A few more gorillas in the mist

A few more pictures from our amazing gorilla trekking day, just so that you can feel like you were there with us…

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Beautiful Rwanda

Rwanda was just so beautiful and the patchwork fields were such fun to photograph that we thought it would be only be fair to do a special “beautiful Rwanda” post to show you a few more pictures.  While in the country, we thought a lot about the Oribi farmers and wondered how they would appreciate having to farm on these hills.  Enjoy!

Lake Kivu

Eastern Rwanda rice paddy

Patchwork fields

Lake Kivu

Tea, tea, everywhere

Farming near Nyungwe

Gorillas in the misty Volcanoes National Park

More tea

Beautiful farming

Volcanoes National Park

Tea plantation

Farming on the hills

Gisenyi

16 – 17 December 2011

Paradis Malahide Lodge

After a day of following in Dian Fossey’s footsteps and making friends with our very own group of mountain gorillas we piled our muddy feet into our car and drive an hour or so west, back to Lake Kivu.  The destination this time with the coastal town of Gisenyi and we pitched our tent at Paradis Malahide Lodge.

Chilling on the beach

What we found most fascinating about this stop was chatting to fellow travellers, in particular two separate groups who had/were about to do gorilla trekking in the DRC.  The reports from the group that were back from their time in that country were that they are trying their best to get tourism up and running and that there is a lot of beauty to be seen.  I think we will stay away for a few more years at least after our stories from Edward (our trekking guide) about the gorilla researchers who have a torrid time there as they come across militia in the forest and there is a constant stream of poachers (including a recent baby gorilla theft that was discovered when the thief was searched at the International Airport…).

The live volcano in the DRC was quite close to where we were staying and we took a drive up a hill where we could across the lake but unfortunately it was just too misty to get a look.

Looking for the volcano

Apparently on a clear night you can see the red glow and if you’re close enough, the is lava spray is a few hundred metres high – it would have been nice to add a volcano sighting to our list of awesome experiences!

The day's activity

Although there was no volcano to be seen, we thoroughly enjoyed a day of lying on beach loungers reading in the sun and listening to the sound of a rain storm approaching over the water, some beach bat and some relaxing in the lovely gardens surrounded by sunbirds and weavers and a crazy coloured lizard.

Crazy lizard

Gorillas in the mist

15 December 2011

Guidebooks and fellow travellers boldly describe this as “the single highlight of any African overland trip”…at $500 per person for a permit, it took a lot more to convince us that it was worthwhile! Kath and Alex had taken the plunge and bought their permits while in Kigali at the beginning of our Rwandan trip and we had decided to give it a skip.  About half way up the length of Lake Kivu we found ourselves at another Catholic guest house and booked 4 beds in the 24-bed (!) dorm that didn’t have enough space to walk between each peach-coloured satin and frilly bed-spreaded bunk – frightening to say the least!

Moody, stormy evening

Since there was no campsite and therefore no place to cook, we were left to choose dinner off the menu and were delighted to find delicious pizzas for R20 each to go with the stunning view of a thunderstorm over the lake.

Quaint guest house on Lake Kivu

It also gave us time enough to chat to a few fellow travellers who advised us against continuing along the Lake road all the way up to Gisenyi but rather to take a detour back to Kigali (double the distance but apparently worth it after the painfully slow and sharp-rock/mud strewn roads we’d been driving for days).

And so we found ourselves back on the road, with a lifeline of 2 hours to discuss whether or not we were happy with our decision not to do gorilla trekking. The answer was certainly not an easy one and so as we approached the city we decided to let the chips fall as they may – we would enquire about a permit and if there happened to be available for the following day then we would go along with the Reads, if not, we would be considerably less poor!

As luck would have it, we spent the night at a the Kinigi Guest House just outside the borders of the Volcanoes National Park, home to the Sliverback Mountain Gorilla’s of Dian Fossey’s “Gorillas in the Mist” fame. With eager anticipation we were up before sunrise, kitted out in our rain pants, hiking boots and long-sleeves and ready to track until we located these beautiful animals.

Traditional dance in the morning

After a cup of coffee and a dance and drum performance, we met our guide, Edward, was totally amazing. From the very beginning of the day he explained that he had two wishes for us:

1. That we would get up close and have a great view of these animals
2. That we would be able to get some good pictures of them.

Rwanda is known for its many chameleons

Everything about the way he led us that day spoke to his customer-centric attitude and we were thoroughly impressed.  He later told us that he is the guide that is always chosen to take film crews or professional photographers or other important people to see the gorillas so we clearly got the cream of the crop!

Our solemn tracker with his gun, and cheerful Edward

Each group of gorillas (there are 15 in the Volcanoes NP) are assigned 6 trackers, of which 3 or 4 are with them all day, every day until they begin making their nests in the evening.

Stinging nettles everywhere

Some of the groups are not habituated and are only used for research but 10 of them receive human visitors regularly. The Amahoro group which we visited is led by a big silverback chief. His two silverback sons are also in the group – silverback #2 is cheeky, always as far away from dad as possible so that he can sneakily try to woo a lady…if dad finds out though, there is big trouble (as we evident by the recent scratch marks on his arm!).  Silverback #3 is known as the casualty as he lost the fingers on his left hand to a snare as a child and as a result is quite small.  The group has a number of young males (blackbacks) who try to show that they are strong by beating their chests and running around, and a group of babies who play and tumble and climb trees and have fun while the older gorillas nap after eating.

Walking to the forest

Before we got going, Edward explained the day’s proceedings:

1. A one hour drive on a horrendous road to the border of the forest
2. 20 min hike into the forest
3. Radio contact with the trackers would tell us the whereabouts of the “Amahoro” group of gorillas
4. About 2 hours and 10 000 muddy footsteps later we would arrive at the group
5. He would then check to see whether they were in a suitable position for us to get a good look at them
6. Our 1-hour with the animals would then begin

Disgusting giant forest worm

After a couple of hours of trekking through the most intense mud we have ever seen (in which Alex lost a lens cap and then thankfully found it again after much digging around), stinging nettles by the hundreds and a few drops of rain, we caught the first glimpse of a group in the distance.

MUD!

We dropped our bags off with the trackers and excitedly approached our group.

Excited! The Amahoro group was just around the corner...

As we arrived, the gorillas were finishing off eating at a bamboo plantation and one of the youngest brazenly ran up to us and took a swipe at Kath’s leg which was a playful/scary welcome to the world of these wild animals!

Munch, munch

Another youngster (whose name means “handsome”) took a liking to scaring Lauren and routinely beat his chest and came running at her. In a flash, all of Edward’s instructions to “be confident in yourself”, “stay still” and “slowly move out the way to let them pass” flew out the window every time the cheeky chap came running straight at her!

Big chief and the kids

Baby with a grandpa face!

Mama and baby

During the day, Edward told us many great stories of his time as a guide and these are two of our favourites:

• Whenever he has Chinese guests, they don’t want to stay with the gorillas for very long. They speak no English or French and so just repeat the words “King Kong! King Kong!” throughout the day and then after 5 minutes of being with the gorillas they gesture that they would like to leave! Their government tells them they should go to see the gorillas but they really don’t care much for them…

Silverback #2

• The oldest gorilla-trekkers were three 92-year olds who were friends of Dian Fossey in the 60s. They had always wanted to see the animals but had heard that Rwanda was too dangerous. At 92-years of age they decided it was worth the risk and off they went. Each of them was carried on a stretcher (8 porters, earning $200 for the day, to each stretcher!) and they were taken to the nearest group of gorillas which is about a 10 minute walk. One of the elderly men even crossed himself and prayed before they left that he would die in the forest! Some risks in life are worth taking!

Baby gorilla thought tree climbing was fun

Before we knew it, our hour was up and we were left with memories and photos and an up-close-and-personal experience with an endangered species that we hope will be around one day for our grandchildren to appreciate.

Stu with the Amahoro group

Lake Kivu

11 – 13 December 2011

After the hot springs we once again hopped onto a bumpy, dusty road and started off north and west to Lake Kivu. What makes Lake Kivu so interesting is its sulphur deposits bubbling up from under the surface as various intervals. Rwanda has built a plant which processes the sulphur and turns it into energy, enough to power the entire country for 400 years!

Tea plantations

We drove over hill (mountain) and down dale (valley) through beautiful tea plantations until we ended up on a road that was under major construction and a donga 50cm wide and 1m deep meant that even our hard-core Landy’s were unable to proceed. Luckily with enough gesturing and repeating of “Kivu. Kivu” we managed to ask a farm worker the direction to the lake. Fortunately the detour was not significant and we popped out at Cyangugu (“Cy” pronounced “Ch”), which is the border town to the DRC. We stopped at the first hotel we found on our Garmin and bumped into a biologist who the Reads had met in Mwanza. She was working in the DRC and happened to be having lunch with a British couple who had just driven the road along the lake that we were debating whether or not to take (due to mixed reports of how drivable it was in the rainy season) and so were able to offer us invaluable advice. We were once again astounded by the Lord going before us and preparing the way for us!

Over hill and down dale

We spent the night at a Catholic guest house (note to any travellers out there” Catholic guest houses are the best – spotless, good value and you can find one in any town it seems) and Alex befriended a German couple who had just come from where we were going to and were once again able to offer some useful information. Unfortunately when we woke up in the morning we noticed that one of our back tyres was totally flat and our nearly five-month punctureless record came to an abrupt end…

The next day we went in pursuit of Kumbya Peninsula, which had been recommended to us by the Schoonbees. According to our guide-book, it is a peninsula that has always protected by missionaries as a place of retreat and so has not fallen prey to deforestation and the like. After taking a “wrong turn”, quite by chance we happened upon someone who could speak a few words of English and when we pointed this way and that saying “Kumbya. Kumbya” and shrugging our shoulders wondering which was to go, his face lit up and he said “Missionaries? Go to hospital [pointing up the driveway that we had stopped in] for key”.  Within a few minutes we had found the right person and obtained the key to a three bedroomed house on the water for R70 for the night!

Our house at Kumbya

Kumbya turned out to be a real highlight and from the moment we arrived, we wished we had more time to spend there.

Kumbya Peninsula

The afternoon and the next morning were spent reading and bird watching and swimming and sleeping and enjoying the stunning views and peace and quiet.

Impressive lightening show

Perfect book-reading spot

Since it was Alex and Kath’s anniversary, it was the perfect, relaxing 24-hours and we celebrated with Alex’s favourite strawberry wine and a delicious bowl of butterscotch instant pudding.

The anniversary couple

Bugarama Hot Springs

10 December 2011

Bagarama Hot Springs

A trip to the so-out-of-the-way-you-could-never-get-there-without-a-Garmin-and-your-own-4×4 gave us the best taste of celebrity status that we could ever have hoped for. We arrived late on Saturday afternoon and had to wait at the gate as a wedding party was leaving. This meant that the hundreds of interested bystanders were still lurking around and now had a far more exciting afternoon ahead than they could ever have imagined. We were instantly transported to celebrity status and for the first time in our lives had a glimpse of what it must be like to be Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie for the day. These are the things we noticed:

• People just stood and stared at us. Even when we were doing nothing they could not be persuaded to leave us for a second.
• They followed us around wherever we went – a troop of mostly children but a few teenagers and an occasional adult followed us around non-stop for the entire afternoon.
• We realised what it must feel like to know that the moment you step out of your home (tent) you will have a horde of onlookers – no room for messy hair or sleep-creased faces!

Alex trying to get all the kids to jump at the same time for a photo...

At night fell, Stu did us all a favour by speaking very kindly to the few English speakers and saying that we would like to send more muzungus to the Springs but muzungus really like to have a holiday and relax so they needed to leave us alone for a few hours and we would see them again in the morning.

Campsite

It gave us some peace and quiet in which to make supper and enjoy a stunning evening wallow in the water which was the temperature of a very hot bath.

Beautiful!

We went on a walk the following morning to look for some birds and were instantly the most interesting creatures around. We looked through funny eye-pieces and then paged through a book…the kids started to get really excited when they realised what we were doing and yelled and pointed when they spotted a bird and felt very proud when they could recognise it in the bird book!

The Pied Pipers

 

Nyungwe Forest National Park

7 – 9 December 2011

Nyungwe Forest

The Congo-Nile rainfall split

From Kigali we made our way down south to the Nyungwe Forest National Park which is primarily a hiking destination and home to many primates. The rainforest is surrounded by beautiful tea plantations and is geographically very interesting as it is at altitude, comprises the Ruwenzori Mountains, is home to the source of the Nile and forms part of the Albertine Rift. We took a three-day pass which entitled us to three hikes:

Day 1: Karambe Trail

This short, easy trail is well-known for its abundance of birds. Apparently not so much during the afternoon rain showers. We did see a few interesting birds though, including the enormous Giant Blue Turaco.

Ferns everywhere

Day 2: Red Trail

The red trail

This is classified as the most challenging of all the trails available and since we have all traipsed around with hiking boots in our cars, we were desperate to put them to good use! We thoroughly enjoyed and were challenged by the 5-hour hike through the forest and loved all the interesting birds and stunning tall mahogany trees and waterfalls we passed on the way. Really beautiful!

Overlooking the forest

Tall trees

Day 3: Waterfall Trail

We had been told this was the most popular hike in the park and was relatively easy. We started off by walking through a tea plantation before descending down into the forest and eventually ended up (after a very steep decent and a few wet boots from a river crossing) under the dramatic waterfall, which made it all worthwhile.

Tea plantations bordering the forest

Nearing the waterfall

The waterfall

Our grassy campsite happened to be the place that a group of Stellenbosch students also chose and after some time chatting to them we found out that they were on their way through Rwanda and ending up at the Schoonbees at Gahini Hospital – the exact same family with whom we began our time in Rwanda! They are at university with Arno Schoonbee – what a small world!

Eco-car

Local children

Kigali

5 – 6 December 2011

A couple of days in Kigali left us deep in thought, harassed, well-fed and ready to find some peace and quiet! In the midst of an extremely neat and well-run country is a capital that is in many ways very similar to most other capital cities we have visited in Africa so far. Rwanda is known as “the land of a thousand hills”, which is an incredibly apt description as in every direction there are mountains and hills as far as the eye can see – Kigali being no different. The hilly city is home to thousands of crazy motorbike taxi’s who seem to be trying to get themselves killed at every turn and have no regard for the rules of the road. This, coupled with traffic circles and minibus taxi’s and no road signs, (while driving on the left-hand side of the road and with the awareness that our insurance doesn’t cover our car in Rwanda!), made for an exciting couple of days in the city…

On our way to the city on the first day, we took a detour past two genocide memorial sites – churches which had been shelters for victims during the genocide, and the same place where they met their violent and tragic deaths. The churches have been preserved as they were found in 1994, complete with bullet holes in the roofs, victims clothing and personal items and skeletal remains telling the stories of how the victims died. At the first church we were met by a guide who told us (in graphic detail) about that particular site, which was utterly barbaric and completely disturbing. At the end of the afternoon we found out that he was a genocide survivor, who hid in the nearby swamps during the attacks and lost his entire family and homestead during that time. He was incredibly inspiring in the way he believes that the best revenge for the past is to make a success of his life, which he is doing through rebuilding his family home and studying towards a degree. It was a sobering afternoon.

The following morning we did what we needed to in town and then went to Bourbon café for a couple of hours of strong coffee and free wifi and again felt connected to the world. For the second time during this trip we regretted only having a MasterCard and not Visa as we had to go into the Bank of Kigali head office to withdraw cash which came through as a Rands to Belgian Euros to Rwandan Francs transaction, no doubt incurring plenty of transaction fees and terrible exchange rates at all stages! A Visa card would have allowed us to withdraw straight from an ATM so we sent many curses Standard Bank’s way that morning!

The afternoon was spent at the Kigali Genocide Museum which once again was gruelling but very well put together and educational. We came away astounded by the progress we have seen in this country and the way that a society of which 99% witnessed violence during the genocide and the vast majority lost family members, continues to function and develop. We also felt a real burden from being part of the international community who had the capacity and means to put the horror to a swift end yet did nothing to help. Sobering and tragic.

Real pizza!

Eastern Rwanda

3 – 4 December 2011

We had the world’s most wonderfully warm welcome to Rwanda, with the world’s most wonderfully warm family – Wim, Bertha and Arno Schoonbee.  We’d been in touch with this missionary family before we left Cape Town and suddenly realised that we were going to be in their neck of the woods the following day and called them up to see whether we could pop in to say hi.  To say that we were welcomed with open arms would be a major understatement!  A tray of tea and coffee and a welcome note was waiting for us when we arrived (as they were in Kigali for the day and would only be back in the evening) and we immediately felt at home.

Beautiful view of the lake

Their beautiful home is high on the hill, surrounded by a lush and colourful garden, tons of birds and overlooking the nearby dam.  We enjoyed the most sumptuous fresh farm-style meals (picture home baked breads, freshly picked mielies, gooseberries, mulberries, bananas, homemade cottage cheese, soup made from garden-grown veges and homemade jams!) on their lovely verandah in the beautiful morning sunshine and the dramatic afternoon rain storms – what a haven of peace their home is!  Wim is a doctor at the Gahini Hospital where he specialises in eye surgery and Bertha is involved in teaching local blind students and we chatted at length about Rwanda and the progress it has made over the last 10 years since they arrived.  The government, while it rules with an iron fist, has implemented some dramatic policies which have greatly improved the country (although many of them have come at great cost to the poor): no houses may be built with natural materials but need to be brick with corrugated iron roofs, no subsistence farming but instead areas need to specialise in what grows best in that region,  no planting of crops unless proper contours are dug to prevent erosion and no plastic bags allowed in the country to drastically reduce litter.  Surely this country is an interesting case study on so many levels?

Breakfast on the verandah with Wim and Bertha

 While we had access to a dry space and tools, Stu set about fixing his Maglite which had a problem with an exploded battery stuck in it.  What was predicted to be a quick process with the correct tools, ended up taking most of the Sunday and involved some funny and impressive tug-of-wars that the torch certainly won!

Rwanda vs Western Province

‘Success’ at last

Thank you Wim and Bertha for opening up your home to us and welcoming us into your family for the weekend.  We feel encouraged and revitalised to explore this beautiful country that you have come to call home.

The Schoonbees welcoming home

First impressions of Rwanda

4 December 2011

The invisible line that separates two countries would not be noticeable if it were for the immigration and customs officials… right?

Oh-so wrong.

When crossing over from Tanzania to Rwanda we were struck by the contrast between the two countries. If we don’t jot them down now, we will probably forget them, so please excuse this potentially-boring post (there are no interesting photos or anecdotes to redeem this!)

So what was so different?

1. It is ordered, clean, and welcoming…like a little-America in the middle of Africa!
2. Swahili is gone; Kinyarwandan, French, and (a little) English are the spoken languages. We are still catching ourselves greeting people with “Jambo!” and thanking them with “Asante!” after so many weeks in Tanzania where it’s sink or swim in terms of learning the language.
3. Say that again?! As we drove out the Rwanda immigration office, the officer casually said, “You do know to drive on the right-hand side of the road?” We didn’t know that – and his comment proved helpful as a truck and six motorbikes came flying around the blind corner.
   
4. Traffic cops are welcoming and helpful – so far none have tried to intimidate or ask for a bribe, which makes for a pleasant change!
5. The roads are excellent – what a treat to enjoy the countryside without having to look for potholes or people as there seems to be a sidewalk on either side of the road all the way. To top things off, the speed limit on the highways is 80km/h so it feels very casual. It is a bit of a pain to have to slow down to 40km/h in the towns, and unfortunately town planning in Rwanda seems no different to the rest of Africa so Rwandans seem to build their houses close to the highways.
6. Gardens! Rwandans have front lawns and beautifully-trimmed, knee-high hedges that contour their lawns and pathways. It has been a while since we saw manicured lawns.
7. The houses are also completely different to Tanzanian houses. They are much better built, have a glazed red brick exterior, with a natural stone façade that covers about a third of the height of the wall, like an exaggerated, exterior dado rail (about half way up). They also have modern-looking corrugated iron roofs – a significant improvement on the banana leaves and reeds used in Western Tanzania. Apparently, it is now illegal to live in houses made of leaves, reeds, and sticks. The Rwandan government is pushing hard to reach its housing Millennium Goals, set by the World Bank, in order to qualify for further aid. Sho, these guys know how to get hand-outs!
8. The electricity roll-out in rural Rwanda is also incredible. They use mini-pylons that look very sophisticated – some engineer has put a lot of thought into developing a pylon that is suitable for their energy needs! Apparently, during a 5-month period this year, the country doubled the number of people on the electricity grid. (I wonder what base they were working off? It makes you wonder whether South Africans kick up enough of a fuss about poor service delivery?)
9. Plastic bags are illegal. So your shopping is packed into brown paper bags, your mince is packaged in waxy bread packets and the country is virtually litter-free!

We have really been looking forward to visiting Rwanda and besides it being really expensive, so far, so good!