NORTHERN PROVINCE

A blind man tracking gorillas has become one of the rear visitors in the history of gorilla tracking in the country, park wardens say
Gary Benjamin, a blind retired history teacher had heard about the wild gorillas in Rwanda, and made up his mind to come and ‘see’ the primates in the volcano national park.

The tourist lost his sight at the age of 20 and for the last 38 years, his understanding of nature was confined to other senses.

‘’I can still imagine in my head the image of gorillas and my wife describes an over view, the face, the nose. She tells me in words, I can smell the scent of the gorillas and so I have a clear picture of how they look like,’’ Benjamin said, after the tracking exercise.

His spouse Irene Morse who acts as his immediate guide could not hide the excitement of coming to Rwanda.  "Seeing the gorillas is one of the most exciting things that will stick to our memory for the rest of our life,’’ she said.

Benjamin, a retired teacher of world history and English appeared nervous coming so close to the gorillas but said the difficulty was worth; for it provided him a ‘tremendous’ opportunity to enjoy.

The park chief warden, Justin Rurangirwa described the blind man’s visit as strange act that would remain in the in the history of the park.

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