January 09, 2016:
Rode into the village of Musanze which is located near the Volcans or Virunga NP were the gorillas of Rwanda live. I spent the afternoon getting information on taking a gorilla tour and then settled in for the night. It was raining the next morning and didn't feel much like hiking in the rain so I just hung out around the hotel. Things cleared up later in the day and on the 11th I did the hike to see the big apes.
There's several different families or groups, of gorillas and the guides choose which one you will visit. Each tour group is allowed a maximum of ten people, tourists, our group had eight. There were also two guides and two armed park rangers.

Hiking to the NP:
From January 11, 2016

From January 11, 2016

An earthworm!
From January 11, 2016

Within fifteen minutes of entering the NP we saw the family of gorillas. It was amazing!
From January 11, 2016

From January 11, 2016

We were instructed to try and keep seven meters from the animals however the gorillas don't know about this rule and I was mostly within two meters to touching distance of them. They see people everyday and don't really seem to interested in humans. They did seem a bit arrogant in a way though. They seemed to enjoy walking towards you, just so you would have to move out of their way. I was watching one of the silver backs when a young male came out of the undergrowth a few meters from me. I stepped aside to let him pass however I guess I didn't react as quickly as he would have liked so he rushed towards me and used the back of his hand to brush me aside. Nothing forceful, just a touch and slight push instructing me to move, it was pretty cool!

From January 11, 2016

From January 11, 2016

From January 11, 2016

From January 11, 2016

There he is, that's the one who assaulted me. Pretty brave when he's around the big guy. Jerk.
From January 11, 2016

We spent just over one hour with them, I'm not sure how many animals I saw, the jungle's very dense and they move a lot while feeding. I think the group had about twelve members. Amazing!

Good bye,
From January 11, 2016