Memories of Walter Baumgärtel
In 1958, the December issue of the German magazine Kosmos contained
an article with the title Gorillas im Kochtopf (Gorillas in the
Cooking Pot), written by M. W. Baumgärtel. It was about a small safari
hotel, run by the author in the center of Africa, and about the opportunity
to observe free-ranging gorillas – mountain gorillas – near
Kisoro in Uganda. You could do this in the breathtakingly beautiful landscape
of the Virunga Volcanoes which the locals had named "cooking pots".
I was reminded of that riveting account 4 years later, when I set off
to the center of Africa to work as a zoologist for several years in the
east of Congo. It soon became clear that our route had to pass through
Baumgärtel's Travellers Rest. This was at the end of April 1963.
Disembarking the ship in Mombasa, we – my wife, our two-year-old
son and I – had taken our loaded VW bus to the Kigezi massif in southwestern
Uganda.
We were welcomed by a rainy season the likes of which I would not experience
in Africa again. The last 150 km to Kisoro took us 4 days. At that time,
there were only mud roads, and those going through papyrus swamps were
all flooded. In the mountains, landslides presented an additional problem.
In spite of everything, we reached the pass close to Kisoro at an altitude
of 2,700 m during the night of May 1, and soon afterwards we stopped in
front of Walter Baumgärtel's gorilla hotel.
A night guard with a spear came to meet us. The owner who had been woken
up by the sound of the engine showed up in a billowing night gown with
a bright petroleum lantern behind the window. When he came out and started
talking, his Saxon dialect was unmistakable. In no time at all there was
a relaxed, almost familiar atmosphere. The "boys" who had been
woken up by the night guard had to serve original Westfalen blood sausage,
bread and tea and to set up a child's bed in our room. Baumgärtel
told stories from his adventurous life until long after midnight and at
breakfast the next morning. He talked about the gorillas and his guests
and about the situation in Congo, where we wanted to go to the next day.
Half a year later we were his guests again, when we passed by on a safari
from Rwanda, and in 1966 my journey to Congo took me to the comfortable
hotel on two occasions. In this way I learnt about the progress and the
problems of gorilla habituation. Naturally, Walter Baumgärtel also
told many stories about the primatologists who had stayed with him and
who had benefited from his experience. I still remember talking about
Louis Leakey, George Schaller, Raymond Dart, Adriaan Kortlandt, Urs Rahm,
Bernhard Grzimek, Alan Root and others. Later we lost contact.
This energetic, original, humorous and kind man deserves a special place
in our memory: He was the person who welcomed and accomodated us, newcomers
to Africa, in such an unforgettable way at the gate to Congo 35 years
ago.
Fritz Dieterlen
Dr. Fritz Dieterlen, zoologist (born in 1929) worked at the research institute IRSAC near Bukavu, eastern Zaire, for several years. Subsequently he was curator in the mammal department of the Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn and at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Germany. The main subjects of his research activities are ecology and taxonomy of mostly African small mammals, especially rodents.
Photo: Paul-Hermann Bürgel
The Travellers Rest hotel in 1963