Rwanda

Once we were through no manís land we went to park the car by the police checkpoint before heading over to the immigration and customs offices. We were immediately in trouble as we had forgotten to drive on the right again. Fortunately the policeman appeared used to people getting it wrong and he just waved us over with a warning.

We passed through the formalities in no time and set off for Ruhengeri and the Parc Nationale de Volcans, arriving to find Rich and Camilla having a late lunch after their trip to see the gorillas. We chatted about their experiences before they set off for Kigali en route to Tanzania. We then went to the park office to make sure we were booked.

Predictably they had never heard of us. Their phone was down so we would have to return in a few hours when they would have talked to the office in Kigali. When we came back they confirmed our places and asked for our surnames so the booking was not just for ìBill x2î. Our booking was two days away so we killed time in the town before driving up the following afternoon and camping at a hotel near the park entrance. Here we met an American who was going for a run after his morning trip to see the gorillas. We decided he was a bit obsessive as he had seen 4 groups so far that week and had done two previous visits as well. At $375 a time it was not a cheap obsession.

        Driving up to the park

We were at the park entrance well ahead of our 8am start to pay our money. Initially they said they were not expecting us, until I pointed out ìBill x2î on the list. There were 9 people in our group, including Adam and Claire the overland truck crew we had been rafting with in Jinja. We got into our cars and set off for the start of our walk.

It started to rain as we set off from the car park, and continued for most of our climb up the volcano. Conditions were slippery anyway but worsened as we progressed so we occasionally had to use the vegetation to help pull ourselves up.

The guide was in radio contact with the trackers who follow the gorillas to protect them from poachers. Thankfully, as we drew closer to the group the rain stopped after an hour or so and the clouds lifted slightly. We stopped to get our breath back and leave our bags before pushing our way through the last stretch of undergrowth.

Suddenly the bushes cleared and we could see the gorillas. There were eight in total, approximately one percent of the worldís population of mountain gorillas, sat eating and occasionally playing. They paid little attention to us as we followed them for an hour, occasionally having to back off if one approached too close. This didnít always work as they could move about much more easily than us, so the youngsters sometimes managed to touch or sniff one of us.

    Charles the silverback

It took almost as long to get back down the slippery path as it had to get up it and we all fell at least once, but we were back in the town in time for lunch and made it to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu by that evening. We drove south from there the following day on a rough dirt road that wound its way through the hills and tea plantations and allowed us occasional glimpses of the lake.

    Muddy trekkers

   Lake Kivu

   Tea plantations

    The view from the road

We reached Nyungwe national park that evening as we hoped to see some chimpanzees the following day. The weather was decidedly damp, not surprisingly as it is a rainforest, so when we found out that the basic campsite was 20 bucks each plus 20 each for park entrance we had no problems with turning around and going back to the lodge we had passed.

    Sunset over the rainforest

There we ran into a Canadian couple, Tom and Janet, who are traveling north. They had looked for chimps that day and had had a hard time in similar conditions to our gorilla walk. After 6 hours they had only glimpsed a couple of chimps in the distance, this meant that they got a refund of their 50 dollar walking fees as it was not deemed a proper sighting. When we heard this we decided that we really didnít fancy it, particularly as Claireís back had been playing up since the rafting and crawling through wet undergrowth would not help.

Tea plantations at the edge of the forest

Driving through the park the following day gave us a taste of what we might have experienced. The forest was suitably menacing and dark, being part of the Congo basin, and it was impossible to see more than a few metres into the undergrowth. We came across a few monkeys en route, including a bold mountain monkey with disturbingly blue testicles who almost climbed into the car after a piece of pineapple and a group of rare colobus monkeys as they swung, jumped and crashed their way through the treetops.

        Yes, they really are that blue

    A colobus monkey

We arrived in Kigali in time to visit the genocide museum. We planned on a swift visit but spent three hours wandering around contemplating the full horror of the events when 1,000,000 or so people were murdered in 100 days. As we drove away we couldnít help but wonder how many of the people around us were involved in the killing.

Claireís back was still bad in the morning and in hindsight we shouldnít have set off for the long drive to Mwanza in Tanzania. It worsened through the morning, in spite our regular stops and by the time we reached the border it was not good. Thankfully the border procedure was swift and we were soon crossing the bridge over the Rusumo Falls to Tanzania.