African Old Wives Tales?

Struggled with a title for this blog – but have had quite the learning experience and realised a lot of what I’ve learnt about things in Africa has been wrong. It’s been a bit like reading Freakonimics and finding your understanding being turned upside down. (or at least your eyes opened to new possibilities)

Bulawayo

The ‘City of Kings’ continued to build my appreciation of Zimbabwe. The cities are well-planned and the locals are less pushy then some other countries we’ve been in. Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to get friendly enough with a local to fully understand how all the issues Zimbabwe has but if you had no geopolitical understanding you would think Zimbabwe is a fantastic country since it just has a positive feeling – very difficult to describe but it’s one of my favourite countries so far this trip.

Big Cave Hotel

After leaving the city centre we headed to our campsite. Took advantage of the upgrade and stayed in an amazingly unique hotel – it’s situated on the top of a massive kopje (huge rocks on the African plains) and they’ve made great use of the area. The bar has one of its walls as a massive rock and the swimming pool was a natural depression which has been sealed. The view from the room was superb – looking over the African wilderness and got to see a full moon rise. Was a great way to end the day.

Matobo National Park

The hotel was situated right next to the National Park and we all piled into open safari trucks and headed off Rhino trekking. We had a fantastic guide who reminded me a bit of Steve Irwin – just the amount of passion he had when talking about his job and the dangers of poaching to the existence of these animals. (more on poaching later)

He was able to lead us on a walk to try and find some rhinos which was so much more exhilarating then sitting in a truck and hoping for them to come by. After following some tracks on the road for a bit we all got out – had a safety lecture (ie. You’ve got no chance of outrunning a rhino – try not to piss them off) and headed into the bush. After getting information about all the dangerous plants I can now use to poison people we stumbled upon a rhino called Gumboots about 20 minutes from the car (which was incredibly quick – could have been 3 to 4 hours). Gumboots is an old rhino and we got so close to him. Obviously (if you know your animal behaviours) he is a white rhino – black rhinos are a lot more aggressive and will run away or attack if people get this close.

(Rhino and I - finally first photo in Africa uploaded...)

After a quick drinks break (it’s very hot now – absolutely roasting in the open-truck and getting a massive t-shirt tan) our guide led us to some rhino bones. The first and more complete set we saw was a natural death due to old age. Even rhino bones are worth a lot of money but they’re not worth the hassle compared to tusks for poachers. The head alone as seen in this photo is worth about $1 million.

(expensive rhino bones)

The 2nd skeleton we were taken to was a young male rhino who had been shot by poachers. You could see the single bullet hole into its brain and it was done with military precision. Scary how quickly they can remove the tusk before the armed rangers can arrive.

Myths and Scary-but-True Stories

Our guide was incredibly informative and was able to tell his stories in such an imaginative and passionate way. He would be a great teacher! One of the myths he debunked (or at least put a big query on) was the question of the most dangerous animal to humans in Africa. I thought I was well-informed and ready for that trivia question with the answer of hippos. However, while that may be the correct government recorded answer the truth is a bit more confusing. Obviously a lot of deaths occur due to hippos being separated from the water but the reason why a man-killing hippo is reported so often is that ranger/hunters are required to put them down. (same as any animal – the other main contender is an elephant.) Obviously getting a hunter to a village takes time (T.I.A.) so elephants have usually left the area while hippos are content to stay close by.

But the big factor that our guide bought to our attention is the fact the local village gets to keep the meat of a hippo or elephant if it’s killed nearby. Obviously a hippo who doesn’t move far is more likely to be reported compared to an elephant – and our guide couldn’t count the number of times he’s been called to a village due to a ‘rampaging hippo’ and asked to see the body of the person killed and been met with silence. So challenge that question at a trivia night!

Most of his other stories were concerned with rhinos and poaching and I can’t remember them all. An incredible 20-25 poachers are caught per month with the rangers having a shoot first and ask questions later policy. There were quite a few guards around but even they can’t patrol everywhere and rhinos are unfortunately fairly predictable in their movements.

The other interesting point he raised was that rhinos could possibly be farmed. All the rhinos at this national park are de-horned – much like chopping off a nail without taking the stump. Unfortunately this stump is still worth a lot of money (approx. $100,000 – massive fortune for an African) and it keeps growing back. The rangers are not allowed to sell the horns – maybe depreciating the price – and South African authorities even tried to sell off some rhinos to private owners to hopefully protect them but no luck. It’s so sad to hear how outraged but accepting the guide was in what he believed to be the Rhino’s imminent demise from living free in the wild.

Bushmen Art

This blog is getting long already and still lots to cover so going to get quick – bushmen were a race who lived in this area and painted nice artwork in their caves. Some of it actually looked a bit Aboriginal. Also some great stories regarding them like how to get a wife (shoot with a small bow and arrow) and how they stored fat on their backside.

Hwange National Park

We left Matobo and headed to another park with some more game drives. I’ve never seen so many elephants. Because we’re in the dry season, this park has manmade watering holes which the animals have to come to. And the elephants come in droves. Nice photo of a baby one.

(baby elephant)

Also were lucky to see another lion – heard it call for the rest of its pride but the animals aligned and managed to catch this lucky photo.

(3 of Big 5 in one photo – buffalo on right, elephants in middle and lion above far left elephant)

 

Night and Sunrise Safari

Had a final 2 safaris here – with a night safari driving around and using a huge spotlight from the truck. Saw some different animals but camera had no hope. Best part was seeing a pack of hyenas walking directly towards us along the road and getting within 5 metres.

The sunrise safari meant little sleep (but at least avoided the heat of the day somewhat) and saw even more elephants (so many photos of them now…) and quite a few other animals. I think I’m getting harder to impress after so many days in Africa but was fun seeing a giraffe drinking from a waterhole. What a mission…

(giraffe drinking)

Now heading to Victoria Falls which should be fun! And 3 nights at the same place – luxury.

Week Ahead

Tues, 18th of Oct Victoria Falls

Wed, 19th of Oct Victoria Falls

Thurs, 20th of Oct Chobe National Park, Botswana

Fri, 21st of Oct Chobe National Park

Sat, 22nd of Oct Bagani Community Camp, Namibia

Sun, 23rd of Oct Okavango Delta, Botswana

Mon, 24th of Oct Okavango Delta

Managing African Expectations – T.I.A.

T.I.A. (or This Is Africa) is the phrase you hear when the showers are cold (or no water); when the toilets are a biohazard or when your truck gets stuck in the mud. All part of the adventure that is an African trip. However I’ve come to realise that if I’m prepared for something or it’s something completely out of our control that impacts us, I can deal with it. 14 hours plus on the truck is fine if I’ve been forewarned. The problem arises when I have an expectation that is not met. One quick way to get a grumpy Gareth is to say we’re travelling for 2 and a half hours and 4 hours later we are still driving without any interruptions with the end not in sight. Just as I prefer a pessimistic weather forecaster – I would prefer some more realistic predictions and being pleasantly surprised when we’re early. [End rant – resuming normal broadcast…]

 

Lilongwe

Our final day in Malawi was spent in the capital of Lilongwe. We’d arrived in time for a late lunch and were given money and free rein to find our own food. A majority of us headed straight to a western fast food chain of the Inns – Chicken Inn, Pizza Inn and Creamy Inn. We were spoilt with air-conditioning and fatty fast food before wandering the town getting rid of our last Malawian money. One thing we quickly realised about Malawi was the trouble getting American money out of the money changers. They’re extremely happy to take the dollars but no luck changing Malawian kwacha back to USD. I was also talking to a guy driving from Cape Town to Nairobi and he had been stuck in Malawi for a couple of days because they didn’t have any diesel available to be purchased – even in the capital. Glad our truck has massive tanks so we drove the whole way through the country without having to fill up.

Mozambique

Leaving Malawi we entered the Portuguese-colonised country of Mozambique. It had a weird shape and to get to Zimbabwe we had to pass through the Tete corridor. Not the easiest country to transit through and our itinerary had us getting through to Zimbabwe all in the same day. Our leader decided it would be best to cut the journey in half which was a fantastic decision. We had no problems checking out of Malawi but entering Mozambique we ran into the grumpiest border control man I have ever seen. For the whole 3 + hours we were waiting there I didn’t see him smile once. Must be tough working in a job that fills you with so much unhappiness.

After paying the $75 visa fee to just transit the country (seems a completely random amount they charge you – our guide had his clients charged from $30 to $80) we camped on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River.

Into Zimbabwe

Rising early again we continued crossing through Mozambique and reached the border with Zimbabwe. No problems leaving the country and were prepared for another nightmare visa process. Luckily the lady in charge at the Zimbabwean side was a cheerfully bossy character who was a lot more fun than the Mozambique guy. We were actually done before the truck had been cleared through customs for a change.

 

Harare

Our first stop in Zimbabwe was the capital Harare. Very colonial buildings with very wide streets. Wandered around town and enjoyed the fact that Zimbabwe just use American dollars as their currency (since their local currency is somewhat worthless). The nicest and biggest building we passed was the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Don’t know what they do in there since they have no currency themselves – an opinion from the group was that massive building is where they store all their worthless notes…

Stayed in a somewhat dodgy campsite just outside Harare – only one shower for our whole group.

Great Zimbabwe Ruins

Another early start and we headed towards the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. This place actually gave the name to the country when it changed its name from Rhodesia. There were 3 main parts – the kings palace on the high hill where he could look over his 200 wives; the valley ruins which housed 199 wives; and the Great Enclosure which housed his favourite wife.

(walking up to King’s Palace)

Was great getting the chance to hike around the ruins and took a lot of photos of rocks – will need to go through and delete quite a few. Had an amazing view from the top of the King’s Palace. The Great Enclosure is the large circular area enclosed by a rock wall.

(view from top over Great Enclosure)

Another fairly significant part of the ruins was this tower which is used in quite a few official documents including the Zimbabwe passports. Bit of confusion over exactly what the tower was for since it can’t store anything and is just probably demonstrating how rich the King was.

(tower in Great Enclosure)

Finally the view from the Great Enclosure looking back up to where the King has his very defendable home.

(view from Great Enclosure to King’s Palace)

Masvingo Campground

After the ruins we headed to an amazing campsite looking over a lake where a few of us upgraded into this massive lodge with a huge living room. Was very civilized and continued to demonstrate how much wealth there was in Zimbabwe. Got a few game drives soon as we head towards Victoria Falls.

Week Ahead

Fri, 14th of Oct Bulawayo

Sat, 15th of Oct Bulawayo

Sun, 16th of Oct Hwange National Park

Mon, 17th of Oct Victoria Falls

Tues, 18th of Oct Victoria Falls

Wed, 19th of Oct Victoria Falls

Thurs, 20th of Oct Chobe National Park, Botswana

Zanzibar + Tanganyika = Tanzania

It feels slightly selfish when you think you need a holiday to recover after a holiday. With some big driving days in the truck over Africa, it was fantastic to be able to have a resort-style relaxing couple of days planned for the island of Zanzibar. Didn’t take many photos – either too relaxed or just sitting on the truck.

 

Into Dar es Salaam

Unfortunately to get to the island, we had a mammoth driving day. We spent the night near the base of Mt Kilimanjaro and it was a long drive (14 hours on the truck) to the ex-capital of Tanzania – Dar es Salaam.

(best photo I got – cloud cover didn’t help)

After some seemingly endless and torturous hours sitting on the truck and cycling through Ipod, books, playing cards and sleeping we arrived to the traffic of a big city during peak hour. Our campsite was situated across a short bay which required a short (but time consuming) ferry crossing. Quite an experience with us leaving the truck and walking over with a crowd of locals in the dark. Didn’t lose anyone thank goodness.

Ferry to Zanzibar

Next morning had another early start, back on the short ferry and then over to Zanzibar ferry (also called Kilimanjaro – seems there’s a Kili anything over here – water, beer…) Trip took a lot longer than I was expecting but fell asleep watching a Mr. Bean movie.

Stone Town

Our first night in Zanzibar we spent in the historic centre and World Heritage Site called Stone Town. Was super warm and I retreated to my surprisingly air-conditioned room during the hottest hours. Joined the group to watch the sunset and have a nice restaurant meal. Walking back to our hotel (not a tent which was a nice change) that night reminded a bit of Venice and its snake-like pathways. Was one of the first places in Africa I’m glad I was walking with a group of people.

Spice Tour

Had a bit of a sleep-in in an actual bed before being herded into a mini-bus. Unfortunately had a bit of good news/bad news – good news was that we had air-conditioning in the bus; bad news was the air-conditioning somehow broke the bus and we were stranded waiting for another bus just outside a Navy training facility which we weren’t allowed to look into. Some grumpy guys came out and told us to stand on the other side of the road which was a bit weird. Rather than having our backs to the super-secret location we were herded to the other side where we could safely stare back over the road at what looked like a run-down college. At least the Navy security guys would have slept soundly that night…

Our 2nd bus arrived and we were driven to a spice farm where we were given a tour of the different spices that grow on the island. Lots of different smells and the obligatory tea tasting afterwards with the sales pitch. Didn’t drag on too long and we headed further north to our hotel for two nights.

Beach living

So began the holiday within a holiday. Mix together great weather; room with bed, hot showers and air-conditioning; hammocks on the beach and some great snorkelling and you have a very relaxing two days. Only downsides were the sunburn and the dodgy power outages resulting in lukewarm drinks. Also had time for a sunset cruise in a dhow – seeing the sun set over the water was a magic way to end the day.

Ferry Trip Back

It was tempting to spend the next few weeks here in Zanzibar just relaxing but we had more countries to visit so back on the ferry to the mainland. It was a crowded ferry with some super noisy kids. I put on some loud music and just tuned out and it wasn’t until we got to the other side I found out that most people had been sick due to the rough conditions. Even the person sitting next to me had thrown up while I was cocooned in my Ipod sound shield.

Torturous Travel Days

Spent another night in Dar es Salaam – same campsite we had been in before. I upgraded for $10 into a beach hut since there was going to be a ridiculously early morning start.

So began some longs days leaving Tanzania (14+ hours on the truck). We arrived in a campsite at Iringa after driving through a National Park – campsite had no power and we got there when it was dark. Left early the next morning and crossed into Malawi. Spent a night at Chitimba which was on Lake Malawi. Crazy distances we’d covered…

Malawi

Another somewhat early start (especially with the sun rising at 5:30am due to a time change so Malawi can be similar to South Africa) we headed further south down the lake to Kande beach. This is a popular stopping point for overland tourist trucks and there were 4 different trucks there including ours. We got to spend a full day just by the beach – and it was weird being on the shores of a lake which looked like a beach at the sea with waves and everything. Bit of a shock with the fresh water however…

Another weird occurrence were the insects, it looked like a dust storm coming over the lake towards us but turned out to be millions of bugs. Everyone retreated inside and waited it out but at least there weren’t too many mosquitoes. Overall a very nice day watching the Australians scrapes past South Africa in the rugby and having a few games of beach volleyball.

We’re now heading to the capital of Malawi before heading towards Zimbabwe with a couple of border crossings to look forward to.

Week Ahead

Tues, 11th of Oct Nyamapanda ?, Zimbabwe

Wed, 12th of Oct Harare

Thurs, 13th of Oct Masvingo

Fri, 14th of Oct Bulawayo

Sat, 15th of Oct Bulawayo

Sun, 16th of Oct Hwange National Park

Mon, 17th of Oct Victoria Falls

Got to Complete the Set

Finally got the Big 5. Very exciting. Was some big days and Tanzania has been fantastic to visit. However the locals say the name of the country with a bit of a twist so don’t know the exact way to say it. Think it might be a tomato/tomato pronunciation thing.

Nairobi Giraffes

We had a spare afternoon in Nairobi and a group of us hired taxis and headed out to a giraffe feeding center for injured animals. Given food pellets and the giraffes would come out and eat from your hand. They had a massive tongue and very slimy.

(feeding giraffe)

And just to push the boundaries, the guide dared us all to try a giraffe kiss. By placing the pellet between your lips the giraffe would lick it off your mouth. Supposedly giraffe spit is antibiotic or something so after all our group gave it a go got peer-pressured into it. No good photos but it’s an experience I won’t easily forget. So a group of giraffes is a ...?

Into Tanzania

Got another stamp in my passport as we began the 40+ days driving south. Unfortunately the migratory herds were still in Kenya so we missed out on seeing the huge hordes of wildebeests and I was a little bit annoyed that I hadn’t organised this properly.

Mto Wa Mbu

Our first night in Tanzania was this place I still can’t fully pronounce – supposedly translates as river of mosquitos. Put on plenty of insect repellent but didn’t seem too bad.

Ngorongoro Crater

The next day we left our truck behind and dividing into groups got into separate trusty Landcruisers for a few days of game trekking. The first place we visited was the Ngorongoro crater – a huge volcanic crater filled with animals that are mostly stuck in the crater. Hadn’t been much rain but still lots to see. Don’t know if we’ve been extra lucky but it seems lions like to pose for us right near the road. Got to see quite a few of them and took this photo with one close enough I thought it prudent to wind up my window.

In our vehicle I was the only one who had been travelling through Africa for a couple of weeks. Since I had already seen 4 of the Big 5 I was really focused on seeing a leopard. Unfortunately there were no leopards in the crater so wasn’t super excited like I would have been if it was my first game drive. Was nice seeing how excited the others were over wildebeests and waterbucks.

We drove out of the crater and headed further west along one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on. Gave a whole new meaning to an ‘African massage.’ By the end of the trip we ended up in the Serengeti Park and set up camp in the middle of the animals. There were certainly some loud roars during the night.

Amazing Game Drive

Another early morning start – with some of the group doing a sunrise balloon ride – and we headed out to hopefully see a leopard. Again saw some lions and what seemed to be a theme for the day of seeing the carnivores feasting. There were a lot of 4WD vehicles roaring around the Park and all the drivers had mobile phones and stayed in touch directing each other to the points of interest.

(lion near road)

First massive sighting was a cheetah with its prey – unfortunately was in some long grass and could only see her when she stopped eating and looked around. I’m sure the 10 to 20 vehicles parked nearby disrupted her meal. No good photo.

But after hearing from his mobile phone, our driver took off and we saw something fantastic. In a tree near a road there were 2 leopards sharing a kill. Such a fantastic moment.

 

 

(2 leopards sitting in a tree. K-I-L-L-I-N-G)

The trend continued with the next sighting but bit of a twist. We just missed seeing a cheetah take down a gazelle (saw the prey dispersing) but when we got there a hyena had stolen the kill from the poor cheetah. Got a photo of the loser:

(cheetah)

Back to Mto Wa Mbu

Spent another night in Serengeti; after a boring game drive in the afternoon which evened out the animal spotting after the excitement of the morning. Took off the next day back along the Worst-Road-Ever back to where we had left our truck. Along the way passed some elephants crossing the road – so just to get 3 of the Big 5 in this blog here’s another photo.

(elephant)

Heading off to Zanzibar soon so hopefully have a nice relax in an actual bed.

Week Ahead

Sat, 1st of Oct Dar es Salaam

Sun, 2nd of Oct Zanzibar

Mon, 3rd of Oct Zanzibar

Tues, 4th of Oct Zanzibar

Wed, 5th of Oct Dar es Salaam

Thurs, 6th of Oct Iringa

Fri, 7th of Oct Chitimba, Malawi

(lions in crater near truck)

The Very White Nile

Jinja is known as quite an adventure town with an array of possible activities to do. It’s situated right at the start of the Nile (the white Nile which joins the blue (?) Nile later on) on Lake Victoria and is where the main East-African highway crosses the river on a dam. This crossing is heavily guarded since it’s the only viable crossing point without having to go an extremely long way round the lake. Look it up in google maps to see how big Lake Victoria is.

Nile High Campsite

An aptly named campsite situated right about the river with an amazing view from the bar. The campsite also was superb and got 5 ticks on our highly scientific camping rating scheme.

1. Hot Water Showers

2. Flushing and Seated Toilets

3. Toilet Paper available

4. Free wi-fi

5. Electricity to charge electronics

Got this photo as the sunset over the Nile – I’m up in the bar at the moment.

(Nile @ sunset)

White-water Adventure

We spent a full day at JInja and were given the opportunity to do a few activities. A group of 9 of us went rafting and it was fantastic. The group split in half and some of us took the wild option and the others took a milder route. After the safety instructions – which the random Czech guys on our raft didn’t really understand - we headed into the frothing rapids.

Our instructor took nearly every opportunity to flip us out but one of the best places was a rapid called ‘Bad Place.’ At the start of the rapid he said we could take the chicken route (avoid the crashing wave); take a 50/50 route (just clip the edge and it’s random if we flip) or just the Total Annihilation Route (where we just headed straight into the portal to hell). Since we didn’t fully understand what was going to happen we all manned up (including the 1 female on board) and went for the glory.

I got a copy of the video of this rapid and it’s crazy watching it – I was sitting up the front and it disappears in the white water for a while. I got thrown out and was under water for what seemed like forever. Didn’t really know which way was up but finally got to the surface (swallowed a wave when I got there – hopefully I don’t get sick) and the boat was pretty close so grabbed on and followed instructions to getting us back upright. So glad I did it though!

Had a few more spills, including a fairly innocuous wave which we paddled back up to so our guide could tip us over again. Lunch was fantastic by the river and then kept going. The final rapid (called the Nile Special) was another big wave. Our guide told us to forget about holding on – try and make the best photo possible. Luckily my side went high and I bought the photo of us completely 90 degrees to the water. Bodies and paddles are going everywhere… Unfortunately I lost a contact lens in all the excitement – thought I was going to get through but had to be the last flip.

Totally exhausted after the paddling and had an early night – only one more night with the same group before we split up and a group of 10 or so of us continue on south.

Back to Kenya – Equator

Spent two days travelling back to Nairobi. Stopped again in Eldoret where we had a farewell dinner which seemed to cause quite a few people to become sick. We had also crossed the equator a couple of times. Got this photo in Uganda when we stopped for lunch. Think I’ve crossed the land equator 4 times now. Luckily there were no ‘initiations’ like a sea crossing!

(equator photo)

Bit of a short blog – with a few travelling days. Heading into Tanzania soon and beginning the long trek south to Cape Town.  

An Australian in the Mist

There’s a few movies I now need to watch – the first is obviously ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ and also ‘The Last King of Scotland’ in relation to Uganda. I could also easily rewatch ‘Hotel Rwanda’ and just for fun – ‘The Lion King.’ Wish I had the soundtrack on my ipod.

Lake Bunyoyi

Usually this trip camps down by one of the deepest lakes in Africa (6,500 feet down) but with all the rain our tour leader and driver made a fantastic decision not to take the truck down a crazy hill. We instead stayed in Kigale proper and since it was a hotel and there were rooms that only cost about $15 I decided to upgrade and get my first bed and own shower this trip. Was very nice…

Since we had arrived in Kigale around mid-afternoon, we hired some vans to take us down to the lake. Was a pretty scary road in the mud but a beautiful place once you were there. A group of us went swimming to get rid of the mud from the morning until another storm came through and everyone retreated to cover.

Getting out of the valley was pretty exciting, much like a theme ride without the harnesses. Got back to the hotel for more fantastically cooked food and went to a local bar. Pretty quiet one and watched some more football. Missing knowing what’s going on sport wise back home since haven’t had internet for a while now. (EDIT: Got internet but all bad sport news… boo…) Should be getting it in Rwanda.

Rwanda Border Crossing

Used my first visa that I had got in London – saved tons of time since the other poor Australians had to wait forever to be cleared. Had to change some money into Rwandan francs since not many ATM’s in the country and since still had 20 pounds from London got rid of them. Dodgy guy tried to give me Euro rate but after surviving Balinese money changers wasn’t going to be fooled that easy!

Kigali – Genocide Memorial and Hotel

Rwanda is known as the country with a thousand hills and that couldn’t be more accurate. Our driver commented that you never go in a straight line in Rwanda. You’re either going to the left or the right, and either up or down. It’s a beautiful country and some of the vistas are amazing. We headed to the capital and a genocide memorial/museum. Was another moving experience but was very impressed with how the memorial was organised and how it mapped genocides that occurred around the world. Don’t want to go into all the gory details but a few things impacted me.

1. The U.N. and international community really dropped the ball on this one. [See Srebrencia]

2. There were some incredibly brave people protecting the persecuted in Rwanda. Makes you reflect if you were safe from the horror would you take a risk and protect the innocent knowing you could be killed.

3. The division between the different tribes came down to how many cattle you owned when the colonial forces did a census. 10 or more cattle and you were one group, less than 10 you were the other one. Totally arbitrary.

4. The French are trouble… I thought the Belgians would get a bit of a black eye from how it all went down but more was mentioned about the French training and supplying the army, as well as giving them an escape route into DRC near the end. Couple this with the lack of mention of the holocaust in Paris’ World War 2 Museum and it’s not pleasant. It was interesting talking to a German who is also travelling with us – they are continually bombarded with all this stuff during schooling and just get sick of it. Reminds me a bit of Australian kids being forced to go into a fair bit of detail regarding Aboriginal history which results in them being totally uninterested in the topic.

But overall, you get a sense of ‘moving on’ from the disastrous past and trying to integrate and embrace a new future. Even the different tribal names shouldn’t be used in Rwanda so I haven’t included them in this blog. The people who live in Rwanda are just Rwandans and they are a fantastic group of people.

Had to visit the actual hotel the movie was based upon. The movie was filmed in South Africa so it wasn’t exactly the same but still got a sense of it all. And had my best bathroom experience so far in Africa…

(Hotel Rwanda – ‘Hotel of a Thousand Hills’)

Volcano Hike

After leaving the capital we headed to our base for 3 nights (so special spending 3 nights in the same place!) in Ruhengeri. Got to stay in dorms here – no tents – and had to decide what activities we wanted to do on our spare day we weren’t going with the gorillas. A group of 4 of us decided to climb a volcano. Didn’t really know what I was getting myself in for but it was a great experience. Had to wake up really early and head out with our guide, 2 porters (I paid for 1 to carry my bag – they rely on tourists for their income now their homes are a national park) and 4 gun-toting army guys. Was an easy start to the climb but soon it got fairly steep and the path was extremely muddy. Tried to keep my shoes clean to begin with but just gave up and was squelching through the slop knowing my white socks were a lost cause.

Another problem I found was that the altitude started playing havoc with my breathing. The steep climb got my heart rate racing and when I stopped for a rest it felt there wasn’t enough air. I wasn’t in trouble or blacking out or anything but just felt very unfit and slow. Wasn’t the slowest climber (there were two randoms who had joined our group of 4 who were very ill prepared for the climb – wouldn’t recommend wearing converse shoes on this hike like they did) and definitely not the fastest but got there in the end.

(Top of Volcano with my Porter)

The top of the volcano had a crater which had filled with water and become an amazing lake. This mountain also was part of the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was a fair way round and I really wanted to walk around the top so I could say I’ve been to Congo but our guide wouldn’t let us. Had lunch at the summit which was unfortunately covered with cloud/mist the whole time we were there so couldn’t get any photos of the view but still glad we made it.

Headed back down with the porters and army guys giving us all a hand. The funniest thing was when I would slip over by myself the porter would say ‘sorry’ as though it was his fault he hadn’t stopped the stupid and clumsy tourist from landing on their backside. Luckily the mud was soft and we got down fairly quickly (but not cleanly). It was overall one of the most strenuous things I’ve done – beating even the 12 hour Rogaine of ’07. One of the people on the hike said it was harder hiking then the Inca Trail due to the mud. Slept extremely well that night.

(In front of Volcano with my rough wooden staff – it’s a [common] item)

 

Gorillas!

After the exertion of the day before I was hoping to get less of a hike finding the gorillas. Managed to swap into a shorter walking group (the guide recommended telling the organisers we had climbed the volcano the day before) and headed off to track the Hirwa group. So obviously the question for this blog is what is a group of gorillas called?

The Hirwa group was a newly formed group so had fewer gorillas then some other ones (especially the biggest one – Susa) and just had one silverback who was supposedly quite the gentlemen. He’d managed to steal 6 females from other groups in a relatively short space of time (which was somewhat incredible) and one of these females had twins. After our guide had joked with our group that we had a 4 hour trek ahead of us (the older couple with us did not look impressed, even after he said he was joking and it was only 20 minutes away) we headed into the jungle and came across them.

The permit costs $500 US and it was some of the best money I’ve ever spent (the $10 to the porter yesterday for the volcano hike was just as good…) and I couldn’t recommend the experience enough! There’s talk of raising the price to $1000 but even so it’s such a unique experience. There were so many amazing moments I’ll just focus on the best two.

The first would have to be seeing this.

(Mum breastfeeding twins)

It’s not fully clear from the photo but she’s got the twins on both breasts. One of our group is a mid-wife and was suitably impressed with how easy the gorilla made it look. It was such a surreal moment with her nearly posing directly at us and so close. After a few minutes she got up and we saw the twins grab hold and hang on as mum wandered right past us. Got video footage which is my favourite record of this trip.

The second highlight was right near the end when we went searching for the silverback. We had seen him briefly before hand but were wandering around until eventually we had to backtrack a bit.

We climbed up a bit of a ravine and then right at the top on the side the silverback was just lying there – about a metre away. This photo was taken later since we weren’t allowed to stop near him but you may be able to make out the ramp in front of him we had to walk up.

(Silverback in background)

As we were taking photos the kids arrived and play wrestled around dad as you can see in the photo. Totally magical moment. Even though this was a smaller group there was heaps to see and they were moving around and so interesting.

Lake Mburo – Uganda

Well, this had turned out to be a long blog so will just skip through the rest – nothing too exciting compared to the previous days. We left Rwanda early and headed to another national park in Uganda. (Had to pay another $50 to re-enter Uganda… rip-off…) Got there in time for a late afternoon game walk where we would hopefully see a leopard but no luck. Saw lots of zebra and antelopes. A joke going round the group is that whenever we see a relatively boring animal (like a waterbuck) we’ve got to call out something exciting. (Due to false alarm early in the trip – some people are a bit premature in pointing out animals.)

(A pack of Lions – I mean, waterbucks…)

Had a sleep-in the next day (7 am) and now heading to Jinja for some exciting times.

Week Ahead

Fri, 23rd of Sept Jinja

Sat, 24th of Sept Eldoret, Kenya

Sun, 25th of Sept Nairobi

Mon, 26th of Sept Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania

Tues, 27th of Sept Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park

Wed, 28th of Sept Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park

Thurs, 29th of Sept Mto Wa Mbu