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.