Heading to the Forest of Hope
Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 6:12am

We load into our Toyota Landcruiser a little after eight a.m. and leave the offices of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP) in Gisenyi for the GACP field station in Kinihira. It's an 18 mile trip but because of the winding, hilly, dirt roads, the trip usually takes 1 ½ hours.

After several stops to pick up supplies and shoot videotape/photos, we arrive in Kinihira around noon. Dr. Rebecca Chancellor is director of the field station and has assembled an impressive staff of research assistants. There is no running water or electricity in Kinihira but the field station has limited juice from a solar powered generator. The field station used to be a medical clinic and is the only building in the village with flooring. There is no refrigeration and cooking is done with bottled gas.

After lunch, we head for an afternoon trek through the Gishwati Forest. Today, we’re not tracking chimpanzees but rather getting a 3-4 hour introduction to the forest and the very steep trails. We take a break near a small waterfall, which provides for some beautiful photos and video. This is a good shakedown for tomorrow’s trek when we look for chimpanzees. I realize I need to get some help lugging all the photo and video equipment. Between the backpack and shooting vest I’m touting about 50 pounds worth of gear and it’s catching up to me as the day wears on. My pulse hits 158 when we reach the main road coming uphill out of the forest.

Back to the field station and a large Primus beer at the ‘bar’ across the road. A young man named Benjamin and his mother run the joint that has images of H.E. President Kagame, the Pope and Jesus on the wall. The beer is warm but good and provides a nice moment for us to savor the day.

Gishwati National Conservation Park

Waterfall in Rwanda's Gishwati Forest