So I'm killing the last bit of time here in Kigali before I fly out. As much as I'm looking forward to coming home and having sorely missed many people, I've been reflecting on many of the experiences I've had while away. I'm quite happy, especially happy that I've had the good luck, health and support from friends to undertake such a HUGE trip.
It'll be months from now before all the magnitude of this trip completely sets in, I'm sure I'll remember different things and feelings after recounting the trip and looking at pictures. I feel like a little kid sharing all these details though: My typing cannot possibly keep up with what I want to say and I could go on and on in run on sentences.
But I'll say these things:
1. Rwanda is the most beautiful country I've been in, second to Canada.
2. I'll always appreciate, alot more, the things I DO have.
3. No matter what happens to me, health wise, I will always be able to say "I DID KILI"
4. I've enjoyed the African food, Irio, Ugali, Nyama Choma, Chapati and Kili Beer (Primus a close 2nd).
5. The big catch from Zanzibar, and having been in all 5 oceans.
6. Having the guts to dream for, save for, and have the courage to complete this 5 weeks trip. I'm better for it.
George
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Dan Leger sighting in Ruhengeri?
sigh
Have you ever felt like your heart and mind have been in two different places at once? The last couple days I've been achingly home sick, but since I cannot fly back early I've really been able to dedicate most of my mind to my trip. Valerie Leger, you hold my heart in your hands. Be gentle :)
Often I've visited Val's parents and thought, hmmmm, "Is Dan the missing Link?" Have we as humans evolved from Ape's (some more than others) and was Dan the first upright walking primate? Somehow I doubt it, he only walks upright sometimes. Quite certain I saw Dan scratching himself after he fell out of a tree. Hmmm?
I cannot begin to describe how it felt to walk up the Virunga Mountains, bordering the Congo and Uganda (in Rwanda) and describe what my hour with the Gorillas was like. Neither can I really capture how I feel about the 4 hour hike to Diann Fossey's research site, and grave that she shares with dozens of Apes. Notably Digit, her favourite and Titus (Digit's son) who died only two months ago! Tonight we've arrived in Lake Kivu, and saw the sunset over the Congo. Hard to put into words, so I'll do it another day.
I'm coming home on Wednesday, and no I won't be going anywhere else....anytime soon.
Val,
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Kigali and Nyungwe Forest
Kigali is by far the cleanest, best developed and hardest working civilian city I've SEEN here in Africa....Of course I have a bias and I knew Rwanda was always going to be my favourite but it's gorgeous. The whole city and country are rolling hills, green and lush, clean (ban on plastic bags-- how's that for innovative!).
I arrived on Saturday and didn't do much other than miss Val, and blog and check my hockey pool. Sat by the pool for a bit, is all. Met my group on Sunday morning, it's apparently an "Adult" tour with hotel stays and restaurant meals. I figured the price was a little or lot higher than the other tours. It's really more like a Seniors tour, my tour mates are 70 and 49 respectively. Luckily I can request my food not be mashed or pureed, and I can refuse to be turned during the night to avoid bed sores!
Sunday was the Kigali Genocide Memorial and this morning we stopped into a Genocide site near Butare. The country in it's recovery, has greatly put alot of resources into preserving the memories and brandishing the past. I don't think I care to really comment much on what I seen, it's not for the faint of heart and I'll leave it your imaginations to figure out. If you want to ask me when I get home, then so be it.
Monday we drove to the Nyungwe forest bordering Burundi and the Congo. It's a very hilly, gorgeous drive along all sorts of towns. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and every square foot of it looks like it's farmed or Jungle. People everywhere.
Got up at 0400h on Tuesday for a Chimpanzee trek, and that was very good. We found a clan of 30 chimps and I couldn't get a single good shot (not allowed to use flash) but got several cool video's and we got as close to 15 feet from one. Their quite large, and quite chattery. I'm really really excited about the Gorilla trek on Friday (supposedly the come quite close to you) but we have to stay 5-7meters away. Then I have a Diane Fossey grave site trek and tour, then on Sunday a lazy day at Lake Kivu.
I'm really kinda struggling to keep my thoughts here, don't get me wrong Rwanda is a MASSIVE highlight for me and I'm loving all the sites (Amohorro stadium, Hotel des milles collines, the Genocide sites, the UN buildings) but I'm really missing Val like crazy. So I've one foot staying here and enjoying the twilight of my tour, but one foot sorely missing home and eager to start the rest of the great EXCITEMENT that is coming in my life.
I arrived on Saturday and didn't do much other than miss Val, and blog and check my hockey pool. Sat by the pool for a bit, is all. Met my group on Sunday morning, it's apparently an "Adult" tour with hotel stays and restaurant meals. I figured the price was a little or lot higher than the other tours. It's really more like a Seniors tour, my tour mates are 70 and 49 respectively. Luckily I can request my food not be mashed or pureed, and I can refuse to be turned during the night to avoid bed sores!
Sunday was the Kigali Genocide Memorial and this morning we stopped into a Genocide site near Butare. The country in it's recovery, has greatly put alot of resources into preserving the memories and brandishing the past. I don't think I care to really comment much on what I seen, it's not for the faint of heart and I'll leave it your imaginations to figure out. If you want to ask me when I get home, then so be it.
Monday we drove to the Nyungwe forest bordering Burundi and the Congo. It's a very hilly, gorgeous drive along all sorts of towns. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and every square foot of it looks like it's farmed or Jungle. People everywhere.
Got up at 0400h on Tuesday for a Chimpanzee trek, and that was very good. We found a clan of 30 chimps and I couldn't get a single good shot (not allowed to use flash) but got several cool video's and we got as close to 15 feet from one. Their quite large, and quite chattery. I'm really really excited about the Gorilla trek on Friday (supposedly the come quite close to you) but we have to stay 5-7meters away. Then I have a Diane Fossey grave site trek and tour, then on Sunday a lazy day at Lake Kivu.
I'm really kinda struggling to keep my thoughts here, don't get me wrong Rwanda is a MASSIVE highlight for me and I'm loving all the sites (Amohorro stadium, Hotel des milles collines, the Genocide sites, the UN buildings) but I'm really missing Val like crazy. So I've one foot staying here and enjoying the twilight of my tour, but one foot sorely missing home and eager to start the rest of the great EXCITEMENT that is coming in my life.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Where does one begin?
I've arrived freshly from Zanzibar in the big city of Dar Es Salaam, it's 1630h and a hot humid 35 degrees. The ferry ride from Zanzibar was rough, it's open water in a speed ferry and I was perhaps a little green, so I was reluctant to sit up, walk around and chat with the group.
Two weeks ago, when I was more than stir crazy, alone and having seen all I had set out to see in Nairobi and over using the internet perhaps a little bit.................I set out with my Acacia tour group. We all met at 1800h on Saturday October 10, and everyone except for myself (22/25) were Aussies travelling south from England (working) and heading home. 2 people from the UK and myself. We had a meet and greet, and dispersed. As I sat down to eat dinner for the last night at the Hotel Boulevard I was invited over to a table and had a lovely time with an Aussie couple, having just arrived in Kenya. It was great, I was started to feel starved for company after 4 days in Nairobi alone or with the driver....Who I'd paid a King's ransom, but was kept safe.
Either way day one started out seeing and loading the big Acacia bus, and then heading out to the town of Narok which is the gateway to the Masai Mara game reserve in Western Kenya via the picturesque Great Rift Valley. Chatted up the other members of the group and they became my game viewing partners for the next three days. Got to the camp site on the edge of the Mara reserve, and settled in. Chatted to fellow group members and at 1500h headed out for the 1st game drive. Saw tonnes of baboons, zebra on the road already....Once in the game park though, it was all Cape Buffalo, Elephants, Giraffe, a feeding Cheetah in the distance and in the weeds, and many many Lions. It was GRAND! Open spaces, Acacia trees, grasses.....Many Thomson Gazelle, Eland, Vultures. Our guide seemed to have his own agenda, obviously us MZUNGU like our big gamers. So it was sleeping lions in the middle of the road, sleeping lions under trees and fornicating lions. That was all I'd seen them do! Except of course, on our way out of the park at dusk we saw a Lion slinking it's way toward some Zebra...Shoulders slunched, belly low to the ground she (the hunters) got close. The tension was palpable. The Zebra group totally unawares, and the sun was setting. We waited. Looked around for other animals but still waited. Then BAM!!! She pounces up took 2-3 quick steps, got up on her hind legs and clawed down the back of the |Zebra as the zebra pushed foward (Screamin!) and ran into the crowd leaving the lion breathless, watching as supper ran away...All this two hours into my 1st game drive. It was surreal....I'll never forget the sound it made, clawing the zebra's back.
Day two was awesome: Leopard running toward and climbing up a tree, Rhinoceros, many Giraffe and Elephants and all the previously mentioned animals as well. We drove toward the Serengeti, which borders the Mara to the south to visit the Mara river and saw tonnes of HUGE crocs and hippos, we were escorted by two armed soldiers. It was cool. Hotter than stink and monkeys were trying to poach or lunches as we sat for sandwiches near the water. That afternoon we had another game drive and headed back for the night only at 6pm. The next morning was yet another game drive and then we drove back to camp outside Nairobi before heading south to Arusha Tanzania back down that nasty horrible highway I discussed a while back. Outside Arusha we stayed at the Meserani snake park, and saw tonnes of caged constrictors and poisonous buggers. There was a Dart board and real slick, character filled bar run by South Africans Mar and BJ. The guys I'd climbed with had mentioned they were going to the place and didn't Mar ask me where I was from and I said Canada of course and she comp'd me a free beer and knew my name as George. Those guys were something else. The next day we headed into the Serengeti and on game drive saw an eating cheetah (gazelle) a meter away from the game truck!!! The serengeti was so barren, dry and dusty: it was so HOT. Thankfully for the wind, lots of clothes turned brown with dust, teary eyes and messy tents. We camped right out in the park, mindful to zip up and keep boots in the tents...Hyenas go crazy for rubber. Oh before I forget, the last game drive we saw two lions eating a buffalo and a group of hyenas circling and stealing the carcass. Our crazy truck driver had a hyena ring tone he'd use to torment animals and this one hyena was going NUTSO! It charged at him, and I thought for sure it would lunge but he frantically rolled up his window.
Back to the serengeti, we saw and drove into the Ngorongoro Crater which was massif! and awesome. Lots of wildebeest (hadn't seen the migration, so we went to it). A hippo, out of the water and lot's of the same previously mentioned but never boring animals. We actually saw two-three leopards more in the serengeti, and lots of cubs (lions, and gazelle) and wart hogs. The serengeti was so barren though, it being dry season. Oldlupai gorge was AWESOME, not sure many people know but for the longest time I always wanted to be an archaeologist and it was there that many and most of the earliest human forms/skeletons have been found! It spoke directly to my inner nerd and I LOVED IT. It was here that the fabled first foot steps were set to fossil in lava ashes, and then covered up and it now preserved and guarded by Masai warriors. It was three days there, and then back to Meserani. I won 2/3 dart games, in a bus wide tournament (never knew I was any good) and then the next morning was a Masai village tour and we were brought there on Camel back. It was so cool. The kids came running out to us, begging to hold our hands and be picked up. They really are so beautiful and they compete like crazy for as much attention as possible from the MZUNGU's.
From there we drove west past a cloud covered Kili, but not to worry I pass over her again tomorrow as I fly to Kigali, Rwanda via Nairobi. We camped and drove west again all the way to Dar Es Salaam on the Tanzania coast. It's a real swell city, very mosaic with many many mosques and a mix of Arab/African influence. We, myself and my tent buddy Chris upgraded to a beach hut and I was eaten alive by Sand flea's.....In case people forget what I look like I've got a slightly sun burned face, dirty clothes and many red bites on my ankles. So is every other Mzungu (white person) on the tour. The next morning, tuesday we headed to Zanzibar the spice island jewel of the indian ocean. THE INDIAN OCEAN, can you believe it?
Spent the day navigating the maze of Stone town, had some great swahili food and headed on a spice tour. Saw turmeric, pepper, vanilla, ginger, coriander, maze, pineapple, jack fruit, custard apples, lemon grass, cocoa fruit, and all sorts of great things. The guide was great, and that totally makes or breaks the trip of course. Custard apples are incredibly good. Then a guy scaled an 80 coconut tree, and cut down some coconuts. Very good. After this we went to the old slave market, very sombre, where the Africans were sold and traded at auction.
So we returned to Stone town, had a drink at Freddie Mercury Bar-----long live Queen! (watched the best sun set I've ever seen) and went to the fish market with some GREAT Aussie friends and then ate some local food at Monsoon Restaurant (sitting on the floor with cushions and ate with our hands). GREAT experiences, before we headed north to Kendwa for the next three nights. On wednesday I parked it on the beach. Thursday I got up at 0445 and arranged a fishing trip with 5 other people on tour, so we rented the boats, guides and got snacks and water for 50$ ea....while the going rate was 100$ on fancier boats. So out to open water we headed, with the option of keeping the biggest fish. By 0820, with the help of two guides I hauled in a 15kg Trevally fish (Massive, biggest fish I've ever seen) and all the guides were going crazy....no mzungu catches fish that big! I had the fishing rod, one guy hand pulled the fish with the line and one guy hauled it in with a hook. In all we caught an 8 kg Tuna and a 5 foot long barracuda. It was the Trevally we kept and had it cooked by BBQ last night, it fed 20 people! and still there was left over. I supplied supper (I can't eat fish, allergic and TZ is not the place to test hospitals) for most of the bus and the locals. What a great experience.
So this morning, packed up and took the ferry back to Dar where I received very warm good byes and well wishes from a great set of mates. They are heading south, most to Cape Town or Jo'Burg. My trip takes me west to Rwanda, and I start the final leg of my trip. Can't wait to get home, but I'm not going to waste a second of absorbing as much of Kigali and the Gorrilla's as possible....
Do I miss work? HAHAHAHAHAHAHaha.....
Val, I'll be home in less than two weeks...:)
Two weeks ago, when I was more than stir crazy, alone and having seen all I had set out to see in Nairobi and over using the internet perhaps a little bit.................I set out with my Acacia tour group. We all met at 1800h on Saturday October 10, and everyone except for myself (22/25) were Aussies travelling south from England (working) and heading home. 2 people from the UK and myself. We had a meet and greet, and dispersed. As I sat down to eat dinner for the last night at the Hotel Boulevard I was invited over to a table and had a lovely time with an Aussie couple, having just arrived in Kenya. It was great, I was started to feel starved for company after 4 days in Nairobi alone or with the driver....Who I'd paid a King's ransom, but was kept safe.
Either way day one started out seeing and loading the big Acacia bus, and then heading out to the town of Narok which is the gateway to the Masai Mara game reserve in Western Kenya via the picturesque Great Rift Valley. Chatted up the other members of the group and they became my game viewing partners for the next three days. Got to the camp site on the edge of the Mara reserve, and settled in. Chatted to fellow group members and at 1500h headed out for the 1st game drive. Saw tonnes of baboons, zebra on the road already....Once in the game park though, it was all Cape Buffalo, Elephants, Giraffe, a feeding Cheetah in the distance and in the weeds, and many many Lions. It was GRAND! Open spaces, Acacia trees, grasses.....Many Thomson Gazelle, Eland, Vultures. Our guide seemed to have his own agenda, obviously us MZUNGU like our big gamers. So it was sleeping lions in the middle of the road, sleeping lions under trees and fornicating lions. That was all I'd seen them do! Except of course, on our way out of the park at dusk we saw a Lion slinking it's way toward some Zebra...Shoulders slunched, belly low to the ground she (the hunters) got close. The tension was palpable. The Zebra group totally unawares, and the sun was setting. We waited. Looked around for other animals but still waited. Then BAM!!! She pounces up took 2-3 quick steps, got up on her hind legs and clawed down the back of the |Zebra as the zebra pushed foward (Screamin!) and ran into the crowd leaving the lion breathless, watching as supper ran away...All this two hours into my 1st game drive. It was surreal....I'll never forget the sound it made, clawing the zebra's back.
Day two was awesome: Leopard running toward and climbing up a tree, Rhinoceros, many Giraffe and Elephants and all the previously mentioned animals as well. We drove toward the Serengeti, which borders the Mara to the south to visit the Mara river and saw tonnes of HUGE crocs and hippos, we were escorted by two armed soldiers. It was cool. Hotter than stink and monkeys were trying to poach or lunches as we sat for sandwiches near the water. That afternoon we had another game drive and headed back for the night only at 6pm. The next morning was yet another game drive and then we drove back to camp outside Nairobi before heading south to Arusha Tanzania back down that nasty horrible highway I discussed a while back. Outside Arusha we stayed at the Meserani snake park, and saw tonnes of caged constrictors and poisonous buggers. There was a Dart board and real slick, character filled bar run by South Africans Mar and BJ. The guys I'd climbed with had mentioned they were going to the place and didn't Mar ask me where I was from and I said Canada of course and she comp'd me a free beer and knew my name as George. Those guys were something else. The next day we headed into the Serengeti and on game drive saw an eating cheetah (gazelle) a meter away from the game truck!!! The serengeti was so barren, dry and dusty: it was so HOT. Thankfully for the wind, lots of clothes turned brown with dust, teary eyes and messy tents. We camped right out in the park, mindful to zip up and keep boots in the tents...Hyenas go crazy for rubber. Oh before I forget, the last game drive we saw two lions eating a buffalo and a group of hyenas circling and stealing the carcass. Our crazy truck driver had a hyena ring tone he'd use to torment animals and this one hyena was going NUTSO! It charged at him, and I thought for sure it would lunge but he frantically rolled up his window.
Back to the serengeti, we saw and drove into the Ngorongoro Crater which was massif! and awesome. Lots of wildebeest (hadn't seen the migration, so we went to it). A hippo, out of the water and lot's of the same previously mentioned but never boring animals. We actually saw two-three leopards more in the serengeti, and lots of cubs (lions, and gazelle) and wart hogs. The serengeti was so barren though, it being dry season. Oldlupai gorge was AWESOME, not sure many people know but for the longest time I always wanted to be an archaeologist and it was there that many and most of the earliest human forms/skeletons have been found! It spoke directly to my inner nerd and I LOVED IT. It was here that the fabled first foot steps were set to fossil in lava ashes, and then covered up and it now preserved and guarded by Masai warriors. It was three days there, and then back to Meserani. I won 2/3 dart games, in a bus wide tournament (never knew I was any good) and then the next morning was a Masai village tour and we were brought there on Camel back. It was so cool. The kids came running out to us, begging to hold our hands and be picked up. They really are so beautiful and they compete like crazy for as much attention as possible from the MZUNGU's.
From there we drove west past a cloud covered Kili, but not to worry I pass over her again tomorrow as I fly to Kigali, Rwanda via Nairobi. We camped and drove west again all the way to Dar Es Salaam on the Tanzania coast. It's a real swell city, very mosaic with many many mosques and a mix of Arab/African influence. We, myself and my tent buddy Chris upgraded to a beach hut and I was eaten alive by Sand flea's.....In case people forget what I look like I've got a slightly sun burned face, dirty clothes and many red bites on my ankles. So is every other Mzungu (white person) on the tour. The next morning, tuesday we headed to Zanzibar the spice island jewel of the indian ocean. THE INDIAN OCEAN, can you believe it?
Spent the day navigating the maze of Stone town, had some great swahili food and headed on a spice tour. Saw turmeric, pepper, vanilla, ginger, coriander, maze, pineapple, jack fruit, custard apples, lemon grass, cocoa fruit, and all sorts of great things. The guide was great, and that totally makes or breaks the trip of course. Custard apples are incredibly good. Then a guy scaled an 80 coconut tree, and cut down some coconuts. Very good. After this we went to the old slave market, very sombre, where the Africans were sold and traded at auction.
So we returned to Stone town, had a drink at Freddie Mercury Bar-----long live Queen! (watched the best sun set I've ever seen) and went to the fish market with some GREAT Aussie friends and then ate some local food at Monsoon Restaurant (sitting on the floor with cushions and ate with our hands). GREAT experiences, before we headed north to Kendwa for the next three nights. On wednesday I parked it on the beach. Thursday I got up at 0445 and arranged a fishing trip with 5 other people on tour, so we rented the boats, guides and got snacks and water for 50$ ea....while the going rate was 100$ on fancier boats. So out to open water we headed, with the option of keeping the biggest fish. By 0820, with the help of two guides I hauled in a 15kg Trevally fish (Massive, biggest fish I've ever seen) and all the guides were going crazy....no mzungu catches fish that big! I had the fishing rod, one guy hand pulled the fish with the line and one guy hauled it in with a hook. In all we caught an 8 kg Tuna and a 5 foot long barracuda. It was the Trevally we kept and had it cooked by BBQ last night, it fed 20 people! and still there was left over. I supplied supper (I can't eat fish, allergic and TZ is not the place to test hospitals) for most of the bus and the locals. What a great experience.
So this morning, packed up and took the ferry back to Dar where I received very warm good byes and well wishes from a great set of mates. They are heading south, most to Cape Town or Jo'Burg. My trip takes me west to Rwanda, and I start the final leg of my trip. Can't wait to get home, but I'm not going to waste a second of absorbing as much of Kigali and the Gorrilla's as possible....
Do I miss work? HAHAHAHAHAHAHaha.....
Val, I'll be home in less than two weeks...:)
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