Day 79 – Taken down by a gorilla (a birthday K will never forget….!)

Kinigi, Kinigi Guest House

We arrived at the PNV headquarters before 7am, along with many other trekkers. We were hoping to visit the “Susa Group” – the largest gorilla group, so our driver spoke to the guides there so we could get into that group. We were told that the group was too far away, so no one would be visiting Susa today. The group we were given was “Amahoro” which means “peace”.

After a briefing on what not to do (don’t touch them, don’t sneeze on them, don’t stand too close to them, speak only in whispers) we were driven to the village at the starting point of our trek, which included a long stretch on probably the worst and bumpiest road we have ever been on in our life!

Our group of six trekkers plus gorilla guide then headed up, past fields of potato and pyrethrum daisy crops, to the edge of the park, where we were met by an armed ranger (the gun was for poachers and wayward buffalo). Our guide was constantly on the radio to the gorilla trackers inside the park, so the location of our gorillas was known.

The trek there wasn’t too bad, but at times quite steep. The track went through thick vegetation, lots of stinging nettles (which the gorillas like to eat), bamboo thickets, and every now and then we came to a clearing and had some great views of the nearby volcanic peaks.  

When we finally arrived at the trackers after nearly three hours of trekking, we left our packs with them, and went to meet the gorillas. There were a couple of groups lying on the ground having a siesta, they had just been eating bamboo shoots, which apparently can make them “drunk”.

We had only been there less than five minutes when they started waking up and moving about, so our guide said we should follow them. K was at the back of the group when a lone male silver back walked past. As she watched him he ran at her incredibly quickly and started tugging at her coat, she pulled a couple of times and he pulled back harder each time, then pulled her so hard she was pulled off her feet and towards him. He then brought his other arm up and pushed her down. K says she has never felt strength like that, so she decided to just go along with (we hadn’t been prepped how to handle this situation!). By then the guides had realized what was going on and arrived back, making gorilla noises and beating sticks, so the gorilla let K go, and moving toward the rest of our group. Everyone started running away (including the student guide, who got into lots of trouble for it) – the only people not running away were the head guide, and M right behind him running towards K.

The gorilla  then came back for another go and this time the guides got really aggressive with machetes & sticks, and kept him away. Gorillas don't harm or attack humans, but as we were later told, about once a year one of the males tries to “play” with a tourist after they have had “too much bamboo". After this dramatic start, the rest of our hour with gorillas was uneventful as we followed them around and watched them eat, climb trees, sit around, and carry babies on their backs.

We then headed back up and down the mountains for the 3 hour trek back. We had been warned how wet and cold the weather could be on the mountain, so we were surprised by the beautiful sunny day, and we ended up getting quite hot on the way back.

By about 4pm we had arrived back to our starting point, and our guide told us that the trackers who left around midnight to locate the Susa group still hadn’t found them - just as well we changed to another group. As we approached our car the rain started – so we were very lucky to avoid getting cold and wet today!

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We had originally intended to go on to Gisenyi immediately after our trek, but as it was so late and we were pretty tired, we decided to stay another night in Kinigi.

Day 78 – Tell the gorillas we’re coming!

Kigali to Kinigi, Kinigi Guest House

A view of Kigali from our hotel

There are many ways to go and see the gorillas that live around the Uganda/Rwanda/Congo border. What a lot of people do is pay a tour company to do all of the work i.e. arrange gorilla permits, transportation and accommodation. The gorilla permits for Parc National des Volcans (PNV) in Rwanda cost $500 per person – the tour quotes we received ranged from $1025 per person (with one night’s accommodation) to $3822 per person (3 nights). As a result, we decided to do it the cheap way and arrange everything ourselves!

We booked a taxi to take us to town, and we arrived at the Rwanda Tourist Board office in town around 8am to see if there were permits available – as this is the low season we secured permits for tomorrow, but we’ve heard it’s common to have to wait a few days, and in high season they need to be booked months in advance. Cost so far - US$500 per person.

We then purchased our bus tickets for the 12pm bus to Musanze, the closest major town to PNV. These cost us just 1700 Francs each – less than US$3 per person. The taxi to and around town to get all the tickets, cost us another $8 per person (which is a bit on the high side). If we’d stayed closer to town we could have avoided the taxi altogether.

We returned to the hotel for brekky, and booked accommodation close to PNV at Kinigi Guest House. The very pleasant and helpful hotel manager drove us to the bus station – so that cost us nothing. We had a little trouble with the bus – the minibus we’d booked didn’t have room for our luggage, but we only had to wait five minutes for the larger bus.

The country around Kigali is very picturesque, with terraces all over the hillsides with various crops – it’s as if no space has been left uncultivated. The day was also beautiful and sunny, so the trip was quite enjoyable.

PNV as viewed from Kinigi Guest House

In Musanze we quite conveniently ran into a driver who had just brought someone into town from the guest house we were staying at – so we had an easy trip to our guest house in Kinigi near the PNV headquarters, which cost us 7000 Francs – about US$6 per person.

The guest house is a budget place, but still nice enough for us, and situated very close to PNV. Cost was 25000F – about US$22 per person. Many of the staff speak French (Rwanda has a Belgian/French colonial history)  – but our Form 2 French was done so long ago that it was completely useless to us, it didn’t even help us with translating the dinner menu! Dinner was French inspired and quite nice. Overall, including drinks, it cost us about US$16 per person.

 It’s not possible to enter PNV without a vehicle, and these need to be arranged separately. We’ve organized one through the guest house for US$80. That’s $40 per person - so, all up our gorilla trip is costing us (in addition to the gorilla permits) just $95 per person.

Day 77 – Don’t believe everything the guide book says!

Kampala (Uganda) to Kigali (Rwanda) – Step Town Motel

Quite a civilized departure time for the bus today of 9am, so we were waiting patiently at 8:15am for the taxi we’d booked the day before. As we should have known it didn’t arrive as expected, and after much mucking around we managed to convince someone at the hostel to drive us there (even though we kept being told the taxi was “coming”). Lucky it wasn’t far – we made it to the bus with about 10 minutes to spare.

We found out en route, at around 12:30pm, that what we’d read in the Lonely Planet about being able to get a visa at the Rwanda border was no longer the case - so we spent the next three hours worrying and working out what we’d do if we couldn’t cross the border.

On arrival at immigration our fears were confirmed – visas aren’t available at the border any more, and we were meant to have applied in advance and had a letter with us. Fortunately the officials were very nice and allowed us to get our visas there, but they did make a point of telling us not to do it again! As a result of the delays, we missed out on the customs inspection that was still going on when we made it back to the bus – so maybe we could have kept our plastic bags after all.

We finally made it to Kigali, and headed to our pleasant hotel and had a dinner while we looked over the city from one of its many hills.

Day 76 – To the source!

Jinja to Kampala, Kampala Backpackers Hostel

Jinja is close to the source of the Nile River where it comes out of Lake Victoria, so after breakfast we walked from our hotel to the Source of the Nile Gardens. The gardens were quite nice, with a series of steps, lined with tourist stalls, down to the bank of the river. The actual source of the Nile wasn’t directly opposite the gardens but a little further upstream, so we walked out onto some steel beams over the river to look towards the source (we chose not to take the boat ride that was on offer). There was also a statue of Gandhi there, as some of his ashes had been scattered into the Nile.

Back at our hotel we booked a taxi to the bus station, at the last minute we decide to get him to take us all the way to Kampala. We had to haggle for a while to get a fair price, having to pay extra for air conditioning, but petrol prices in Uganda are very high so we though it reasonable.

The drive was quite comfortable, and it was a warm day (a real contrast to the rainy day yesterday) so the aircon was very welcome as we approached Kampala. We managed to arrive at the hostel around 2:30pm, pretty good timing and much earlier than if we’d taken the bus.

We took a walk to the bus station down the road to purchase our bus tickets to Kigali (Rwanda), then spent the rest of the afternoon taking advantage of the free wireless to catch up on a few things, as well as getting rid of as many of our plastic bags as possible as we’d read (and heard from other travellers) that plastic bags aren’t allowed in Rwanda.

Day 75 – How’s your wife …. and my two daughters?

Jinja – Timton Hotel

We phoned the rafting company, Nile Explorers, first thing this morning to check on a few things – they offered to come and pick us up, even though we were only a five minute walk away. The service given by this company is extraordinary, driven around, free shuttles, great food, and a great time rafting on the Nile – we can’t recommend the company enough.

There were eight of us rafting today (two rafts of four people, plus guides) - we were all fitted with lifejackets and helmets, and given an initial briefing as well as breakfast. We then hopped into the back of a large truck and driven to the starting point on the Nile. Once there we had further briefing for our Grade 5 rapid adventure. In hindsight it was just as well we hadn’t youtubed “rafting Nile” as some of our companions had (and terrified themselves) – it’s worth checking out – here’s an example!

Grade 5 is only one grade less than the highest Grade 6 – and there were a couple of Grade 5 rapids on this trip. We did not expect it to be so exhilarating and scary, being dumped from the raft time and time again into these huge rapids. Ignorance is bliss – hindsight a wonderful thing. Our guide was a real larrikin, who entertained us constantly – which made the longish paddles between rapids go quickly. Knowing full well that a local fisherman didn’t understand a word of English, he asked him the question that we’ve put as this post’s title!

The trip was brutal in more ways that one, the rain was so cold and hard we left the raft to swim/float down the Nile as it was warmer than being on board. Quite unreal to find ourselves floating down the Nile in Uganda, in torrential rain!

We rafted 8 rapids in all – another one was too dangerous so we walked around it (we were told it was Grade 6+) – and our guide told us the story of the dodgy rafting company that sent some Japanese tourists over it, resulting in many broken bones. The eighth rapid was the one where we were all dumped very violently – K was quickly picked up by a safety kayak, while M ended up running the rapid in his lifejacket!

With a little luck we’ll have some photos to upload to the blog, but not yet, as we need to wait for some of the photos taken by the rafting company to be sent through.

We were met on shore with a great BBQ lunch, after which we were taken back to Jinja. A nice dinner at restaurant near our hotel, and then an early night as we were both quite tired after our Nile adventure!

Day 74 – Over the equator and into Uganda

Nairobi (Kenya) to Jinji (Uganda) – Timton Hotel

Another bus trip today – this time we had booked the Akamba Royal bus for the long trip to Jinja – and very comfy it was too. We’ve been on large buses in Africa that seat 5 per row (very cramped) and 4 per row (not too bad) – this bus had just 3 seats per row. The seats were like armchairs, there was plenty of leg room, and there were even power points – however there was no air conditioning.

It started pouring rain just as we got on the bus to leave – and the rain seemed to follow us all the way to Jinja! We drove through the Kenyan highlands, past huge tea plantations, and then down into the valley where it warmed up considerably and the lack of aircon became a problem. However it was bucketing down as we crossed the border – so we had to walk and stand in the rain on the Kenyan side while our passports were stamped. The Ugandan side was much better though, as they had a decent office to wait in.

Shortly after the lunch stop in Kisumu, we crossed over the equator – so we’re now in the northern hemisphere. There wasn’t much to see really – but the shops on the side of the road gave it away – Equator Bar, Equator Restaurant etc.

We arrived into Jinja around 7:00pm – very late due to a number of problems on the way, including a couple of truck accidents. The bus didn’t go into Jinja proper, but dropped us off at a petrol station on the highway – with not a taxi in sight. There were plenty of motorbikes though, who all wanted to take us and our cases. As we had no other option, our two cases were loaded onto one bike, while we both sat behind the rider on a second bike, and were taken to our hotel.

When we got off the bus it wasn’t raining – but drops started appearing as we rode through town and we made it to the hotel with about 2 minutes to spare!

Day 73 – Why is everyone driving using up petrol to look for petrol?

Nairobi - Upperhill Campsite and Backpackers

Last night we’d met up with some travelers who’d been to Uganda, so after hearing about what they’d done we decided to modify our Ugandan itinerary slightly. Originally we were going to use Uganda as a transit country as well, stopping only in Kampala, but we’ve now decided to stop off for at least a day to also check out Jinja, which is where the source of the Nile is, and also a prime white water rafting destination.

We caught the taxi into town, bought our bus tickets for Jinja, wandered the streets of Nairobi for a while (only had to endure one scam attempt – "Hello, I saw you at my hotel this morning", laughable when we had stayed at a backpackers and the only locals were staff.  We expected many more based on what it said in the Lonely Planet!), and then headed back to catch up on washing and shopping. Traffic was pretty bad once again, we’d already heard there was a petrol shortage (only diesel available now) – so why were there so many cars on the road?

Day 72 – Kenya via Kili

Arusha (Tanzania) to Nairobi (Kenya) – Upperhill Campsite and Backpackers

We were picked up at 7:30am and driven to the Nairobi shuttle bus that had been booked for us by our hotel – the grand distance of about 300 metres – if we’d known it was that close we would have walked!

The roadworks out of Arusha made the trip very rough for quite a while. Not far out of Arusha we were able to see Mount Kilimanjaro out the window, fortunately there wasn’t too much cloud at the time, but by the time we reached the Kenyan border Kili was no longer visible.

We arrived into some very bad Nairobi traffic. Our bus driver tried to drop us off in town rather than takes us to our accommodation, fortunately the drop-off was written on our ticket so he couldn’t get out of it that easily. Too bad he didn’t know the way though – between that and the traffic it took him more than an hour to get us to Upperhill Campsite and Backpackers, where we settled into our 6 bed room (just the two of us though!).

We are only using Kenya as a transit country, so we spent the evening researching our onwards trip to see the gorillas in Rwanda, and picking up travel tips from some of the others staying at Upperhill.

Day 71 – All safari-ed out

Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha – Le Jacaranda Hotel 

A cold, foggy, drizzly start to the day as we drove down into the crater to come very quickly upon a pride of lions. One of the male lions was feeling most amorous, but at every aborted attempt he copped a swipe and a growl.

As we drove through the crater, we came across the endangered black rhino as well as so many lions they have now become rather ho-hum – towards the end of the drive we even stopped taking photos of the lions we saw, we feel we have now seen enough animals in Africa and it is time to take in other sights.

Lunch was eaten in our car as it isn’t safe to eat outside. Not because of the lions and the buffalo but rather the monkeys and the birds. Our guide told us that one lady had 7 stitches in her face last year from being swooped on as she ate. We had also experienced the quickness of the monkey when one evening in Serengeti a window of the car was left slightly down and a monkey jumped in, opened our lunch box and took a left over roll, and jumped back out in an instant.

We arrived back to Arusha’s traffic jam in the afternoon feeling that we had enjoyed the experience but for us it was probably about a day too long – we had pretty much spent the best part of five straight days driving around looking for animals!

Day 70 – Stared down by a lion

Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater - Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Our drive to Ngorongoro started with another safari through Serengeti, this time we came very close to a large male lion and a pride that was just finishing devouring a female zebra and her foal. It is remarkable how you can drive right up close to them and they vaguely look at you uninterestingly or don’t even acknowledge your presence, though at one stage M tried to climb onto the roof of the jeep to get a good photo – one of the lions stared directly at him, and the driver told him he should never get on the roof of the car! On the way out of the park there were hyenas on the side of the road just finishing off gazelle road kill.

Out of the park, we stopped by Olduvai Gorge and the museum to view replicas of the old hominid skulls and tools that were found nearby, and also saw replica footprints of three hominids trapped hundreds of thousands of years ago about 25km from the gorge. We were also given a lecture by one of the guides there, where we heard more about the remains found at the gorge, and the related similar “Lucy” remains discovered in Ethiopia. We also learnt that the gorge was incorrectly named, it should be “Oldupai”, after the plant that grows in the area.

After the gorge we continued our drive through the Maasai grazing lands, which are shared with any wildlife that ventures outside of the parks, and we stopped by the edge of the rim of Ngorongoro crater, which was originally a mountain before it collapsed millions of years ago, to look over where we would be descending to tomorrow.

Our accommodation was the lovely Sopa Lodge which had the most wonderful view of the crater. Our room was massive and after dinner we had to be escorted back to our room by staff because of the chance of wandering hyenas, buffalo etc. You are continually warned that buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals you can come face to face with in Africa - the lone buffalo is particularly aggressive as they are older males that have been ejected from the herd, and must always be kept at a great distance.