Our second trek was to the Sabyinyo Group on 26 December 2006.

On the drive to the park headquarters we asked Vicky if he could ask the ranger if the Sabyinyo group was relatively close, and if so could we be assigned to that group. We wanted to be back by 2 to avoid driving back to Kigali in the dark, and we wanted to see the Sabyinyo group because it had a very large silverback. As usual, no problem. Vicky had a very good attitude, which was a definite plus.

We checked in at the ORPTN office, Vicky disappeared for a minute, and when he returned he took us over to the Sabyinyo group sign. Hooray! Francois introduced himself as our guide, and introduced our other guide Tio. I remembered reading about Francois on the internet (he has been a guide for 26 years, knew Dianne Fossey, and was Bill Gates' guide last July) so I knew we were in for a good day.

We were joined by a couple from France and three people from Los Angeles (although one lived in Kigali and worked for USAID). The drive was the same as the previous day, but this time we stopped where the tarmac road ended so we didn't have to endure the bumpy muddy part.

We hired a porter (we were the only ones today) and I took a walking stick that had a carved gorilla on it. The walking sticks turned out to be good for testing the depth of the mud. Like the previous day, we hiked through farmland past goats, cows, and waving children. The weather was much better today and we had a beautiful view of the surrounding volcanoes.

The wall climb into the national park was easier here because there was a passthrough. The forest was also slightly different than the day before, much more dense and with different kinds of trees and visible damage from elephants.

Along the trek, Francois showed us how the gorillas extract water from the plants so they never need to go in search of water. He also showed us assorted plants and fruits that gorillas and elephants eat. Other members of our group tasted them, but I couldn't get "peel it, boil it, or forget it" out of my mind and envisioned having to explain to a travel clinic doctor "i don't know what it was - it was about this big, had seeds, and is part of a gorilla's diet" so I passed. Francois showed us wild impatiens (which the previous day we thought were orchids) and how daisies are natural bug repellent (which they call insecticide).

After about an hour of hiking in muddy slop we heard some rustling in the bamboo. Then we saw the trackers so we knew that the gorillas were near. We put down our bags in a clearing and followed Francois and Tio as they hacked a path into the solid bamboo. As we were climbing, there was a baby and a subadult playing in the canopy above us. When we reached the top, there he was - the biggest gorilla I had ever seen! I think the first 10 minutes were spent saying "look at the size of him" and "look at the size of his hands!" and "look at his teeth!" Francois asked us to hold off taking pictures to make sure that Guhonda (that's what they call this silverback) was ok with our presence. A minute later Francois said it was ok to take pictures so we all began snapping away.

He was about 15 feet away, and Francois kept saying "come over here to see better" but I was afraid that I'd slip and wind up in the silverback's lap. No thanks, I'm fine right here. Guhonda, who is 35 and weighs 450 pounds, sat there and ate bamboo while two babies played in front of him. They rolled and tumbled and bit each other. I filmed some video. Francois made some crazy sounds. At certain points, the babies were too close for Andy to photograph with the 70-200 lens. The gorillas really are...pungent. We took turns taking pictures of each other with the gorillas in the background. One of the trackers kept asking to take a picture of me with the gorillas - he spoke French but no English, and I only had the DSLR (Andy had the point and shoot, but he was about 5 feet away). I'm good at charades, but there's no way I could do "point it at me, hold the trigger half way down to focus, then keep holding it down, but reposition the camera so the gorillas are in the picture too". i just let him take a few pictures and said thanks.

Something spooked the silverback and he let out this crazy loud howl/bark and charged sideways at one of the females. We all assumed our submissive pose but Francois said "everything is ok, he is not angry" - I sure didn't want to see him angry! Holy #?$!! A minute later, the bamboo canopy collapsed under his tremendous girth and he and the other gorillas rolled down into the forest.

I thought that this must signal the end of the trip, but oh no. Francois gestured for us to follow him and we tracked them through the dense forest where it was so dark that the video camera thought that the lens cap was on.

They emerged in the clearing where we had left our bags (although the porter/trackers had moved our bags at some point). The entire Sabyinyo group was now out in the wide open - it was absolutely, jaw-dropping amazing. Little ones riding on their mom's back, a baby nursing, a juvenile eating fruit - the silverback ran by at one point (not charging, just running) and the earth actually trembled. We watched them for a while and then Francois announced that it was time to go, but there were two gorillas blocking our path so he had to kind of shoe them away and we had to sneak by.

We'd booked two treks really as insurance - in case the first one yielded no gorillas, or bad weather, etc. But we'd had a really good first day so we'd joked that the second day was just "gravy". But the second day FAR exceeded our expectations - and even the guy from Kigali who had been to see the gorillas FIVE times before said that it was a particularly phenominal day.