth (master story teller), Craig Hatkoff (co founder of Tribeca Film Festival), and Brian Newman (Tribeca Film Foundation).
Our first sighting, he just sat there and stared right back.
The emotion you feel when you spot Gorillas for the first time are never forgotten. From Left to Right, these are Dino (dudu diaries), Craig and Rabai Irwin.
It’s hard to keep the 10 meter rule, gorillas walk right up to you and will even grab and push you aside you if you are in the way as happened to Craig!
The experience gets better and better as the group begins to ignore you - two individuals played right in front of us then climbed a tree.
I could have watched these guys playing for hours! So entertaining.
I know why Dian Fossey fell in love with the place, the staff like Francis are super dedicated, amusing, and just a pleasure to spend time with.
The trackers wake up at about 6 am to find the group and stay with them and guide the tourists to them.
Can you see the 3 week old baby? Did you hear it coughing on the podcast?
Life as a gorilla can’t be that bad?
Apart from the mind blowing gorillas, other odd things creatures also caught our attention like this giant earthworm. They grow to about 1 foot and are about 1 inch thick!
After that full day in gorilla country and one hour with the Amohoro family I looked at my certificate and I can’t help feeling like it was a life time experience well wort the $500 price tag. I want to stay in touch with them, monitor the progress of the new baby, hear their daily shenanigans.
What do you think? Would you pay $500 to experience this?
How was the podcast?
Tags: Bisoke, Craig Hatkoff, Dian Fossey, Gorilla trek, karasoke, Paula Kahumbu, podcast, Rwanda
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11 Responses to “Gorilla trek podcast and photos”
Jim from Mass USA, on 27 Jun 2008
Can you provide a download link for the podcast … I have a slow connection? … thanks
Jim from Mass USA, on 27 Jun 2008
Nevermind … I copied the file from my “Temporary Internet Files” folder to my desktop … it is stored as an “mp3″ file … on a Windows machine.
sheryl, washington dc, on 27 Jun 2008
Awesome podcast, Paula! I plugged in my iPod headphones and it’s really the best way to hear it.
I’m a little concerned about the coughing baby, though. After Dr. Lucy’s posts about the Susa group respiratory outbreak I’m now concerned that any human contact is problematic for them.
The sounds of the gorillas are incredible. Just incredible. I’d pay $500 or more for such an experience.
s.
Lisa, California, on 28 Jun 2008
Loved the podcast, Paula. Great job. I would pay $500 and then some to experience the wonderful gorillas in their natural habitat. I would probably cry like a baby though. Do you ever feel emotional when you are among them? Heck, I started crying when I saw the Lowland gorillas at the LA Zoo. It’s for sure a lifetime experience and one I want to have someday! Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Lisa
Paula, on 28 Jun 2008
Hi Jim, hope you managed to hear it. I was asked what Siafu are - they are the nastiest biting ants in the world, also called army ants, or safari ants. They don’t bit til they have made as much progress as possible up the trouser! And then as if by magic, they all start biting at exactly the same time. It’s entertaining for onlookers, hell for the victim!
Paula, on 28 Jun 2008
Thanks Lisa and Sheryl! I’m glad you liked it. Lisa, yes it’s hard not to be emotional - but with only an hour it feels far too limited. Seeing happy gorillas swinging through branches, staring into each others eyes lovingly, playing..it makes you so happy - they are at peace. However, I will openly admit that I often feel moved to tears in zoos when I see magnificent animals jailed for life and committed to terms of pure boredom. At Berlin Zoo I watched an orangutan throw clumps of mud at the visitors who thought it was a great experience. The sadness in the orangs eyes was devastating, but they didnt’ notice as they ducked and squealed. If you haven’t seen animals truly in the wild perhaps you wouldn’t notice how retarded some animals behave, the steriotypical behavior, the numbed expressions, the abnormal patterns. Watch the wild dogs at the Bronx zoo pacing in an area that looks big for a zoo, then recall that in the wild they use tens of thousands of square kilometers. We only put the worst criminals in such conditions. I feel especially for all primates, big cats, elephants and the dolphins and sharks in aquaria …
Annie, on 28 Jun 2008
Wow so cool………I would so love to do this………..thanks for sharing this wonderful experience!
Jim from Mass USA, on 28 Jun 2008
Hi Paula … :-} … I copied the MP3 file to my Virgin ipoddie and turned the sound way up … very cool … thanks … you were lucky those ants weren’t “bullet ants” or you’d have turned numb! … I hear putting moth balls in the cuffs of your trousers helps … I too am not a big fan of zoos … I remember visiting the Melbourne Australia zoo and seeing a big black cat enclosed in a brick and wrought iron enclosure with a narrow worn path all around the perimeter except for a short interruption … the cat paced the perimeter, whiskers barely brushing the iron bars and turned at the same place, every time, to retrace his steps, yet one more time … it was heartbreaking … I have always had cats and have observed how, even “domesticated” cats, hate to be confined … a wise man one said that a cat is domesticated only as far as it suits its own ends (Saki)!
Rwanda Gorilla Trek with a Conservation Podcaster «, on 01 Jul 2008
[…] While the rest of us were armed with still and video camera’s, Paula had her audio equipment strapped to her side for podcasting the experience to her faithful blog followers. (I include myself now) She documented our journey via audio as we tromped through the stinging nettle and mud up to the Gorillas. Then as we encountered the Gorillas up-close and personal, there was Paula, microphone outstretched in hand, capturing the cacophonous sounds of the Gorilla habitat for her blog. This is what happens when you have an audience. This is what happens, and we’ve been addressing this for two years now, when you know you can make a difference with your story. I am inspired by her forward thinking, which includes organizing and encouraging many conservation-minded trackers and rangers to start their own blogs and communicate about the issues surrounding this endangered species. Check out her channel here. […]
Makonzi, on 22 Sep 2008
You took great pictures Paula.Have done gorilla trek in Uganda as wel
as well?
Gorilla Trek is worth more than USD 500.Even if the price is raised to USD 1000, still it would remain a worth while experience.You must be sharing the same sentiments.Visit our Uganda safaris
Thanks Paula
Baraza » Can you name that gorilla from its noseprint?, on 14 Oct 2008
[…] found the family photo of the Amohoro group in Rwanda that I visited and wrote about in June on the IGCP […]
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