Gorillas in the Mist (1988) tells the story of Dian Fossey and her time spent studying and living among the Gorillas of Rwanda. I saw it 10 or 15 years ago... But I lived it (kind of) 10 or 15 days ago. After a short layover in Nairobi, our first stop in Africa was Ruhengeri, Rwanda - to hike with the Gorillas (yes mom - this is safe).The Rwandans strictly limit how many visitors get this opportunity (by charging notable fees, leading only small-group visits, and limiting tourist-interactions to exactly one-hour-per-day). They even place 24-hour armed-guards on the mountain to fend off potential poachers. They're serious about safety (of the gorillas and - thankfully - the visitors).
Travel Companion (and owner of said Nikon D-40) put together a great slideshow of her best images/videos from the day.
I posted a second post about this experience - here.
And all the photos and videos from the trip are - here here.
Here's how it works...
We (our small group: 7 Americans, 2 guides, 2 guards with rifles, and a guy with a machete - who also carried Sara's back-pac) hiked up into the foggy hills expecting, but not guaranteed, to find a family of gorillas. We were not disappointed. After about an hour-ish of hiking we found the Silverback and his many wives and children (ok, so maybe they never actually got "married" but really - what priest is going to "marry" a gorilla, let alone to five different women). Anyhow, I digress.
Point is, there were 11 gorillas (1 male, 5 adult females and 5 children) slowly wandering through the hills eating bamboo and playing in the trees. What a life!
So there we were - for exactly 3,600 seconds snapping untold pictures while quietly stalking these amazing beasts. Anyhow, fun times - and certainly worth the side-trip.
PS Thanks to Adam Sidwell for the head's up on how to do this (who to contact, where to go, how much to pay), and the video that convinced us we had to do it:
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