Our first visit out of Kigali took us westwards to Lake Kivu and the lakeside towns of Kibuye and Gisenyi – both suffered terribly during the 1994 genocide. Lake Kivu, situated between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), sits comfortably amongst mountain peaks at an altitude of 1370m. The lake is sixty miles long and is amongst the most picturesque scenery in all of Africa.
The road between our two ports of call tested both ourselves and the suspension of our borrowed Landcruiser as we bounced and rolled though 5 hours of heavily potholed roads. The high misty mountains were covered in endless patchwork of farmed small holdings and we travelled though tea plantations built into the steep slopes – much like the terracing of rice paddies in Asia.
The highlight of the trip was definitely visiting the gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park in the far north-west near Ruhengeri. There are about 300 of these socialable creatures in the Virungas having been made infamous by the late Dian Fossey and the film ‘Gorillas in the Mist’.
We trekked for three hours through mud, 45 degree slopes and head high nettles and briars - fortunately the rain held off which made it considerably easier. The hardship of the trek was more than worth it and there is no doubt that words are inadequate to explain the experience of the hour we spent with them. We were lucky to see the ‘Suza’ group – the largest and most remote group of gorillas. They often cross back and forth between Rwanda and Congo – without a passport may we add! The main acts were the two year old twins, a small baby still suckling on Mum, and the main man – the Silverback weighing in at an impressive 200kg. In total around 25 or so who came to see us.
The gorillas definitely knew what was going on. They played with each other, posed for the cameras, showed off and ate an intoxicating concoction of bamboo and leaves – no wonder they looked so chilled. Their mannerisms were uncannily like any you’d see a human make and looking into their eyes revealed they had us sussed. Unfortunately, the down side of this wonderful experience is the ever present threat of poachers….and the armed guards outnumbered our merry band of six tourists.
A few well earned beers were consumed on our return and we waxed lyrical about our wonderful cousins well into the night.
1 comment:
Hi Andy & Viv,
You should be tourist guides sounds great ! Jealous yes somewhat. I didn't know they were Andy's cousins must be from a different part of NI probably near Newry !
Pity about the poachers I'm surprised any survive. Keep the blog going wonderful distraction from work and good to share your experiences. UB
Post a Comment