Mgahinga Gorilla National Park - Mt. Gahinga -3473M

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is in southwestern Uganda. It is only 33sq km but has the most spectacular setting of any national park. The park sits on the edge of the Virunga volcanoes and borders Rwanda and DR Congo. 3 volcanoes make up the backdrop for the park and that's why I came here, to climb them all. Although the name of the park suggests that there is gorillas there, there isn't. They have gone to the Rwandan side of the park last November and nobody knows when they will, if ever, return. The park also offers golden monkey tracking, cave exploration, a border walk and a gorge walk. However, since the gorillas left, Philip, the manager at the campsite, said that visitor numbers have really slumped. Even without the gorillas, I thought people would still come because of the volcanoes and golden monkeys, but I guess their are not as big a draw.

I ate breakfast at 7 and with a packed lunch, was at the gate of the park by 7.30. I went to the visitors centre where I paid my fees and got my guide, Jones. He briefs me on the park and why our armed guard is with us and not to be alarmed by his AK 47. He's there to protect us from dangerous animals, mostly buffaloes and elephants and possibly poachers from DR Congo, though they don't mention that. We leave at 8am. The trail begins through regenerating farmland. In 1991, the local people were encroaching too much on the volcano and the government kicked them out, I mean relocated them. Some with force. Now the land is trying to get back to its original state. After a few minutes on the trail, we came face to face with a huge buffalo, just ahead of us. This is why we have the gun. We stop right away. The buffalo looks at us, he's not moving or bothered by us and actually starts moving towards us. The guard goes in front and starts banging his weapon loudly with his hand. This has no effect. Jones radioes the park and asks for permission to fire one warning shot in the air. We are denied and told to change direction. So much for the gun protecting us! We go back and take another route that eventually leads back to the main trail. We saw a bushbuck in the distance. After hiking through the farmland and bamboo for an hour, we enter virgin forest of bamboo. We come to the first rest hut. We take a break here.

The trail has some steep sections and some very muddy sections. After another hour we reach the second rest hut. From here, Jones says it is one and a half to 2 hours to reach the summit. The trail gets steeper and muddier with ladders that need a lot of balance to negotiate. The ladders aren't what you think when you hear ladders. These are made out of strong pieces of wood about the thickness of my arm and are still their original shape. With my arms out, I'm able to climb them but it's slow going. When climbing or hiking, my usual routine is to hike for at least an hour before taking a break, but after 30 minutes, I'm out of breath due to the elevation and find the trail getting more difficult, steep and muddy. Then Jones announces that we will be at the summit in 4 minutes! This gives me energy and I don't take the break I wanted. He was right, we arrived on top of Mount Gahinga at 10.40, exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes after starting. It can take 3 to 4 hours to usually reach the summit but Jones said I was strong and didn't break often.
The summit of Mt. Gahinga stands at 3474M and has a swampy crater lake. The name Gahinga means 'pile of stones'. Since the area around the park is volcanic, the soil is underneath rocks and anytime cultivation is done, the rocks must be broken up and they are usually put into a pile near the cultivated plot, hence 'pile of stones' Mt. Gahinga is also the lowest of the 3 volcanoes in the park. My original plan was to start with the highest to lowest to make it easier for myself but I thought I should start with the lowest just to make sure I could climb all 3 volcanoes in 6 days.
The vegetation is afromontane, giant lobelias and senecios similar to what I saw on top of Mount Elgon. There is a dense and enveloping fog blocking any views other than into the crater. I was hoping to get views of the other volcanoes and plains below but Jones told me this was normal for Gahinga. He said he has even been at the top where the fog was so thick, they couldn't even see the crater lake. Now that would really suck to hike up here and not even see that. I ate my packed lunch of passionfruit, hardboiled eggs and chapati. The sun tried to come out but the fog wasn't having any of it. After 30 minutes, it began to get cold and I decided it was time to go down. Going down was just as slow as coming up due to the wood ladders. Sometimes I needed to lean back on them with my hands for balance. My feet were soaked through my this time but I was just glad it didn't rain. It has been raining a lot here and I was ready to be drenched. Jones told me other times, it began to rain when they reached the summit and didn't stop until they reached the visitors centre hours later. That's rough. The further down we got, the easier it got. The ladders were finished. Back in the farmland we saw another bushbuck.
We got to the detour we took this morning and Jones suggested we take it again but the buffalo was anticipating this. As soon as we got onto the trail, we saw the buffalo ahead of us on the trail. We just turned around and went back to the original trail. We made it back to the visitors centre with no more problems. The whole climb took me 5 hours and 40 minutes. 6 hours is the normal time.
It starts to rain as I get back to camp. I wanted to move my tent but will have to wait. I eat lunch and the rain stops. I move my tent to higher ground. I relax the rest of the day. The campsite has a nice common area with a wood burning stove and I eat dinner here and write by the warmth of the flame.


Rest Day
I had planned to climb all 3 volcanoes in the park but no consecutively, I'm not that crazy! So the day after I returned from Gahinga was a rest day. I just hung around camp, washed clothes and relaxed. My legs are a little sore. Before this I had not done much activity but was confident I could handle another climb tomorrow. It rained lightly today. I went to the park just to check out a viewing tower near the visitors centre but had to be accompanied by a guard in case of buffalo but we didn't see any. I arranged a guide to meet me tomorrow morning at 7am for my ascent of Mt. Muhavura, at 4127M, the highest volcano in the park.