Blogs from Parc National des Volcans, Province du Nord, Rwanda, Africa - page 4

Woke up this morning at 5:15 to see the gorillas. After an hour car ride to the national park office, we signed in and were put in a group with a dual American/Rwandan citizen who lives in Richmond. We were assigned our two rangers, who told us about the family of gorillas which we were going to see as well as about the mountain gorillas in general. Volcanoes National Park is right up against the borders with the DRC and Uganda. Both the DRC and Uganda have national parks on the other side of these borders. I use the term "national park" very loosely with the DRC, as it is really just uncontrolled wilderness. Together these parks encompase the entire Vertugas Mountains, which are a small chain of volcanic mountains, including three active ones. The last ... read more

24th February On Tuesday morning I started my journey in anticipation of going gorilla trekking the next day. Colin dropped me off in Kabale in the morning so that I could walk to the petrol station where the taxis departed to the border. I say taxis but in reality they are actually men who own cars and charge a couple of pounds to take people to the border of Rwanda! So I load my bags into the boot of this man’s car and jump inside. There are two women sitting in the car. “Aghandi,” I said, which means: Hello, how are you? “Neeje.” Came the reply, which means pretty much the same thing. The next thing I know another woman and three of her kids climb into the back. It was cramped with a child sat ... read more

Wczorajszy dzien mial polegac tylko na przejezdzie kilka godzin wyboista droga, ktorej przedsmak mielismy juz poprzedniego dnia - wczoraj mialo byc dwa razy dluzej. Okazalo sie jednak, ze byl to jeden z najciekawszych dni - a tu wsrod dni konkurencja duza, bo w sumie codziennie dzieje sie cos ciekawego. Otoz wczoraj wyruszylismy z Moriah Hill Resort nad jeziorem Kivu - pieknego miejsca z plaza, gdzie zebrala sie na swieta miejscowa elita - including tuzin tlustych nieznosnych murzynskich dzieci. Pierwszy dzien swiat - wiec ulicami przechadzaly sie eleganckie tlumy. Wiedzac, ze tego dnia nie beda nosic nic na glowach, kobiety zdjely turbany i okazalo sie, ze maja pod nimi afro w stylu Nefretete - prostokatne wysokie fryzury, umajone kolorowymi wstazkami. Do tego ubrania typu togi - zawiazane na jednym ramieniu - wygladaly wszystkie naprawde dostojnie - zniknely ... read more

Faced with the prospect of several days on a bus, and several different buses at that, we'd taken the ‘flashpacker’ option and flown from Arusha in Tanzania to Kigali in neighbouring Rwanda. We’d barely left the airport before we started spotting differences - roads were quieter, streets were clean and roundabouts (they actually had roundabouts!!!) were covered with grass and flowerbeds. That and the way that minibuses at least from Kigali, ran to a schedule, departed on time (whether full or not!), required you to buy a ticket (which often had the price on it!) before getting on and it was almost like we weren't in Africa anymore. Ahhh and then there was the coffee. Kigali seems to have a relatively large population and coffee is a key cash crop here - the result, a couple ... read more

All is well on our overland tour. It is our 5th day and we have traveled constantly long days driving on potholed roads through Uganda and into Rwanda all in the aid of seeing a large ape! Today we finally did it. Just returned from the mountain gorilla trek. We were placed into the long trekking group to see the largest family of gorillas here in these mountains. We were asked if we were fit enough and eight of us set off for a three hour trek up the mountain (our other companions went in another slightly easier trek to find another family). Within 1 hour 10 minutes we got lucky. Just after our trekking guide started to cut bamboo for us to climb through in the more dense part of the mountain and as Ralph ... read more