Week 30 - Jun. 2nd - 8th
day 204 - Kabale to Kisoro
day 205 - gorilla trekking then Kisoro to Rwanda border to Ruhengeri
day 206 - Ruhengeri to Kigali to Kisoro
day 207 - day in Kisoro
day 208 - Kisoro to Kabale
day 209 - Kabale to Jinja
day 210 - Jinja to Nakuru
Week 31 - Jun. 9th - 15th
day 211 - day in Nakuru - game drive at Lake Nakuru
day 212 - Nakuru to Naivasha
day 213 - day in Naivasha - boat trip and game walk
day 214 - day in Naivasha
day 215 - Naivasha to Nairobi
day 216 - day in Nairobi
day 217 - day in Nairobi
Gorillas and Genocide
It seems like a rather juxtaposed emotional journey to go from one of the most sublime, memorable and wonderful days of all time to one of the most memorably crushing and harrowing ever. To put it briefly I spent one day gorilla trekking in Uganda, getting so close to them that we would have been able to reach out and touch them if we weren't actually forbidden from doing so. Then after a short drive to the Rwandan border and a night in a hotel I found myself wandering around the Kigali Genocide Museum staring at photographs of streets filled with thousands of corpses, including babies as young as nine months, wondering whether humanity had any hope at all whatsoever. Perhaps I should have done it the other way around and at least the Gorillas would have given me some much needed cheering up.
But anyway...I did do the gorillas first and so let’s just take it one day at a time.
Gorillas, but not in the mist
After a short drive from the town of Kabale through some incredibly beautiful terrain we found ourselves in the small town of Kisoro which was the dropping off point for people who wanted to go and see the gorillas as well as any who wanted to take the short trip across the border to visit the tiny country of Rwanda. Only about eleven of us intended to go and see the Gorillas despite the fact that it promised to be an incredible and life changing experience, I guess the $500 dollar price tag was a little steep for some of the group. Personally I was more than prepared to pay such a price, exorbitant as may have seemed, mainly due to the fact that the mountain gorillas are so highly endangered that they might very possibly go extinct in the wild during my lifetime.The plan was for two of us, me and Jeremy to go gorilla trekking on the first day in Kisoro and six others would go the next day. In addition, Sean, Sarah and Dave left for Rwanda to do the Gorilla trekking there while me and Jeremy did it in Uganda. I would be meeting up with Sarah, Dave and Sean later that day in Rwanda but right not it was time to go and see the gorillas, animals that have 98% in common with our DNA and are second closest to us in genetic makeup, the first being chimpanzees. When me and Jez reached the visitors centre we were told by our guides that we would be tracking a family of nine gorillas that were extremely friendly and totally habituated to the presence of humans. We began our trek towards their last known location with our guides leading the way. It was at this point that we realised just how much effort goes into tracking these wonderful creatures. Not only do armed guards have to be present at all times in the part to prevent poachers but every day a team of trackers spend all day tracking the gorillas in order to make sure that visiting tourists have a good chance of meeting them. Sure enough, after about an hour into the walk, our guides were radioed by the trackers that had found the group of gorillas and were following them. After pushing and shoving our way through some extremely dense jungle we managed to catch up with the family of primates.
The family that we had found consisted of two babies, two blackbacks (young adult males) two silverbacks (large adult males) and three females. We caught up with them and they put on one hell of a show for us. First to be spotted was the youngest baby, a mere eight months old, who was playing around a small sapling and hanging from the branches, jumping around playfully and excitedly watching us, seemingly almost as fascinated by us as we were with him. The father, the dominant male silverback of the group, was right behind the infant, quietly sitting down in the thick jungle, watching us with a totally calm and relaxed expression on his face. We were warned beforehand that alpha male silverbacks are the most protective members of a family of gorillas and were the most likely to charge us and get angry if we got too close but this one was completely happy to have us near his family. We were instructed to keep a distance of about 7 metres/20 feet from the animals but several times the curiosity of the baby got the better of him and he edged closer to us to get a better look at us. I'm not sure I possess enough skill with words to adequately describe how unbelievably cute this baby gorilla was, imagine something more loveable than kittens, baby seals and polar bear cubs and you're probably not even close. We could have stayed to watch the baby gorilla play all day but soon enough the family started to move on, not because it wanted to get away from us but because gorillas are almost always on the move during the daytime.Led on by our guides we began to follow the family through the thick jungle. The trackers were wonderful and they knew exactly what they were doing and how to communicate with the gorillas. They let out several sounds, mostly grunts and low growls that were intended to communicate to the family that we were friendly and meant no harm. Occasionally the gorillas would growl back at us and I initially thought that this was a sign of annoyance or anger but our guide told us that it was just an affirmation of our presence, confirmation that we meant no harm and they knew it. Once again the family settled down for a rest and we were able to observe them once again. This time we were able to get a good view of the two silverbacks and one of the females. They were sitting down and grooming each other while the older infant played around, hanging from a tree branch, almost acting like it was showing off in front of the humans as it made sure to always position itself where we could clearly see the young primate frolicking around in the tree. After some time the family moved off once again and when the silverbacks stood up we were really able to get an impression of their truly colossal size as they hauled their gargantuan bodies off through the bush.
We continued tracking them, our guides grunting and growling along the way, when we came across one of the young male blackbacks eating some shrubs. We were able to get much closer to this one than the others. We were told that this young fellow was extremely friendly and playful towards humans and liked to get close to us. We watched for a while as he was munching on the leaves he was pulling down from the trees but the best part of this encounter came when the young blackback rushed towards us, stopping mere inches from our group as we watched. I was so close I could have reached out and touched the creature but that was against the rules so I continued snapping photographs instead. A few moments later the young gorilla lightly play punched our guide and beat his own chest a few times before running off, and I swear he had a smirk on his face as he did so! The guides knew this gorilla so well that they even predicted that this would happen; apparently he likes to play punch people and beat his chest. When an adult silverback beats his chest you'd best get down on the ground and show your subservience but when a young blackback does it he's just playing and sure enough he didn't seem to mean any harm.Sadly our hour of time with the gorillas was now up and we had to turn around and head back to camp. Apparently they don't allow more than an hour near them, after all they're still wild animals and they don't want them to become too used to humans, or stressed out by humans though that certainly wasn't a possibility with this particular family. We returned to the visitors centre and before long we were back in Kisoro and I was wishing that I had another $500 dollars to drop on another gorilla trek. Because I would have happily spent that sum of money to relive such an amazing experience there and then. But hey I've got the rest of my life to do that! Assuming they don't go extinct that is. Later that day I alone was driven to the Rwandan border and after a relatively short and simple crossing I found myself in the small town of Ruhengeri where I met up with Sean, Dave and Sarah who has also had the time of their lives tracking gorillas in Rwanda at the same time as me and Jeremy.
The Kigali Genocide Museum
After spending the night in the extremely pleasant hotel in Ruhengeri, sleeping in a bed for the first time in quite a while, our little group of four was picked up and driven to nearby Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The scenery along the way was absolutely stunning, Rwanda is a country that mostly occupies mountainous highlands and the views from the roadside were spectacular especially at one point when we rose above the clouds and watched the low mist cover the hills in a picturesque shroud. But the thing that surprised me the most about Rwanda was how clean it was. Rwanda was apparently the first African country to make a serious effort to clean itself up and the first act was to ban plastic bags altogether. Not only that but Rwanda has a 'clean up the country' day once per month where everybody pitches in and cleans up the streets. The result was a landscape that was completely free of litter of any kind. The ubiquitous sight of plastic bags flapping in the wind was nowhere to be seen; in fact I've not seen a country so free of litter in all my life! Hats off to whoever came up with that little idea and here’s hoping other countries in the world, not just Africa, follow suit.But beneath Rwanda's litter free appearance lays a painful and tortured history that culminated in a horrific genocide a mere sixteen years ago and that affected more or less every single person in the entire country in some way. Although I didn't know much about the Rwandan genocide due to the fact that I was around 13 years old at the time and therefore completely disinterested in the world around me, I would soon become quite familiar with the truly horrendous events that occurred in this small African nation as we neared Kigali. We arrived at the genocide museum and the four of us entered the museum, bracing ourselves for the emotional onslaught that would be awaiting us.
As usual it was the case that most of Rwanda's problems were initially set in motion by the European colonists that took over the continent, a fact that the country had in common with almost every other African nation in existence. The different racial groups in the area, mainly the Hutus and the Tutsis had been living together, trading, intermarrying and without any kind of racial tension between them. Then the Germans turned up and decided to use the minority population of Tutsis to keep the Hutus in check, teaching them that they were superior beings and that the Hutus were beneath them. The museum made good use of old black and white photos and quotes from white governors and leaders at the time to indicate just how early on in Rwanda's history the events were set into motion that eventually led to the genocide. Germany lost control of Rwanda after World War I and the Belgians moved in and took over. They continued to exacerbate the racial tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis and by the time Rwanda gained independence in 1962 the country was a hotbed of racial tension and mistrust that spiraled out of control for decades, culminating in the 1994 events that horrified the entire world.Sporadic incidents of violence directed by Hutus against Tutsis had occurred during the time leading up to 1994 but it was in that year that the genocide reached its truly horrible climax which resulted in the mindless and violent slaughter of over one million Hutus. The museum didn't hold back in reminding visitors of the grisly and morbid details of the genocide. Details descriptions of the carnage, including photos of the streets piled up with bodies were combined with the emotionally charged testimonies of survivors and witnesses who described what they saw in excruciating detail. One room in the centre of the museum contained dozens of skulls and bones that were recovered and laid to rest in the museum, every one an innocent human being who simply had the misfortune of being arbitrarily assigned to a meaningless racial group that was on the receiving end of an attempt to 'racially cleanse' the entire country. Another room had hundreds of photographs on the wall, ever single one also a person who was needlessly murdered.
What was particularly sickening was how easily the genocide could have been prevented. General Dallaire of the ill fated UNAMIR (UN Assistance MIssion for Rwanda) mission reported on the impending genocide and suggested that a mere 5000 UN troops would have been enough to keep the peace and prevent the genocide. Later on experts agreed that 5000 would have indeed been enough to prevent much of the bloodshed. Yet these requests were denied. It really did seem quite revoltingly hypocritical that the UN, an organisation that consisted of many of the countries that invaded Africa in the first place and essentially stirred up the racial hatred and set the scene for the genocide, were now refusing to concern themselves with what they considered 'local conflicts'.The upper level of the museum contained an exhibit that was dedicated to other examples of genocide that had occurred in the 20th century, a chilling reminder that humanity all to often has a tendency to be misled to commit truly awful acts against itself. But the most galling and emotionally crushing exhibit in the entire museum was the last room which was dedicated to the children that had died in the massacres. Upon entering the room the visitor was confronted with several images, each of a young boy or girl that was brutally murdered. The photographs, usually the last photograph taken by their families when they were alive, were paired with details about the child's life, including their name, what they were like, their favourite food, favourite toy, best friend, their age when they died and, most chilling of all, how they died. The room was divided into several partitions and as you moved from one to the next you were confronted with more images and with each child the age got younger and younger and the method of death more and more sickening and upsetting. Teenagers were shot in the face, preteens were hacked up with machetes, toddlers were stoned and beaten and babies as young as nine months were chopped up or thrown against brick walls. Anybody who makes it through that last room unmoved should check their pulse because they may be dead inside; this was a truly painful and emotionally draining place to be.
When myself and the others walked out of the final exhibit we were utterly silent, stone faced and unable to say anything to each other, after all what could we possibly say? I sat outside in the memorial gardens, a place which sits over the remains of literally 250,000 bodies that were recovered from the streets of Kigali alone, and waited for the others to finish their tour of the museum. We rejoined our guide and toured the city briefly; Kigali was an incredibly beautiful place and was surprisingly well developed. Looking at how clean and pleasant the city was you would never have guessed what unspeakable events had happened just 16 years ago if you didn't already know. After all it's worth remembering that almost every single adult that was walking around the country at the time was in some way affected by the genocide. Of these people most of them will have lost friends or relatives, most of them will have seen and heard the destruction, walked through the horrific blood and body filled streets, heard the screams. And many of these people will have seen it all happen before their very eyes. Make no mistake; most Rwandans went through hell on earth in 1994. Yet you wouldn't even guess it just from looking at them. I did however notice that the Rwandans were very quiet people, more reserved and almost timid seeming than the other more outgoing and gregarious Africans. It wasn't obvious, just a subtle thing but it was hardly surprising considering the nation's history. Yet I still found it inspiring how quickly the country managed to recover. Rwanda is a surprisingly peaceful, stable, clean place when you consider its recent and brutal history.
After leaving Rwanda we crossed in Uganda once again rejoined the truck in Kisoro. There we spent a couple more nights relaxing and lounging around before we were ready to leave.
Rhino! Rhino!
After leaving Kisoro and backtracking back through Uganda the way we came we crossed the Kenyan border and made our way towards the town of Nakuru, situated next to the lake of the same name. Lake Nakuru is a national park that covers a relatively small area, compared to such massive areas as the Serengeti for example, yet contained a high concentration of wildlife. A group of about eight of us headed off to the park for a game drive with one goal in mind: to see a rhino! Although we had technically spotted a rhinoceros in Etosha National Park in Namibia it was so far off in the distance that I figured it didn't count. Rhino sightings had apparently been possible in previous game drives but we hadn't gotten lucky yet. But Summer and Gav had reassured us that encounters with these creatures were common in Nakuru and that was enough to convince me and the other five, plus Gav and Summer to head off on a game drive to Lake Nakuru early in the morning.The game drive turned out to be one of the most spectacular drives of the whole 10 month trip. Sure enough there were rhinos aplenty to be seen and not only that but we managed to get closer to them than Gav had ever been in his many years of working in Africa, barely a couple of metres away in fact. We were even close enough to hear the rhino let loose a massive rip roaring fart that caused the guys on board the vehicle to giggle like schoolboys. Lake Nakuru was also home to thousands of pink that swarmed around the coast of the lake, looking from a distance like a huge pink smear across the landscape. Rhinos and flamingos weren't the only creatures to grace us with their presence on the drive however. We spotted, and managed to get extremely close to large numbers of giraffes, we came across huge herds of buffalo, we saw a family of hyenas chomping on a large bone, we spotted a lion in a tree and we even managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of a leopard for about a quarter of a second. That last one encounter not have sounded like such an impressive feat but leopards are the most elusive of all of Africa's game animals and to even sight one for a moment, let alone photograph one (which we didn't) was a rare encounter indeed.
Satisfied with the day we returned to the camp-site in good spirits to share our tales with the rest of the group, making sure to rub it in just how much they had missed! The next day we continued backtracking along the road towards Nairobi and we stopped next to another lake and town of the same name: Naivasha.
Flamingos! And plenty of them!
We spent a few nights next to Lake Naivasha and on the first full day there several of us took a day trip around the local area, a boat trip followed by a game walk. First of all was the boat trip, not on lake Naivasha itself but on a much smaller lake that used to be part of Naivasha until drought reduced the water levels and cut it off to form its own smaller lake. The attraction of this lake was the truly incredibly numbers of flamingos that were present. We had seen similar numbers in Nakuru but these ones were clustered much closer together and with our boat we were able to get much closer to them. But the highlight was when we got close enough that the whole group took flight and moved to another area of the lake. The sight of thousands and thousands of pink flamingos soaring by us not more than 20 feet away from us really was a sight to behold, a gigantic living pink wall that obscured the horizon like nothing I'd ever seen before. It really was an incredible spectacle indeed. We also spotted several giraffes and there were dozens of hippos in the water that we were able to get quite close to, though not too close of course!After the boat trip we went on a walk to a nearby game reserve. Though not as exciting as our previous game drives it was still an entertaining experience. Fortunately we didn't come across anything dangerous, except for one lone buffalo that ran off when we got close, a good thing since an enraged territorial buffalo can really ruin your day if it decides to charge. Gav was particularly stoked when we came across an extremely rare species of bird that he hadn't seen before. By the way if I haven't mentioned it before: Gav is an avid birdwatcher. We then went to a scenic lookout before returning to the campsite.
After a couple more nights in Naivasha we headed back to Nairobi, just a short drive for a few hours. So this was it! The end of the milk run! Assuming everything goes well we will be going up into Ethiopia and Sudan along roads less travelled by tourists, it's going to be adventure again just like West Africa. That is of course provided Summer manages to successfully obtain the Ethiopian visas required of us when she flies to Harare (Zimbabwe) to get them. Otherwise we're all in big trouble because we won't be able to get across the border and then we're all screwed. But hey it hasn't happened yet so fingers crossed!
But first let's take a week in Nairobi to chill out and explore.
Emma, Scotty & Ziggy at Lake Nakuru
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