The youngest gorilla in the group was a real entertainer. He did all kinds of flips around the bamboo pole and then would run back to the big silverback and watch us from there. Apparently the gorillas spend most of their day in one place, eating leaves, sleeping and grooming each other. They make a circular bed of leaves and branches each night to sleep on. We saw two of these as we were walking through the forest. We were about 3500 metres up in the National Forest, on the lower slopes of one of the mountains in the Virunga Volcanoes chain. Diann Fossey conducted her research at a higher altitude on the Rwandan side, coming down to get her smokes and food supplies in the town where we stayed.
We were just astounded at the gorgeous scenery and friendly people in this part of the country. They asked us to tell our friends all about them and their park, which is much well less known than the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Park. People hike here more often because the gorillas there don't move to other countries and travellers can book far in advance. However, the hiking is apparently much harder there.
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