Posts From Rwanda

Last game drive (Mountain View Lodge, Rwanda)

Journal entry for Sunday 14th Sep, 2014 (day 426, miles 6,764)

This morning we got under way about 9:00 we only had a moderate drive to the local bush airstrip for a flight to Nairobi and connection onto Kigali. But even a simple drive to the airstrip resulted in some exciting game spotting. To my delight only a few minutes out of camp we came upon a Cheetah lying in the grass recovering from a failed effort to run down a gazelle. Amazingly we drove up to within 2 meters of the animal and it hardly gave us a second look. It seemed much more focused on the herd of gazelles 200 meters away. Continuing on our way to the airport we encountered Jackals, Bat Eared Fox (really cute), Elan (the largest of the gazelle family weighing up to 900 kg), Thompson Gazelle and Grant Gazelle.

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Gorillas (Kigali, Rwanda)

Journal entry for Monday 15th Sep, 2014 (day 427, miles 6,764)

Today was one of the real highlights of this trip, we were going to see (we hoped) the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda. There are a number of families of the gorillas living on the slopes of a series of volcanoes in Northern Rwanda near the border with Uganda and The Congo. The Rwanda National Parks only permits 80 tourists per day to visit these families and a visit only lasts for one hour. We booked our gorilla trek over a year in advance showing the level of demand for places. We had heard all kinds of stories about these treks, deep mud, steep climbs, long hikes, thorny bushes and stinging nettles, and rain. We had been variously advised to, wear tough trousers, boots, gaiters, leather gloves, and full rain gear. So we did not really know what to expect as we waited at the front of the lodge for our driver and car.

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