Baraza

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?

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Tags: Bisoke, Craig Hatkoff, Dian Fossey, Gorilla trek, karasoke, Paula Kahumbu, podcast, Rwanda

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Category: Gorillas | Date: Jun 23 2008 | By: admin

This is part of a series of posts about our trip in Rwanda. It has been so exciting and there is so much to tell you that I don’t know where to start….Ok, I’ll start with Saturday’s naming ceremony

When we arrived the venue for the ceremony was already packed with thousands of local people. The setting is amazing - that’s mount Karasoke behind.

We were witnessing the naming - which Craig Hatkoff one of our Dierctors of WildlifeDirect and my co-author in Owen and Mzee, and his daughter Juliana were lucky enough to actually participate and name a gorilla. The baby they named was called “Mushye” which means ‘new’. I’m going to get her to do a guest post about the experience - so watch out for that post coming soon… for now just imagine yourself emersed amongst about 4000 people and the sounds of an African celebration….

The music and fanfare was absolutely mindblowing… here are some photos to get you into the mood -you will just have to imagine the loud African beat, the energy, the celebration. It was absolutely incredible.

The dancers had so much energy it was hard to sit still while they performed

One of the key stars of the ceremony was Oliver Ngoma from Gabon after naming his gorilla he was asked to give us a taste of his music described as Afro-zouk reggae… he sang a couple of song to the entire audience, a teaser for a major concert in the evening. Everyone was dancing in their seats!

I couldn’t resist it… so I took advantage of the opportunity to get a shot with the star himself! WOW! He is seriously famous in Africa, ….

On Sunday we went on a gorilla trek …apart from it being the out-of-this-world experience that everyone who has ever met a gorilla has, something particularly unusual and special happened to Craig. I have to download photos and podcast … it’l be in my next post. Hope you can wait!

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Tags: , Craig Hatkoff, karasoke, Kwita Izina, mountain gorillas, Rwanda, Volcanoes, wildlifedirect

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