After a visit to Kigali, the issue was fixed when ORTPN adviser Alain Montfort paid $300 toward the census from a little Belgian research budget under his authority. A fresh squad was back on the field a month later. Big Nemeye took over as tracker when Rwelekana’s agricultural duties conflicted with the altered calendar.

Hired to protect our camp and monitor daily bean pot cooking was Antoine Banyangandura, an occasional karisoke porter and tracker-in-training. One volunteer for the Peace Corps, Roger Palm, even paid a few weeks for vacation time to help out.

Named after the little lake filled crater jutting out from Visoke’s North Eastern face, the reconstructed census crew set up a base camp at Ngezi on July 21. Our first chore was cleaning the fifth litter left by poachers from past short-lived efforts by Dian and a European friend to provide a tent for visitors remote from karisoke.

After the clean-up was finished, we lounged along the lake’s side in the declining light before sun set. Breaking visokes’ reflection on the surface, a pair of yellow-billed ducks paddled over a length of open water. From the thickets around the lake came the bell-like goong-goong of the solitary buff-spotted crake, a tiny bird whose long feet allow it to walk on floating foliage.

There were paths suggesting likely gorilla usage over a wide bowl of herbaceous plants immediately beyond the lake. Far above, a faint glimmer burst momentarily before fading as the sunset sank below Visoke’s top.

On the first day of our tour, we came along two new groups whose composition obviously indicated that we had not counted then previously. This would be the last time we relaxed. As Bill and Nemeye were teaching Roger how to count nets, the first group emerged on a hill. We got a great glimpse of a gorgeous family of twelve individual’s two silver backs, four females with four babies and two additional sub adults as the gorilla group crossed a nearby gully.

We observed the gorillas calmly settle down to eat and relax. Then followed a silver back scream and voices. Then more sounds—human voices from below. Five European visitors emerged from the woods, startled to discover other people rather than their target, as the gorillas retreated. They were with a badly dressed park guard who seemed as like he really wanted to be someplace else.

For the $5 price, or comparable bribe, these were some of the few courageous visitors who paid to view wild gorillas in 1978.Although approved by ORTPN, such excursions were supervised by untrained guides ignorant about gorillas or appropriate behavior in their presence. Although few groups were able to see gorillas, these folks had at least established verbal contact whether their guide intended to extend the encounter any further was not quite obvious.

Our team then confirmed a count of twelve members in this group, which we noted as group 11 in the final census. Over the next several days, we introduced a second group including six gorillas. This finished the visit to Visoke proper. We next drove out into a wide plain surrounded by a sequence of hills to the north of Ngezi, totally in Congo.

The region was covered in heavy scrub vegetation and had nothing to suggest it as probable gorilla habitat. Still, it had to be explored; we covered a sizable portion in two days of mandated ten-hour marches. Surrounded by a sea of Kibaba Nzovu-elephant nettles packed with a terrible twenty-24-hour sting-and exposed to the unusual dry season sun devoid of surface water, the Virunga paradise was turned into green hell national a park.

These diseases did not, however, keep other people away. We cut hundreds of traps and fresh poacher tracks spanned the plain. Hyna prints overlay fresh duiker tracks at one point, and the little bare foot prints of a pair of poachers—probably pygmies followed both of them. We put our lug-soled boot prints into the mix and considered the fascinating prospect of a group meeting.

But the sight of smoke carried us off the path toward a far-off hill. Fresh duiker welcomed our arrival at the flaming fire. Inside one of two little cottages, Nemeye came across a plastic bag containing white powder used for elephant poison near a drinking well. Before we burned the cabins, we also collected machetes and wire traps. Late on July 24, Nemeye climbed the steep face of Ngezi and discovered and cut three newer snare traps five hundred yards from camp.

Arriving at the outskirts of Ngezi at 5.00pm that same day, we were tired but happy to know we had completed the challenging plains leg of our census. With fresh expectations of spotting gorillas, we would then go east of Ngezi on bamboo slopes. Antoine was waiting when we came to the cottage. He held out a note for Bill in both hands and lowered his head. The stance of the watchman seemed to be expecting the worst.

Uncle Bert has passed away. We do not know if the other gorillas are alive or not. Come return to camp as soon as you can. Ian.