Mgahinga Gorilla N. P. - Golden Monkeys

Tom and Rich were also interested in tracking golden monkeys and after breakfast on saturday morning, we went to the visitor's centre together. The sky looked dark and ominous but then again, it had looked that way most mornings. Like the mountain gorillas, the golden monkeys are located by trackers early in the morning and then visitors are lead to them with through radio contact. The trackers had set out that morning but had not yet found the monkeys when we left the visitors centre at 9am. We were on the same trail that lead to the summit of Mt. Gahinga. Shortly after leaving we got confirmation that the trackers had found the monkeys. If by some chance they don't find the monkeys, than the park refunds $10 US and treats the hike as a nature walk, which would be the same price. I really like this policy and wished other parks would adopt it, for chimp tracking, where I paid $50 US to track them and saw nothing. They only said, ' Oh well, it's up to luck'. Here I was only paying $20US ( on top of the $30US entrance fee) to track golden monkeys, yet they still offered a refund. Climbing the volcanoes was also good value at $50US each, including entrance fee.
Half an hour after setting out, while we were still hiking through the mostly open farmland, it began to rain. First lightly and then torrential. A blinding flash of lightening and a deafening crash of thunder erupted right in front of us. It scared the shit out of all of us. I knew there was the first rest hut were we could take shelter but that was still a way off in the bamboo forest. We finally got there a half hour later, totally drenched. My upper body and t shirt were dry thanks to my North Face raincoat but Tom and Rich were thoroughly soaked through, not wearing real raincoats. It was cold too. We waited in the hut for the rain to let up, which it did. Our guide, Kenneth, then suggested we meet up with the trackers who will show us a shortcut off the main trail to where the golden monkeys were. After leaving the main trail, the shortcut became very steep and tight through dense bamboo forests. 3o minutes later we reached the other trackers who had been watching the monkeys.
Unfortunately for us, the monkeys hide when it rains. There was a troupe of about 40 strong that had been habituated but most of them were invisible to us. We finally got a clear view of one feeding on top of the bamboo and I could see the golden fur on his back for which they are named. Golden monkeys are actually a rare subspecies of the blue monkey which I had seen at other national parks. They are only found on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes in Mgahinga national park and at Volcanoes national park in Rwanda. They number about 500, making them even rarer than the mountain gorilla.
While we tried to get better views of the monkeys, the rain started again. It was cold and hard to look up or take a photo without rain in your eyes. They limit the golden monkey viewing to one hour like the gorillas but our guide was willing to extend this but even before our hour was up, Tom, Rich and I were ready to leave. We had seen the golden monkey and although it wasn't the best sighting, I was still satisfied with it due to the weather. No one could have predicted the rain and the guides and trackers were all apologetic. There was no hard feelings or anger, we left happily and quickly to get back to the resthut. I was really cold and wet now. I fought hard to keep my hands warm and my teeth from chattering. We rested at the hut until the rain stopped. After it did we took the trail back which now was a small stream and it was impossible not to have wet feet ( the toes of my boots are still a little bit wet on the inside as I write this, 6 days later). As we got closer to the visitors centre I began to warm up. We got back to camp and laid out our wet clothes. We ate lunch while we waited for a car to pick us up. Tom and Rich had taken a taxi here and they called him to come pick us up.
After 6 days I was finally leaving Mgahinga national park and going back to civilization. There was no electricity or running water at the community camp. I was still able to have hot showers though. They would heat up a bit of water, mix it with cold water and put it in a vinyl bag that was hung up. I would stand underneath and control the flow of my own hot shower. It was great.