January 20 Sweetwaters

We left Rowanda late on the 19th and flew into Nairobi, Kenya.  We were met at the airport and stayed in Nairobi for the night.  The following morning we were taken by car to the ojl Pejeta Conservancy, a private not-for-profit research facility of some 110,000 acres.  It is populated by many wild, native animals who live free and unfwttered.  Thus, safari's are conducted throughout the area and wildlife sightings are usual.  It is located near Mount Kenya and is on the equator.

Our "room" is a tent on a concrete, tiled base with a full washroom and a thatched roof.  It has two single beds and electricity...so it is a tent...but it is NOT camping that is for sure!   We are able to sit on our front veranda and watch wart hogs, gazelles, zebras and even rhinos meander by on their way to the watering hole which is  completely natural and faces the main lodge.  The day gets hot by 1100 and the nights cold (15°) but our tent keeps us very comfortable.  

We were out on two safaris on day one with our guide who knows a lot about the local flora and fauna and who found many of the animals we tourists come to see.  We also visited the equator and surpeised our guide with some of the experiments we had learned when at the equator in Equador.  He was surpeised that he could not keep his balance when on the equatorial line with his eyes closed, nor could he walk a straight line!

On our last safari we saw a spectacular sunset which rounded off our day very well.

Gorillas

We were up at 0500 to start an amazing day.  It was chilly that early...around 15 degrees...but for us, it was comfortable.  We were spirited off to the Volcanoes National Park where we were introduced to a park guide who was to take us and 4 other people in to the forest to see gorillas.

During the briefing we noticed one of the guides we had met at the cultural centre recognized us and invited us to meet the famous Edwin Sabohuro who was also in the park to see the gorillas.  We took time to meet him, a charming man whi is now completing his doctorate at a university in South Carolina, specializing in conservation.  He is also continuing his work in Rwanda and Uganda to introduce measures to counteract poaching activites.  Remarkable young man indeed!

What followed was amazing!  We were driven to a point close to a park trail and then we were met by porters (reformed poachers) who we hired to carry our bags and otherwise help us on our trek.  Then we started to walk.

We walked for about 30minutes through fields of potatoes and flowers (for export).  We saw a newly born calf (10 minutes old), people tending their fields and beautiful scenery.  

Then we hit the park border and the rain forest immediately began. The forest is dense and the trees themselves are bamboo soaring high over our heads.  

We trekked on a path which was difficult at times, narrow and uneven, and made our way slowly up the mountain side.  (I for one was grateful for my porter who helped me a lot over obstructions and up the steeper section of the trail) and we trekked for about an hour, seeing evedence of mountain buffalo (very dangerous as they can charge), mountain elephants and we heard golden monkeys in the tree tops.  We were accompanied by a park Ranger with a gun and a machete to protect us from charging buffalo for the most part.

After an hour or so we met the trackers, five men who track yhe gorilla family throughout the day.  They do not interefere with the family or its members, but observe and protect them.  They report the movement of the family and clear away dangers, such as snares set by poachers for other animals.  They therefore know the location of the gorillas and assist the guide to direct him and his group to their location.

So it was, moments later that we came upon the family.  We were mere feet away from the first Silverback we came across...he was huge...weighing more than 500 lbs!  The females and their babies were close by. 

Words fail me in describing just how close we were to these magnificent animals!  At one point the mischevious 5 year old ran at Paul, beating his chest and grabbed him and nipped his rear...trying to entice him to play.  The tracker made a sound of admonition in gorilla-speak and the young gorilla broke away and in a flash was hugging my leg!  I guess you could say we got close to these wild animals!

Cultural Centre

We opted to visit a local cultural centre to learn about the people of the Kingi region.  It was great fun and very informative.

We learned that a young man, named Edwin Sabohuro had been instrumental in developing programs to counteract poaching.  One of these measures was to provide employment and thus take away financial reasons for poaching activities.  Thus, things like the cultural centre have been created.  

This centre replicates the lifestyle of the last King in the early 1900's.

We were the only people visiting the centre, and when we arrived we were greeted by drummers and warriors.  We were told that we were King and Queen for the length of our stay.  The centre consists of several buildings with thatched roofs, each of which is used to demonstrate an aspect of the local life...making baskets, blacksmithing, grinding flour etc.

The largest building is the king's home, as well as a meeting centre for the kings of other areas of Rwanda.  We were dressed in ceremonial garb and participated in the dancing and drumming.  It was energetic, good fun.

January 18 - En Route To Volcanoes National Park

We continue to have trouble with Jet Lag, getting sleepy at the wrong time, waking up in the middle of the night and staying awake for hours or waking up too early and being unable to fall back to sleep.  We find this so surprising as we have not had so much trouble in the past.  I think it is a sign of our advancing years!  Fortunately we had a relatively late start, leaving Kigali at 0930 heading to the Volcano National Park which is a park where Gorillas and Elephants reside.

It was a short-ish trip, about 70 kms, but it took us 2.5 hours to make the trip.  The road is winding as it follows valleys and climbs hills. Also, getting through Kigali in a large safari jeep was no small feat!  Added to all of this were the pedestrians who lined the road on both sides making their way through the streets in the city and to and from work sites in the country.  It was amazing to see the women carrying loads balanced on their heads, men with construction materials on their heads and balanced on bicycles.  I even saw one man carrying an empty coffin on his head!  Even small children were lugging produce to  market this way.  I saw several people riding side saddle on the back of bicycles...and later learned that these are push-bike-taxis!  They ride uphill empty and bring fares downhill!  Ingeneous!  We also saw the terracing and cooperative efforts to produce food and products with manual labour.

At lunch we arrived at the Gorilla View Lodge...which is a hotel with 20 or so cottages surrounding a main lodge.  It is basic accomodations, but very cozy.  It is also colder as it is at a much higher elevation.  We were forced to turn on theheat in the evening as the temps dropped into the low teens.  The hotel is nestled in an area surrounded by 5 volcanoes and near the border with Uganda.  It is very picturesque.

 

We had a free afternoon. so we opted for a trip to a local village centre which deserves its own blog, which follows.

We had a quiet night...warmed by a fire in our cottage to keep us warm!

Kigali

We started the day with a trip to the Rwanda Genocide Museum.  This stands as a memorial to the estimated 1 million people who were killed in about 100 days in 1994.  250,000 of the victims are interred at  this site and more bodies are found and brought to this memorial regularly to this day. 
It was a grim reminder of the atrocities we humans can and do visit on each other.  The museum itself is well laid out and gives good and thorough descriptions of the lead up to the unrest, the genocide itself and the aftermath which is still unfolding some 23 years later.  I can't say that it was a fun experience but it was sobering and difficult to see and contemplate.

The Graves themselves are covered in large concrete slabs with one having a window allowing visitors the opportunity to leave flowers and say their goodbyes.  In the museum there are many horrific things....one which was very touching though was a wall of pictures of victims. There are literally thousands of them there.

Afterwards we explored the city of Kigali, visiting the newly developed as well as the original parts of the city.  This is a city of 1.5 million people, spread out through valleys and into the surrounding hills.  Many of the streets are not paved and in the old section they are cobbled.  Very interesting are the motorcycle taxis  which cluster on the street corners waiting for fares.  Needless to day...the traffic is insane!  (But not beating the total madness we witnessed recently in Beijing!)

It was a very hot day (35° c) so we ended it with a luxrious dip in the hotel's chilly pool.

Loooong Trip To Africa

Our trip started with a day spent in Toronto saying goodbye and spending time with family.  Knowing that our flight left at 1030 at night we tried to pace ourselves during the day. 

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and we're able to use the lounge for a couple of hours.  We were well rested and hoping to be tired enough to sleep on the plane.

The flight was long and uneventful, arriving in Istanbul some 9 hours later.  We had a 2 hour stopover so we found the lounge again and tried to stay awake...

We had another uneventful flight to Kigali and arrived 6 and a half hours later.  We were exhausted having been awake for 36 hours or so and we were very glad to be met by our guide and taken to our hotel.

We spent the rest of that day asleep.  We got up for supper and went to a local restaurant where we saw the sun setting while we ate alfresco and sampled a number of African dishes, including Sabaza (deep fried mini fish) and even goat. 

Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset

October 9

Another trip begins for Paul and I...this time off to China.  We started the with a stop in Toronto where we visited our children and their families.  We had fun babysitting our grandkids and Paul also took on some jobs at Jan and Jay's salon. 
We got ourselves to the airport on the ttc, which was much facilitated by the fact that we were carrying just one backpack each.

Having no checked baggage got us into the departure lounge in quick order, where we discovered that our flight was delayed by nearly two hours.  We finally boarded the plane and we're pleased to discover that we were two in a three seat configuration...so we had plenty of room for our 12 hour flight. 

Our route took us north, over the Arctic Ocean...and we watched the sunset as we flew over Hudson's Bay, then rise again as we flew over Russia and then set again as we were landing in Beijing.  Quite a different type of flight!  The outside temperature was colder than -60 c at one point!