January 7 Volcano National Park, Rwanda

And another amazing day! Up and off at same time in morning.... this time we are headed to see the Golden Monkeys.
It was about a 2 hour hike along mostly potato fields until we reached the park wall. Once again the wall is a pile of rocks with a deep ditch on the park side. This a hike through a bamboo forest! Very interesting as there is not a lot of vegetation on the ground.. but there are several squash vines everywhere with small squashes on the ground. They are about the size of a softball.

This was supposed to be a 'baby' hike but there was a bit that was up hill for a ways... maybe 20 minutes.
Once again there were trackers out locating the monkeys. The park does an amazing job of the protecting the monkeys as well. Same rules... no food, sticks, backpacks.. only cameras and we are only allowed to be near them for 1 hour, same as the gorillas!

There are hundreds! On the top of the bamboo and on the ground, young and older ones! Very cute but here are constantly on the move so difficult to get any shots. Still a great experience. It was fun watching the people as well.... they were chasing the monkeys all over the place... it took them a while to work out that if you stood there many would just go by you! Too funny! We ended up talking to a guide as we were standing

there and watching...both the people and the monkeys. He ended up leading us around to have a look at some of the monkeys that were a bit more secluded..... this way we did not have people trying to sneak up and get too close to the monkeys, which really just scared them off!

After an hour, we spent an hour getting back to the parking lot! Very fast. Another exciting day. No rain today so was very nice but the ground was still fairly wet from yesterday. Also you had to watch for buffalo pies.... lots of them, and wet and fresh! I did find one! Got it dead centre!



January 6 Volcano National Park, Rwanda

OMG what an amazing day! Even if we were up at 5 am! At least there is coffee in room, and breakfast is at 6!
We are off to see the gorillas today! We left the hotel at 6.45 for a ride to the park office where we met our guides. 2 of them, Patrick and Bosco. Then a 45 minute drive, getting an African massage along the way (the roads were very rough and rocky) to where the walking/hiking/trekking would start. Off through some potato, corn and flower fields.

They grow a lot of daisy like plants. They pick the flowers, dry them and then they get sent off to make pesticides and insect repellent.

At the park boundary we met a Park guard, gun and all. The park entrance was a rock wall at the end of a field with a deep ditch on the park side. This was to keep the buffalo in the park and out of the farmers Irish potatoes! He will lead us through the park.

 Mostly for protection from the buffalo that roam the park. The air is pretty thin so the hiking up the side of a volcano is tough going, especially as it is wet from the rain yesterday.
After about 2 hours walking we arrive at gorillas! There were 2 trackers that were ahead of us to locate the gorillas.

Wow.... amazing animals! We first saw the 2nd oldest male... he is huge. At first arms crossed as raining but when the rain stopped, he started eating wild celery...stocks and leaves! A bit further there was a mother with a 4 month old baby!

We moved on a bit and there was a young male. The rest of the group moved on but I stopped for a picture and the gorilla came right up to me and touched me.... he wanted to play. At first the guide grunted that we were friendly so the gorilla relaxed, then came up to me, and touched me.. the guide grunted no, and he took off. Wow... what can I say!

The rest of the group was watch 2 young ones playing. Then onto the alpha male, the silver back! He is huge, about 200 kg! He was just focused on eating!

I can not believe how close were were.... about 6 feet away! And they were so calm about it all! Apparently they know the guides and that helps. The young one that came up to me, watched the guide most of the time!

On the way out, there were some buffalo in the distance! Huge animals as well. This was a very expensive trip but soooooo worth all of it! It is hard to describe the experience of getting so close that we could hear the gorillas crunching the celery.


January 5 Volcano National Park, Rwanda

A very relaxing morning of breakfast. WE were up at 6 and off to breakfast. A huge buffet but as we were the only ones there we were given a lot of table service, very good service! Emmanuel the guide arrived at 10 and we went to airport to pick up my bag! Great news!

Off to pick up another passenger. Turns out he was staying at the hotel used for the movie Hotel Rwanda.

We then headed off for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the Gorilla Mountain View Lodge. The country side was beautiful. Everything is very green. Along the way there were bamboo bee hives high up in trees and even a few monkeys crossing the road! Roads are good but very hilly!

The Lodge is super....Lunch ready when we arrived. Very nice! Hotel room is a monster....with a fireplace! The Lodge is at the base of 6 volcanos, all inactive.

Beautiful country! There are 2 active volcanoes in the Congo. Very cloudy and some heavy rain.

Seemed like we just got up from lunch and it was dinner time. Excellent food.... and lots of it!
Crashed early!


January 4 Kigali, Rwanda

I forgot to mention that I went for a hair cut yesterday! Just down the street was a barber.. he was busy painting the walls when I got there, but stopped to cut my hair! The usual buzz cut... best part it cost 1500 shillings! or about $0.75 US! Amazing they do it so cheap, but here I think they get their hair cut very often... but then again I did see I guy shaving another with just a razor blade. He was just sitting on the curb!

Off to airport, arriving at 8 am only to find out the flight had been delayed by 3 hours! No problem as I had a long layover in Nairobi, others were not! The 3 hours turned into 4 1/2 by the time we took off.
I got to Nairobi and had to run to catch the next plane....I had 30 minutes.....I made it to Kigali but luggage did not! OK no problem.

Spent a couple of hours in coffee shop with our guide, waiting for Fran's plane. She made it, tired but smiling... i did have a coffee in my hand!

Off to hotel... well.... this is a long way above any of the other hotels we have stayed in! Huge pool, beautiful grounds...showers that work with hot water! Very nice.

Dinner at restaurant and then off to bed.