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We awoke at 4:30a.m. to begin our day to see the
gorillas. After some peanut butter and a Coke, we left for the Zaire
border, arriving around 6:00a.m. The last time I crossed the Zaire
border some 80 miles south, we were threatened and bribed by several
drunken soldiers, not over 17 years old, wielding Kalashnikovs.
This time, the crossing went a lot smoother. We couldn’t cross the
border with the truck, so we had to walk a couple of hundred meters
and then catch a lift to where the road ended and walk 45 minutes
up the foothills of the Virungas to the park headquarters. After
30 minutes of working out the permits, guides, trackers and porters
for a couple of people, we departed in single file up a well-trodden,
deeply rutted trail onto the saddle of the Sabinyo Volcano.
The guide stopped us and briefed us on the rules
of watching gorillas and the rules of photographing gorillas. He
also had us remove our hats and anything else that was easily extractable
from our bodies. This was a new protocol to me. When I saw the eastern
lowland gorillas, there was never a concern about contact. As the
briefing was continuing, from behind me the silverback, or dominant
male, approached on all fours, knuckling his way in a commanding
attitude. He seemed to be establishing his turf, and I backed off
and gave him full quarter. The pelage on his back and neck were
not completely gray, but youthfully frosted. He disappeared into
the bamboo. The trackers hacked our way through to a small opening.
There we saw several babies, four or five juveniles, and a couple
of mamas who were nursing. They all broke in intervals to play,
somersaulting, occasionally chest-beating and shaking branches,
then running away. Everyone was immediately infused with the compelling
sensations of both awe and exhilaration peculiar to those rare situations
where the here and now commands undivided attention. Most striking
were the frighteningly familiar human-like lineaments—hands, brown
eyes, pursed lips, sad faces, and the occasional bipedal walker—they
were gorillas in the mists.
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