Gashumba’s gorilla trekking passion

RWANDA IS home to some of the world’s 790 remaining mountain gorillas and one of the leading destinations for tourists. Loyce Gashumba, 27, is a female tour guide at the Volcanoes National Park (PNV) which is visited by thousands of tourists annually. Despite the harsh weather conditions at the slopes of the Virungas, Gashumba enjoys her daily trips up and down the volcanoes with tourists. After a long day of trekking gorillas with a team of eight tourists, she shared her experience with Doreen Umutesi. I joined Volcanoes National Park (PNV) as a tour guide in November 2011. My first experience with gorilla trekking is what inspired me to apply for the job. As students at Institut Supérieur D’Agriculture et D’élevage (ISAE), we got an opportunity to go gorilla trekking and it turned out an amazing experience. During my fourth year at university when guide jobs were advertised, I didn’t hesitate to apply. Each trekking day is a new experience because as a tour guide, you have a new group of people to guide. My first experience as a tourist and not a guide was the suffering that came with climbing the volcanoes. It was so bad that at some point, I felt like going back. But when we finally saw the gorillas and how they live and interact, it was so spectacular that I forgot how tired I was. Gorillas are amazing animals and it’s exciting for me to take people up to the mountains to get the kind of experience I had the very first time. Gorilla tour guides take tourists for gorilla trekking while the gorilla trackers are the people that follow the gorillas to establish where the family or group of gorillas will spend the night. They then communicate with the tour guides during the trekking exercise. In my line of work keeping fit and being well acquainted with the forests is a must. You are required to be physically fit before you get the job. We were trained for close to four months and one of the requirements was to climb and reach the top of one of the six volcanoes. I climbed Bisokye and Gahinga volcanoes that took me four hours. It was so hard that I was grasping for air when I finally reached the top. I’m planning to climb Karisimbi next. My day kicks off as early as 5:00am when I head to the park headquarters for a briefing from the tourism warden before interacting with tourists that I have to take for trekking that day. In Rwanda, we have 19 gorilla families but 13 of these families are the ones supposed to be visited by tourists. Each of us is given a group of eight tourists depending on their physical ability. For example a group of old people are assigned to go for gorilla trekking for not more than an hour, so as to see the nearest gorilla family. As a tour guide you are assigned a gorilla family per day depending on the group of tourists. Part of my work is to give the history about the gorilla families. Some of the families include; Susa, Sabyinyo, Amahoro, Kwitonda, Umubano, Hirwa and Agashya. Gorillas move regularly so for each visit we give reports on the distance we used from the fence to reach the family. This kind of information, together with that of the gorilla trackers, helps us in the trekking exercise to know where each family is so that we know which group of families to visit the following day. Gorilla trackers usually communicate and inform us about the mood in which the gorilla group is in using a walkie-talkie. For example if a group of gorillas meet, they usually fight over territories or female gorillas and if you approach the group after a few hours, for safety reasons, it’s important to keep your distance because the group is furious and could attack. Once you reach the gorilla family, viewing time is limited to an hour. Should one need to cough while viewing the family of the gorillas, the person needs to cover their mouth and look away from the gorillas. When with the gorillas we are advised to keep our voices low and to avoid making rapid movements so as not to frighten the gorillas. Although I do the trekking on a daily basis, I can’t say that I don’t get nervous when the gorilla moves towards me. For the three years that I have been in the gorilla trekking, I have never touched a gorilla. During gorilla trekking you have to keep a 7metre (about 22 feet) distance away from the gorillas. The other rule is never to run away when a gorilla moves towards your direction. When the gorilla comes close to you, all you do is you move backwards a few steps at a time while giving it way but running is not an option. I enjoy my job and plan to start a travel and tour business in future.