Mt. Bisoke

The Virungas are a group of volcanoes (some active, some not) on the borders of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda. Most people visit them to see the famous mountain gorillas (Gorillas in the Mist) but last weekend five friends and I went there to climb Mt Bisoke. Although there is a family of gorillas somewhere on Bisoke we were not lucky enough to see them. They aren't one of the groups that people trek to see but there is a research group tracking them. Some of the other animals we were told we could possibly see are monkeys, buffalo, antelope, and elephant! We saw a few monkeys way up in the trees at the very beginning but nothing else besides HUGE bugs and worms. We did see lots of different kinds of poo that our guide was very good at identifying. He could say what type as well as how old it was. Besides our guide we had four armed soldiers accompany us. Two in front and two behind. I've never heard of anything happening on these mountains but I think the armed escorts are there for protection from both animals and rebels who might be camped out in the mountains (not common in that area).

Since it's rainy season the trail was extremely muddy. By the end of the day we all had mud up to our knees. Switchbacks have not caught on yet in Africa so the way up was very steep. In a lot of places there were steps carved into the trail which helped some, although even the steps were huge and I needed help getting up some of them. We were all given sticks which helped a lot in pushing ourselves up the big steps and also (sometimes) kept us from sliding on the way down.

It was really beautiful scenery. It was clear and sunny most of the day. The vegetation changed as we went higher. There were lots and lots of all kinds of plants. I couldn't begin to describe them all. Some really tall trees covered with long wispy moss. Lots of dense leafy bushes. Only one little meadow area that was tiny so you couldn't even really call it a meadow. This is where we stopped for the longest break (15 min. or so). We had brought snacks...bars, gorp, apples, bread, peanuts...etc.

I think I made it probably about 3/4 of the way up. We found out that the bottom where we started hiking was at about 7500 feet and the top was about 12,000 feet. So the entire hike was at a pretty high elevation. I had a hard time getting my breath the whole time both because I'm not in great shape and because of the elevation. As we got higher and the trail got steeper I really was having a hard time and was needing to stop every few minutes even though we were going really slow. Finally I realized I was not enjoying it (other than the scenery) and I was tired of knowing I was holding everyone else up. I know they were fine with going slow for me but I just wanted to let them go. So we talked for a few minutes and decided that two of the soldiers would go down with me and the others would continue on with the guide. It started raining just after I left the others so I was glad to be heading down instead of up. But coming down was almost as hard as going up. Because the trail was so steep and muddy I had to take it really slow and use my already shaky legs alot. Several times one of the soldiers had to grab my arm and practically lower me down some of the steep steps. I'm surprised I don't have bruises from his strong hand gripping my arm. They were really nice soldiers and even though they spoke no English or French and I speak almost no Kinyarwanda or Swahili we were able to communicate a little bit here and there.

I didn't really have any sense of time the entire day but I'm guessing we started up around 8am. I think I probably reached the bottom around 3pm and the others came down around 5pm. The car and our driver were sitting at the bottom when I got down so I rested in the car for 45 minutes or so then I got out and walked around a little bit. We were parked in a little mountain village with maybe 10 or 20 huts surrounded by their fields of potatoes, pyrethrum, banana trees etc. as well as goats, sheep and cows. When I got out to walk around I was slowly joined by village children, one by one, until I found myself engulfed. I left my backpack with camera, money etc. in the car with the driver so I wouldn't have anything to worry about. I wish I could have taken some pictures with the kids but once you pull a camera out it's complete mayhem. So I sat and played with these village kids for over an hour while I waited for the others to come down from the mountain. Some of the older kids knew a few English words from school so we were able to communicate enough for me to teach them some games and for them to teach me some of theirs. We played soccer, duck duck goose (actually "dog dog cat" since they didn't know what a duck or goose was), had a bit of a dance party, and sang some songs. It was great.

Here are some pictures from the day...