Rwanda, Gorillas, Genocide

November 24th 2013, 6:39:00 pm

As we approached Rwanda, the terrain started getting a lot more hilly than that of Uganda. We got to the border and queued up to hand in our passports and get our visa, all the while with locals trying to cut in line. I got given some minor grief over not having printed out the acceptance letter for my visa. I did have it in digital form and the letter has a giant bar code that one would assume they'd scan, but apparently it's easier to put bar codes on letters than it is to put bar code scanners at the border.

This was our single slowest border crossing, taking over 90 minutes to get some simple ink stamp "visas" put in our passports. Most of the truck was starving by the time we finally got our passports back, but there was still more driving to do before we arrived in Ruhengeri and stopped to make lunch. We were staying in dorm rooms so nobody had to put up tents for a change!

The next morning we were all up early for the big day, gorilla trekking! We were all ready to go well before the sun was up. I'd woken to hear heavy rain during the night which had me a bit concerned about what the weather might be like but once the sun came up the weather stabilised as just mostly overcast.

The gorillas are only allowed one hour of visiting time per day, during which a group of a maximum of 8 people can come and see them. I think there was something like 10 groups of gorillas that tourists are allowed to trek to see, which means only about 80 people get to experience this on any given day. During the rest of the day there are people employed to track them from a distance to keep an eye on them and protect them from poachers until quite late at night, coming back again early in the morning to figure out where they have moved to.

We started with a very bumpy 40 minute drive to a village where the trek to our gorilla group began, from where we walked for another 40 or so minutes through farms, up the hill to the start of the national park and the mountain jungle.

Our guide was apparently the best in Rwanda and had won an award to prove it. He later told us that he's taken Bill Gates and his family trekking the gorillas, along with some other famous people I didn't recognise. He had a very over-the-top level of enthusiasm that I thought felt pretty insincere, but as the day went on though, either I warmed up to him, or he started to drop the act and began behaving more genuinely; maybe it was just too early in the morning enough sleep?

In addition to our guide we had some armed escorts, I like to think they were there to protect us from the wildlife, but it's also possible they were there to protect us from guerrillas from Congo. Eek!

Along the way our guide spotted a chameleon, the first one I've ever seen. It was very cool to see to see it move it's eyes independently and a whole lot smaller than I had expected. I always thought they were quite large, but all the ones we saw were tiny. It also turns out they take quite a while to change colour, so even though a few of us got to have him walk along our arms we didn't get to see him change colour.

After another 40 more minutes of trekking up along a fairly well established path through the national park we were finally near enough to where the gorillas were to go "off path". The forest around this point was extremely thick scrub consisting largely of stinging nettles, which were hacked and slashed at with machetes to make a narrow path for us. I can tell you for certain now that stinging nettles are able to sting through right through denim. If you're ever doing this trek I'd highly recommend getting some gaiters to protect your legs.

We followed the newly slashed path for about 10 minutes before we sighted our first gorilla off in the distance.

It was quite a long way off but everyone was instantly pretty excited, but we were hurried along by the guide. Suddenly we look to our left and there's another gorilla right next to us, probably only 3-4 meters away at most. He's there just chilling, eating stuff. He looks over at us briefly but then goes back to chewing and ignoring us.

We continue on into the scrub and found a few more sitting around eating.

We then came across the silverback of the group and got a few distant photos before he moved on.

A mother gorilla with its baby came walking right towards us; we stood still as we had been instructed to do and they walked right past me, actually brushing against me. It was magical to be in such close proximity to such powerful creatures and have them seem to completely unfazed by our presence.

We followed them to where they were going and found 8 gorillas lazing together. A few of them were grooming one another, while the silverback was lying back with his legs spread, a very dignified position for the big boss.

The little baby was here as well, climbing all over the others, falling down, and rolling down the hill. So very cute.

We found the "Vice president" silverback off to the side with one of the females, apparently trying to get her to "service him" while the big boss wasn't looking. Very naughty!

I'm told we saw every gorilla from the group we trekked to, 18 in total, although with them moving around during our visit I didn't even attempt to count them for myself. It was definitely a very special experience that I feel quite privileged to have been able to take part in. It's easily sitting at No. 1 on my list of best things I've gotten to see or do so far and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance.

After our hour was up we had to leave and start the very long walk back to the jeeps, along which we found lots more chameleons on the walk back, some of them extremely tiny and in a variety of colours!

Once we got back to camp we spent the afternoon consuming some well earned celebratory beers.

The following day we made the short drive from Ruhengeri to Kigali through the mountains; it was Amazing to see how steep the land some of the farmers were utilizing was. I've never seen crops growing on such steep land every before!

We stopped in to have a look around Hotel Des Mille Collines, the actual hotel that the Hotel Rwanda story was based on. It was pretty surreal to think of the 1000s of refuges holed up in there while people just outside the fences that wanted to kill them. Today it's all so modern and ritzy which it hard to comprehend that it's the same place.

Next stop was the Kigali Genocide Museum which was incredibly educational, with great coverage of the atrocities that went on in Rwanda during those 100 days in 1993, and a exhibition upstairs covered another 5 genocides: The Armenian genocide, The Holocaust, Cambodia under the Khemer Rouge, The Namibian Genocide, and Kosovo. Some of these I'd known about and others I had no idea. Humans can be such horrible creatures.

The most chilling thing I learned was that the number of UN troops involved in the evacuation of UN personal from Rwanda would have been enough to have stopped the genocide, and yet they didn't.

To get back to Nairobi from Rwanda meant three or four long drive days, back-to-back, punctuated with a few interesting stops.

The first night we stopped at Lake Mburo for a night of camping on the side of the lake, full of hippos. That evening while making dinner we have a number of very bold warthogs come sniffing around in the camp kitchen, only to be shoo'ed off back Mash swinging a chair at them. Cheeky buggers!

Finally on our 4th and final land crossing of the Equator we stopped for lunch and were able to take some photos.

We were stopped by police as we went through Nakuru, who insisted we were speeding even though there are speed bumps on the road every 100 meters or so. We were forced to go to the police station with the cop to "sort it out". It was another of those times when a bribe is going to be faster, cheaper and easier than following official process which would have required showing up in court with the possibility of a $1000 fine, so again we paid another $300 bribe in Kenya.

While at the police station, other overland trucks started showing up, all faced with the same accusations. The level of corruption in Kenya leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but on the up-side, someone on the truck was really sick, and this unplanned stop gave them a chance to visit a travel clinic and get fixed up.

I chose to go mountain biking in Hell's Gate National Park, one of the parks that the Lion King is said to take inspiration from. It's a stunning place to see, with lots of spectacular cliffs and canyons.

We left the bikes to venture down into the gorge which involved walking along next to some quite big drops, but it was worth it to get to see down the bottom.

When we finally made it back to Nairobi, a few of us went to visit the Giraffe sanctuary, where you could feed a giraffe from your mouth so it looked like they were giving you a kiss.

For out last evening in Africa we went and hung out with Pete and Deb one last time at the apartment they had rented. It was a lovely relaxed evening of pizza, drinks, and nature documentaries. Those two are total champions, so lovely and hospitable. I will definitely need to make a trip to Sydney to visit them one day when I'm finally back in Australia.

We headed to the airport after midnight for our flight to Turkey, which left at 3:45am. I was so tired that I slept sitting upright in a plastic chair, and when I was finally on the plane and I was asleep again before takeoff.