Akagera

After a night in Rwamagana – the provincial capital of the east, where we were introduced to banana wine – somewhat like sherry, we were driven on a tour of the Akagera national park by a friend. On the second time round a loop (by accident, rather than design), we came across a magnificent pair of giraffes, followed by impala and then a small herd of zebra. We saw several troops of monkeys and baboons, of various types, and even the beady eyes of hippos when they surfaced for a quick breath of air.

Lake Kivu

Despite scepticism, the Paradis Malahide really lives up to its name. We had a little round bungalow for the three of us, and spent most of our time on the beach or in the gardens overlooking the beach, watching the birds and the fishing boats. The boats are three dugout canoes lashed together like a trimaran. There are varying views on the risk of bilharzia from swimming in the lake, so we opted not to risk it, as it does not appear to be a curable infection.

Gorillas

We took the bus out to Musanze (Ruhengeri – like Wales, many places have two names), and then a 4WD up to Kinigi Guest House. A walk along to the park headquarters and an enquiry told us that sometimes there are no-shows for the gorillas. We also discovered that we needed our own 4WD or a driver with one as we have to get ourselves to and from where the tracking actually starts, which is different according to the group of gorillas you are tracking.

Next day, after much patient waiting, we got three cancellations and we were off to see the Agesha group. This is the second largest group, but with only one Silverback (dominant male over 12) and a lot of females which he has collected from Congo and Uganda as well as Rwanda. Where we tracked him down was only around a kilometre from the Congolese border. When females become adult, they generally leave the group; presumably nature’s way of preventing too much interbreeding.

Off we hiked up the mountain, eventually over a large wall built to keep the buffalo in and stop them raiding the villagers’ crops. The first thing we saw was an elephant footprint. This is why an armed ranger accompanies you as well as the gorilla guide. All the time your guide is in contact with the four or so advance trackers who have been following the group since dawn and will stay with them until they nest late afternoon. The gorillas’ day is get up, move and eat, rest for an hour, move and eat, rest for an hour etc until late afternoon, when they create a new nest in the trees every night. The biggest gorillas stay on the ground because they are too heavy. Agesha weighs 222kg and is the number one in the forest – none of the other Silverbacks will challenge him.

After another 30 mins or so, we leave everything except our cameras, as we are near to the gorillas. How near we did not realise until one literally dropped down from overhead right in front of Camilla. Our first sight was this and a few more sat around through the bushes. At this point we thought that this was it. How little did we know! By using a combination of two gorilla noises – one to reassure them that we don’t threaten them, and a warning one should any stray into our group (this was never used) we got to within a few metres of the Silverback. Cubs and youngsters played above us in the trees, showering us with dead leaves. Two played games climbing up and sliding down the bamboo right above Agesha. We slowly mover around the group – we are limited to an hour and each group is only visited once per day. Of the 17 groups, only 8 are visited, but apparently two more groups have been “habituated” – previously they were research groups. In the last few years, the number has increased by 30%, but even so the entire worldwide population of mountain gorillas is a fraction of that of our village back in England.

Agesha starts to stretch, scratch and then suddenly, in a matter of seconds he springs up and charges away from us taking most of the group with him and they are gone with some screeching, apart from a few lazy stragglers.

6th August – Visiting Nzige

To visit Nzige together the only sensible way was to use a car and driver. We had asked at the hotel reception the previous afternoon, and whilst the hotel had not heard of Nzige, the driver they called up had. It happened to be where he originally came from and he came round to see us so we could see the car and negotiate a price ($100).

This morning he turned up a few minutes early and proved to be a careful, considerate and sensible driver. The first part of the trip is along the main road towards Rwamagana, a smoother road than many back home with one noticeable difference – periodically there are mega speed bumps – not always for obvious reasons. I suspect that occasionally check points are set up. Yesterday down near the market we had passed the car test centre and today we also passed a driving test centre. It may be that some of the standards are not necessarily quite as high, but Rwanda has all pretty much all the same mechanisms of a modern society as we have, and is a peaceful and law abiding country.

Reading the news headlines from the UK later with shootings and riots in London, I think we need to look more in the mirror. I certainly feel safer on the streets of Kigali than some parts of London.

Back to the trip. At Kibuge, we turn off the main road; now like most of the roads, they are the typical red dirt. Everyone seems to be going somewhere – vehicles are few and cries of “muzungus” follow us. People are on foot, or on bicycles, and a few on the moto taxis. Bicycles are the beasts of burden – piled up high with bananas, planks of wood, or as many as 7 or 8 five gallon jerry cans of water and being pushed by two small boys, often up long hills. The piped water here in the countryside is intermittent and the public water points are often the only reliable source. As we found when we got to Camilla’s house, the water was off. You would sometimes see the wife and children also sat on the back of bicycles. The Rwanda bicycle is a much sturdier construction than the ones we are used to, with the wheels and tyres one step up from the ones you see on mountain bikes. The roads are such that 30-40km per hour is the maximum speed that can be maintained, dodging the worst of the ruts.

And so to Nzige – a place I already felt familiar with from the incredible detail on Google Earth. Camilla’s house is actually tucked behind one of the shops that faces out across the market place.

Walking round the village we met smiling kids saying “Hello, how are you” – learning English here now starts young.

First foray into Kigali

The first thing we had to do was get somewhere to get some Rwandan Francs. You would have thought that a big international bank like mine, Natwest, could supply these, but apparently not.

First impressions – at least mine – are that Kigali bears more than a passing resemblance to places I have been in southern Europe and Israel. At least, until you come to transport. Now you know you are definitely in Africa. In the city, the buses are minibuses – aging Toyotas, with fold down seats that bridge the gap in the aisle. Thus, when someone at the back wants to get off, everyone on the fold down seats has to get up and there is this shuffle along with the descendee going forward and the aisle sitters moving back. For the computer buffs, it is a most intriguing sorting algorithm.

You generally pay the conductor about half a mile before you want to get off. The whole thing may seem chaotic, but it works. The alternative is the moto – 125cc motorbikes, where you are provided with a helmet and jump on the back. Definitely personalised transport.

Some things here are close to UK prices – Bourbon Coffee – the local equivalent of Starbucks. Camilla took us into Kigali’s main supermarket (one of only two that we would recognise as a supermarket). Aimed at the expat crowd, some of the things are prices that would make even our eyes water. Marmite (love it or hate it, and I am the latter for a reason unconnected to the taste, but the fact that I spent a year visiting the ENT specialist as a child and that department is just across the street from where the stuff is made, so it doesn’t have the best associations for me) is about four times the price back in England.

Bargaining in the craft and fabric stalls is an art. Taking our lead from Camilla, we left when there was no expected splitting of the difference. On one occasion, we thought agreement had been reached, the goods bagged up, but then more than we thought we had agreed was demanded, so the sale fell through.

In the afternoon, we walked from the hotel to the market and back. The market is roofed to protect from the sun and rain. The premium on space means that some market stalls are more vertical than horizontal – on a 6 foot square stall, displays may be 12 foot high. Bev bought some material for a skirt and then thought she had found one like she had tried to buy in the morning. However a closer inspection showed that it was an inferior Dutch copy, rather than the genuine Cote d’Ivoire block wax print.

The Journey out

Nothing prepares you for flying over the Sahara – a desert the size of Europe – the continent where I live. Most of the maps we are used to on a small scale distort northern regions, making Europe look bigger than it really is.

About an hour and a half from Kigali, there was a large plume of smoke. I think this is the volcano that erupted for the first time in documented history a few weeks ago and had me concerned because the ash cloud from it had caused air traffic disruption as far away as Saudi Arabia, However, it was still streaming to the north east, away from our path, we were unaffected, If my memory serves me correctly, there are stable winds from the south west in these latitudes at this time of the year.

It also seems strange that as we go south in the summer, it gets dark earlier. I know why this is true technically, but one tends to associate heat with the sun, and thus you expect more sun as you go south and less as you go north. This is true for half the year – between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes i.e. over the winter months.

This is my first trip to Africa – I have only seen it in the distance before from Gibraltar. I have travelled extensively in Europe and North America, but outside of this I have only been to Israel, which I suppose is technically Asia. Unlike my daughter who is only missing South America and Antarctica from her tally.

For most of the next two weeks, we are all going to be out of the country as Doug is being sent at a few days notice to Taiwan and China for most of it as well.

It will also be my first visit to the southern hemisphere and I am interested to see if the Coriolis Force, which featured so heavily in my oceanography degree, really does make the water go the other way round down the plug hole.

Being sat on the left side of the plane, I have been able to see the Nile for much of the flight over Africa, as our flight routing took us down the Greek coast before crossing into Africa just west of the Nile delta.

On our descent, we turned first to the east and then a sweeping turn to the west. I thought I could see Rwamagana out to the west – I recognised the snake of the main road from my study on Google Earth, which means that we were turning onto the final approach quite close to where Camilla lives.

We got a taxi to the hotel the instant we got out, there was an overpowering scent from evening flowers – I think it might be Hibiscus. And on into the hotel. Never has a beer seemed so good.

It was great to see Camilla after 6 months, looking well and happy.

On our way - finally

Woke up after 3 hours sleep and got to the airport.

first the handle ripped out on one case and then another. Not a good start.

You should see the queue at WH Smiths - half way across Bristol Airport's new smaller departure lounge. Bristol is the only airport I know that makes things smaller (except duty free) in response to growing passenger numbers.

Next stop Brussels - relieved that I have gone to the right airport this time, and on time.

Further posts will only be when I have access to wifi as the data roaming charges are high and blogspot is not data friendly.

A few hours to go

The last post was late being posted.

We actually go in a few hours now. We have more weight for our daughter - things she has requested, things people have given us to take for her etc. - than we have for ourselves.

According to the long range weather forecast, it will be something between 25C and 29C the entire time we are in Kigali.

Today we started the malaria tablets.

Now to the last minute packing.

One week to go

Madly getting everything sorted out. There was a brief panic when Camilla said to check the visa requirements. Fortunately they have not changed - as British citizens, we can visit for up to 3 months without a visa.

I solved one problem today. I have searched high and low to try to get some sort of map of Rwanda for my GPS. Today I stumbled upon OpenStreetMap and was able to eventually find one already rendered to Garmin from http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

Another thing solved - Microsoft have just released the RAW mode codec so that the better quality pictures from a couple of my cameras can be viewed as thumbnails.

We also solved another problem today and got rid of the muck heap behind the stables. This is about half the weight of the A330 plane we will take to Rwanda (and about 1.5x that of the A320 family). Down here in Zummerzet we measure things differently!

Less than 2 weeks to go

Not too long to go now. Trying to make sure that there is nothing forgotten. I have a couple of annual travel policies, but I decided to check a few things on both of them. Moto taxis are a common form of transport in Rwanda. We are covered, but only if the engine size is less than 125cc and we wear helmets. Interesting - what is the Kirirwandra for "is the engine size less than 125cc?" and then understanding the answer and even harder not taking if if the answer is no when it may be the only form of transport? My guess is that the motos will be mostly 125cc.

The next one threw them. In one policy, it says

Part D1) – Catastrophe
If, during your journey, you can no longer stay at your pre-booked and prepaid accommodation because of:
– fire;
– storm;
– lightning;
– avalanche;
– explosion;
– hurricane;
– earthquake;
– flood;
– tidal wave;
– medical epidemic;
– pandemic.
we will pay the necessary extra travel and accommodation expenses to allow you to continue with your journey, or return to the UK if you cannot continue with your journey, up to a maximum of £500 per person.

Well the night before I had been watching Richard Hammond's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" on TV. In this was the volcanic lake of Nyiragongo, the biggest volcanic lake on the planet, in Africa. Well as a youngster I was a mad keen geologist, and as my wife can testify, I still have a passing interest, which is why she has been dragged through a still steaming crater in Hawaii that had me excited because it erupted the year she was born (we were on a 25th anniversary holiday at the time) and walked across still flowing lava.

So a quick Google and I discovered that it is in the Volcanoes National Park where we are going, but on the Democratic Republic of Congo side. Then I discovered that Goma is the nearest town, and back in 2002 the lava flowed across the runway at Goma Airport and people were evacuated back to Gisenyi, on the Rwandan side of the border - where we plan to spend a couple of nights.

So I asked the insurance company if we would be covered if our pre-booked accommodation had to be cancelled due to lava flow, as this is a remote possibility, but it is indeed a possibility - after all, it got pretty close within the last 10 years. The answer was no, but any claim would be looked at if it happened and we had to make a claim. I suppose one could argue that it is a flood - a flood of lava, as they don't specify that "flood" has to be of water.

Next was the bank for currency. The guide books and people in the country tell you that you should bring specific denominations of post 2006 US dollars - the bank, one of the biggest in the UK doesn't deal in Rwandan Francs. This is possibly not surprising as I discovered that according to the latest figures I could find, the total UK annual imports from Rwanda are £280,000 - less than half a pence for every inhabitant in the UK. If everyone in the UK spend the very smallest coin in our currency, we would double our imports. We export 10x to Rwanda than we import, and this is to one of the 20 poorest countries in the world. It seems like we have a long way to go to get a fair balance, and much opportunity for FairTrade, provided that is not at the expense of feeding the people there.

Needless to say, the UK's largest bank could not even tell me what denomination notes they would give me, nor that they would be post 2006.

We are constantly told that we are a 24/7 society and you can get anything and everything you need from our wonderful service culture - service industries being touted by our politicians as our future, but getting a post 2006 hundred dollar bill is going to be a hit and miss affair.

So once again I am left wondering if the UK is really advanced as we think we are.

After the first order went missing, I now have the basic filters for the new camera, and the various other gizmos. The best of these is a solar cell with built in 2000mAhr battery that weighs less than 300g. Thus you can use it to charge things such as phones, and the battery allows a couple of phone charges even when there is no light e.g. at night. It can also be charged from a USB socket, which is now the standard for all phone charges in Europe, so I can use this as an intermediary and save myself lots of adapters and chargers.

Rabies vaccination

Yesterday I got the first of my rabies vaccinations. Because we are going Golden Monkey tracking (we couldn't get permits to see the Gorillas - these sell out a year in advance), this puts us at higher risk. We had our vaccinations scheduled with our local medical practice, but they had called up at teatime the day before the rabies vaccinations were due to start saying that they didn't have any vaccine and couldn't get any, and our only chance was to go to a travel clinic that had it in stock. We have sorted this out, but due to the strict time intervals between the three vaccinations, I will already be on the plane by the time of the third.

I sometime think that it is the UK that is the third world country. We may have the technology, but it doesn't seem to stretch to being able to keep vaccines in stock. Some of the other travel advice is proving just as difficult. It is recommended that any wounds are washed out with a liquid antiseptic or iodine. I had already got the former, but our nurse recommended the latter as being more effective against a possible rabid bite (remember I will only have had 2 out of the 3 vaccinations before leaving). So I tried to buy some in Boots - the largest pharmacy in the UK. The best they could manage would be to order me a half litre bottle of the stuff, and the better stuff for travelling they no longer can get. They suggested trying another pharmacy who might have different suppliers.

I was reminded of Camilla's tale of how to get the most luggage onto a plane with the news today that someone had made a coat specially for this:

Apparently it holds up to 15kg, which is two and a half times some airlines hand baggage limits. The inventor designed it when Ryanair (probably the world's least favourite airline) hiked their luggage charges. It will now only be a matter of time before they introduce charges for the number of items of clothing you wear and passengers have to resort to drug runner tactics to get their luggage on board.

The sun has just come out, so I can test the latest "dadget" (Dad's gadget) - a small solar panel with built in battery that can then be used to charge mobile phones etc.

There is bound to be something I forget - one of the hazard's of growing older. One of my two most memorable faux pas were the time we arrived on a campsite in the Loire, having driven down from Paris where we were living at the time, only to find the tent poles were still back in Paris (what had actually happened was the trip had been going to happen several days earlier, but then one of the kids was ill, so the car was part unloaded, but not everything got put back in at the last minute). The second one was just as we were leaving the house to go to the airport, my phone reminded me of the flight, but showed BHX (Birmingham) and not BRS (Bristol), and BHX is 140km further away. We made it before the flight was due to leave, but not before checkin had closed. The next flight would not make the connection, and there was no connection for another two days. A bit of laptop browsing and I was able to get an Easyjet flight from a different airport, get there by train and bus, make the flight and get to Athens only a couple of hours later than the original plan. You will never not make mistakes (there is an English saying "those who don't make mistakes don't make anything) - it is how you deal with them.

But despite lists (oh yes, I have a spreadsheet with every item of underwear and its weight listed separately), I still can't help feeling that there is something I have missed.

Getting started

Although I have travelled extensively, it has been in the western world - the safe cocoons of Europe and North America, apart from an accidental excursions through the West Bank (don't believe the news - it was actually a nice and friendly place).

So with our daughter working in Rwanda (see her blog), we are taking the opportunity to pay her a visit. Now I had researched the country and some of the risks before she went - not that I could or would influence her choices, but so that I would have some facts behind any sensationalist headlines. My own view of the press is not one of high respect - at first hand I have seen events where the press reporting bore no resemblance to what actually happened. After all, why spoil fiction with facts?

So I know that despite the genocide, being one of the poorest countries, it is also one of the safest and least corrupt countries in Africa. As a country, it is showing a remarkable recovery. It is quite a densely populated country - about the size of Wales but with about 3 times the population, and a growing population.

Preparations are interesting, to say the least. Lots of vaccinations, not helped by our rabies vaccinations being cancelled due to a shortage of rabies vaccines in the UK, so a panic to find an alternative source. It is not a required vaccination, but Golden Monkey tracking, something we are signed up to do, is a higher risk activity.

We are also going to be travelling around the country for about a week of the time, and will do this mostly as the locals do - on what I am led to believe are rather crowded buses. Thus, a modest sized rucksack that can be held on your knee is what is advised by our daughter. So far, I have managed to get a week of everything I need, including all the eelctronics, down into a pack which weighs around 11.5kg - a lot less than my wallet now does. I have renewed my "man at Rohan" look, something the rest of my family disown, but then again, I have never claimed to be a fashion icon.

Preparations have also included agonising over a new camera. I am cautioned against taking an expensive camera, or a big one that is obvious. Against this, I love phototgraphy and taking pictures is one of the reasons for going. In the end, I have compromised and bought a "bridge" camera - one that looks like a digital SLR but is a bit lighter and smaller and does not have interchangeable lenses, which is where the weight of an SLR adds up. The pictures will not be quite the same quality, as the sensors used are smaller than those in a DSLR, and the low light performance is nothing like as good. However, since I will not be out after dusk most of the time, this is of less importance. What is good, is a 24x optically stabilised zoom lens. Initially I was disappointed with the image quality from my first tests, which I did in automatic mode. Then I switched to a semi-automatic mode as I do on my DLSR and the quality improvement was staggering. Test shots resolved a little of the detail of people on a hilltop 3 miles away. So it looks like I should be able to get safer shots of wildlife than with my last camera, where the black bear in Yellowstone got a little close for comfort.