Rwanda Day 2: I'm Seriously Right Now

The fact that you are reading this means that I have survived our ordeal today. Let me explain what happened, so you can realize why that fact is somewhat surprising to me.

We all got up ready to go for our 4:00 am trek through the African rainforest, to find wild chimpanzees. We did not know what to expect, but Andrew (our driver and Kigali guide, who has brought us here) told us, "There's no hiking -- just walking on a trail." Great, I thought! So we left the hotel, having no preconceptions other than that for what was in store for us on our "chimpanzee trek."

Our first surprise was a two and a half hour drive on a "road" that was just packed down dirt on the side of the mountains going into the rainforest. Andrew himself expressed that he had never taken this way before, and he was not expecting the rough road. It was about two inches wider than the car (which is sort of like a Jeep), and we were treated to another "African massage" on the way. We finally stopped outside of a very small mountain village, because the chimpanzee guide stopped the car and told Andrew that the road was too muddy to continue, due to the rain yesterday. So, we all hopped out.

We were given nice walking sticks, and told that we were lucky, because the chimps had been spotted only 20 minutes away, an easy walk. At this point, I kind of thought that the entire experience would be sort of like visiting Busch gardens or a fancy zoo with cars, and that the walking sticks were just to give tourists an "exotic" feel. So, we started the walk joking around, in high spirits.

Very soon, we were told that the chimps were moving away in the opposite direction, so we had to backtrack through the village and walk on a different way. OK, no problem. We get all the way back through the village, then start walking on the side of a hill where several women were busy planting sweet potatoes. The "path" was about three inches wide and EXTREMELY slippery. And the "hill" was at about a 45 degree angle, with nothing to stop you if you slipped and started to fall down it. At this point, I started to wonder what exactly we had gotten ourselves into.

After about 20 minutes of walking through the sweet potato field, we got to some banana plants, and the hill started to get even more slippery. Jamii fell and dropped her walking stick, then had to climb down about 10 feet to retrieve it. Note that she broke her hand just two weeks ago and was doing all of this with a still-broken hand. I slipped and was instantly covered in wet mud. Swasti slipped. Everyone started slipping. Then we started walking up the mountain, through the rainforest.

There was not a path. The mountain slope was about 70 degrees. There was a man in the front with a machete, attempting to clear the way. The guide pointed out that we should be aware of random, deep holes and stinging nettles everywhere. Also, don't bother the flesh-eating ants. So for the next hour, we climbed the mountain. For much of it, the slope was so steep and I was so afraid of falling that I was literally crawling up, covered in sweat and mud.

We got to the top of the mountain, and the guides told us to take a short rest while they radioed other people who were supposedly following the chimps, keeping track of where they were. Our "rest" was precariously sitting on the side of the mountain while the sun beat down on us. After a few minutes, the guide told us that the chimps had heard us coming and had gone down deeper into the valley, but that the trackers would scare them up the side so we could see them. OK, so at that point, the two hours of steep climbing felt worth it.

We sat there for about an hour. Then the guide told us that the chimps had moved, to the next mountain over. Seriously? OK, fine. So we climbed up the rest of the mountain, slipping, tripping, falling, crying. At one point, Jamii expressed this thought: "When you make the conscious choice that grabbing hold of the stinging nettles as the way to stop yourself from falling to death is a good choice, something's gone wrong."

We made it up to the top of that mountain, then down the other side, then half way up the next mountain. On the way I asked the guide if this was a typical day for him. He looked surprised and said, "Oh, no. This is the most difficult trek I have ever been on, in my entire life." I asked him if the way got any easier. He answered, "I don't know. I've never been this way before." Awesome.

So after five hours of this, I was about to die (again) about twenty feet directly vertical of Jamii, and we made eye contact. We instantly shared the common thought of, "We're done -- this is crazy." Immediately after that, we got to a spot where we could all sit and rest for a few moments while the guide used the radio to get an update from the trackers. He then announced, "Well, the chimps have moved...they are on the next mountain. It will take us a while to get there, and the way is much steeper. It will be more difficult."

Immediately, Swasti, Jamii, and I agreed that five hours of near death was plenty, and we told Matt and Stan that we wanted to quit. They offered to quit to stick together, but we told them not to quit if they wanted to keep going. We then told the guide that we needed to stop, and so he had a conversation with some of the trackers who were with the group (it was in the Rwandan language, so I'm not sure what they said). Finally, the guide told us that the road was about 30 minutes away, and that one of the trackers could go with us, then call the car to pick us up once we got to the road. Hallelujah! The three of us split off and made it to the road, then to the car.

We waited there with the car for about two or three more hours. Finally, the group walked back to where we were waiting. They reported that they walked about 30 more minutes, then the guide told them the chimps had turned around again. They walked back to where they left us, walked about another hour through very steep terrain, then sat there for 20 minutes while the guides and trackers just sat and stared around. Finally, the group kind of made the consensus decision that they were also done, and the guide admitted that the chances they would see a chimp today were "extremely low." So they walked the hour back to the car (again, on the extremely steep, wet slope, holding on for dear life).

In total, the adventure lasted around seven hours of hiking/walking/almost dying, not counting the driving portions. Our guide/driver Andrew (the one from Kigali) was extremely surprised and said that he had never heard of this difficult a hike, and that this was the very first time people had failed to see chimps in this park. Too bad for us, I guess. Still, he felt bad for us, so he's arranged for us to get free passes to see the portion of the park where the colobus monkeys live. We were hesitant to even accept that, but we told him it would be OK if it were (1) tomorrow instead of today and (2) an easy trek! He assured us that it was easy, so we have accepted.

We are now back at the hotel, trying to recover. This may not sound that adventurous to you, reader, but seriously -- I thought I was going to die about five times, and I am thankful that I can make the choice that I never have to do that again.

Here are a couple of pictures showing where we were. One is of far off -- beautiful, right? And the other is of close up -- that's what we were walking through.