Safari Update from Rwanda - Day 2

Mother Gorilla and her Baby

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/400 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 1600

Today we were up again at 5:15, packed up and headed out after breakfast. Both of our trekking groups drove to the same trailhead, which necessitated hiking for about 45 minutes across planted fields of potatoes. Once inside the park boundary, which consisted of a tall wall of volcanic rocks, my group only had about a 10 minute hike to reach our intended group of gorillas. I have to be honest in saying that the hike was fairly easy today, which made a few people quite happy. Most of my trekking group had been on a long, grueling hike the day before, so this trek was a relief.

Today’s time was spent with the Umubano family group, which is led by the silverback Charles. We affectionately referred to him as ‘Chuck’, as he was extremely comfortable with our presence and laid down for a nap only a few feet away from us.

We spent our hour with the the family group in one small location, and we were on even footing the entire time. Woohoo! I know this sounds funny, but yesterday was spent on a very steep incline, which was quite difficult to work with. Today we had clear view of the family, and enjoyed every second with clear views of most of the members.

I haven’t had time to process any images, and those that I have processed have been on my Macbook Pro with a shiny screen. Not optimal, for sure, but at least the images that I do post will give a good idea as to what we have seen.

Tomorrow we will have our last trek with the gorillas, and then we will stay the night in Kigali, before heading back to Kenya for the Masai Mara.