Dancing with Danger in the DRC ~ Democratic Republic of Congo

One of my “Bucket List Trips” was a chance to see the Mountain Gorillas that are in danger of extinction. There are only about 880 mountain gorillas left in the world, and the majority of them are located in a mountain range that borders Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC (Congo).

We did our research on visiting the mountain gorillas in each of these countries, and we decided to go to the oldest National Park in all of Africa – Virunga, in the DRC.

Not only was it far cheaper to see the gorillas, about a quarter the price of the Rwanda tours and half the price of the Uganda tours, but we liked the idea that the money we spent went right to the National Park, and to the Rangers who risk their lives protecting the park and the gorillas. https://virunga.org/

We hired a driver to take us to the land border crossing at Goma, situated right on Lake Kivu, and made our way through the customs and immigration into the DRC. The Virungas National Park sent Rangers to pick us up at the border in one of their jeeps. We were accompanied by not only a guide, but also two Rangers armed with AK-47’s for our security due to some recent skirmishes in the area.

We stopped to sign into the Virunga National Park and they took us into the park, up windy, bumpy roads made with chunks of lava rock, through villages with dozens of children waving at us, until we arrived at the Kibumba Tented Camp.

Africa Congo DRC Virunga village-03126

Let me tell you, it’s the nicest “tent” I’ve ever stayed in, with comfortable beds, a large bathroom with a hot shower, and chairs on the deck in front overlooking several volcanoes.

The lodge was open and airy and the customer service and 4 course meals were far higher than a regular hotel stay.

Encounter with Endangered Mountain Gorillas

We set off the next morning, back down the bumpy winding roads to a Ranger outpost where we had a briefing on our encounter with the mountain gorillas. They have trackers, who follow the “habituated” gorilla families each day and see where they spent the night.

We had to wear masks, to avoid the risk of passing germs – both from us to the gorillas and from the gorillas to us. We were told to stay at least 7 feet away from the family members and not to stare them in the eyes, but keep our eyes lowered submissively.

Can you see his hand right behind my head?

That started out well in theory, until a big Silverback started decisively walking directly towards me. I started scrambling backwards through the forest, not just for the germs, but because this guy weighed about 500 pounds and could out-wrestle me anytime! He kept coming ~ I kept scrambling backwards, because I wasn’t going to turn my back on him ~ until I ran out of space and was backed up against the dense forest and jumped sideways. That was the answer, because he stopped where I had been seconds before and reached into the tree I had been backed up against and grabbed a handful of leaves and started eating. I realized he hadn’t been “coming for me”, but the vegetation behind me!

The babies were just adorable, learning how to climb vines and trees, and often picking a branch not quite thick enough and tumbling to the ground before trying again. Actually the whole interaction was pretty amazing, seeing how affectionate they are with each other ~ eating, playing, and grooming each other.

The Thrill of the Nyiragongo Volcano

You know I love challenges, so when Max asked if I wanted to try climbing one of the world’s most Dangerous Volcanoes…it was “game over” !

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/destinations/africa/democratic-republic-congo/nyiragongo-volcano-hike/

On our way through Goma, we could see the devastation left by the last time the volcano on Mount Nyiragongo erupted in 2002, leaving the city 6 feet deep in lava in some places. On the 20 km bumpy ride from the border to the foot of the volcano, they had warning signs with flags designating the danger level of the volcano erupting, and we were at Level Yellow, so they said it was safe to make the attempt. (Level Red meant “get out as fast as you can ~ the lava’s coming – it flows at speeds of up to 62 mph, so they’re not kidding!).

The trek up to the summit of the volcano is a strenuous 7-8 hour hike, that starts with a gentle ascent through the rainforest, but culminates in a grueling steep scramble up loose pieces of lava rock.

But the view of the world’s largest lava lake at the top was mesmerizing!

Max took his drone up, and he lost contact with it somewhere on the other side of the lava lake, but luckily the “come home” feature still worked, and he got it back safely before it ran out of battery.

We decided to hire a cook to come up with us to make dinner that night and breakfast in the morning, and it’s amazing how good that dinner tasted after our day of climbing!

We stayed the night in the Nyiragongo Summit Shelters, small A- frame rooms perched precariously on the side of the crater.

I must have had too much coffee at dinner, and woke in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom. If you look closely at the picture, they assigned me to the hut on the right at the top, and you can see the steep path zig-zagging down the side of the cliff to the outhouse, the little building with the red roof lower down to the right of me.

I did take a flashlight and my headlamp, but I was tired and my legs were sore from the climb up that day, and I managed to trip on a big piece of loose lava in the path and do a faceplant. I knocked the wind out of myself, and my hand was throbbing like crazy. There wasn’t much I could do in the middle of the night, and I didn’t want to wake everyone else up, so I tossed and turned all night in pain. In the morning, we started the climb down the volcano.

I don’t even have the words to describe the “GRIT” it took to get down that volcano – the path down consisted of loose chunks of lava that moved when you stepped on them – going up with 2 hiking poles carefully testing where you placed your feet was hard enough, but coming down the steep slope with only one hiking pole and the other hand wrapped in a scarf like a sling while my whole hand and arm was throbbing was a challenge!

I felt like quitting ~ sitting down and just calling for an emergency helicopter to come & rescue me.

It was hard.

The throbbing pain in my arm was terrible.

I was scared I’d slip on the loose lava rock and fall on the broken arm on the way down.

My legs were sore.

My good arm was getting a blister from using it to stop me from falling down.

It was not fun or exciting anymore…

But that is when you have to reach down deep and find that extra inner strength, take one step at a time, continue putting one foot in front of the other, even when it seems your progress is painfully slow and you still have so far to go, and push through your desire to take the easier way out and Quit!

It doesn’t matter if you’re climbing one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world or building your Surge business, you still need GRIT to keep going, and finish what you started!

There had been a few skirmishes in Goma with some paramilitary rebels that week, so we decided to cross the border back into Rwanda to go to a hospital in Gisenyi to find out what I had done to my arm.

Team you have no idea how lucky you are to live where you do. While we were waiting the 3 hours in the hospital for the results of the X-rays, we saw injured and sick people lying on stretchers and on the floor, dirty, wounded, and moaning in pain. Max kept telling me not to sit on the plastic chairs or even touch the walls, because it didn’t look like there was any kind of cleaning crew, and he didn’t want me catching AIDS or the Black Plague from touching anything in that emergency room.

We got called into the doctor ahead of many people who had been there before I arrived, but we were “paying” customers – I had paid $8 in advance for my X-ray and consultation with the emergency room doctor. He told me he thought my wrist was broken, but they didn’t have the materials needed to make a cast. Max offered to take a taxi and buy whatever he needed to make one, but he said there was nothing available in the city of Gisenyi, and he suggested we go to the capital city, Kigali, about 6 hours by car, and try the hospital there to see if they had the supplies necessary to make a cast.

At that point, I decided to cut my African trip short, and asked Max to just get me in a car and on a flight back to the Western Hemisphere, so I could get to a hospital where I could get treated for my broken bone without fear of catching a fatal disease in the hospital!

Like I said, you have no idea how blessed we are ~ at least I had to option of being able to fly back to get sanitary medical treatment, while the Rwandans and Congolese have no other option!