PurpleNed

Today was our last day for some of us, as the trip officially ended tomorrow, but I had to leave early so Alison could go on her vacation, and a couple others were in the same boat. Our breakfast at 7, left the hotel by 8 and our drive to Kigali from Musanze was just over 2 hours and we got to the Genocide Museum in a decent amount of time. A very sobering experience and I was looking forward to going while at the same time dreading the after effects of it. I’ve been to a few memorials now, and they are never a positive experience but we as a society can hopefully learn and grow from it and one day somehow, find a way to end all the hatred that is out there. We ... read more

Today was another long drive but we were on our way to Rwanda! I quickly began singing “We’re off to see the gorillas, the wonderful gorillas of Rwanda” to the Wizard of Oz music, while the extra syllables made it a bit difficult I couldn’t stop. To say I was excited and vibrating with enthusiasm is an understatement; 15 years I'd been waiting for this experience and it was still 24 hours away but I was on a travel/wildlife HIGH! The boarder crossing was relatively painless; we had to physically walk across while Paul and Sam took care of vehicle registrations separately. We stood in line for a while and got asked the same questions by the guard, who after the 4th white Canadian girl finally clued in we were all together (despite our best efforts ... read more

I took “Paul’s Van” with the girls this day as we had split up 4 and 4 with the 2 vehicles, but I hadn’t had much chance to spend time with my skydiving friends; “Team NO Sleep” and no sleep it was. We laughed, we giggled, we gossiped, caught up on mutual friends and life in general, was a great way to pass the time while driving to QE Park. Rhonda had captured some great photos of life from the van of which I’m including a few in this blog. On route we stopped at the 'official' equator line - got a couple of great group shots. I ran north yelled "Northern Hemisphere" and then I ran south and yelled "Southern Hemisphere" and back and for and back and forth (keeping in mind we had been ... read more

Today was mostly a travel day as we went from Jinja to Kibali National Park, via Kampala. We had our mini breaks, lunch stop, more mini breaks and took lots of photos from inside the vehicle and just absorbed up the culture and day to day life of the Ugandan People. Long travel days can be, well long, but at the same time if you make the most of it you do learn a lot. Our guides Sam and Paul (we had 2 vehicles so rotated) were always happy to answer our questions about salaries ($100-$350/month USD), vehicles (motorcycles for $10,000USD or a nice used 7 pax van for $20,000USD), food is very cheap and chicken, fish, potatoes, plantains are common and beef and rice are a treat. Gas is running $1USD/litre so fairly high relatively ... read more

Marco was kind enough to drive me to the airport; no traffic on an early Sunday morning so it was a breeze. Cleared through, met up with Heather and Diane and met Jodaye at the gate. Our flight was almost an hour late as the plane needed a part (I’m SO OK with staying on the ground until things are fixed J…) so overall a very long day. I had an aisle seat and the lady sitting next to Diane was willing to switch with me (aisle for an aisle) so I got to sit next to her, watching movies while she slept. We had an almost 9 hour leg to Kigali, 1.5 hour change over there and then another hour all told to Entebbe. Very odd landing a plane on a runway with almost no ... read more