LOST GORILLAS

[Martin Hash]

Lost Gorillas.jpg

Congo is the birthplace of Tarzan and it seemed magically apropos when we passed a small unobtrusive and unheralded sign that said “gorillas” on a lightly traveled, unpaved back road. We decided to follow a narrow dirt turnoff and see what we could find, expect nothing. Seeing gorillas is a BIG tourist draw and all the reserves are well publicized but no travel books nor Internet site made any mention of this. Debris piled into our vehicle as we brushed against trees and bushes driving along the narrow, windy, overgrown path. We passed mud-brick huts with people sitting under the shade of creaky bamboo canopies. There seemed little hope of actual gorillas at the other end of the trek… And then - a park entrance sign! Not much, mind you, just a couple bamboo huts and a pleasant young man wearing a “I’m The Dangerous Christian Infidel Osma Warned You About” t-shirt. We could hardly communicate but he got the point across that indeed there WERE gorillas and we could see them. He walked us out to a geologically fabulous promontory overlooking a valley perhaps 2000 feet below: a beautiful, lush cavity surrounded by rock cliffs and protected from the outside world by its remoteness and unheralded nature.

Determining the cost and method of entry was a game of Charades that finally ended in a barely audible telephone call to the government offices in Brazerville with an official that spoke passable English but whose circuitous answers to my queries about price made me suspect he was testing how much the market would bear. Eventually we settled on a couple hundred dollars to enter the park and see “baby gorillas,” then the phone cut out. It was impossible to communicate with the rangers present the outcome of the conversation, it was already afternoon, and the opportunity slipped away from us. We’ll never know exactly what was in that mysterious valley? However, there was still an important task that could be accomplished involving a memento for the handsome young man who had been helping us and as part of a personal grand gesture on my part. Improvising a small ceremony, my wife, Gwynne, handed Tarzan #13 to the ranger while I filmed the handover and got a GPS location lock on my iPhone to memorialize the event.