Another fairly short trip in terms of distance but long, in terms of roads and speed, to the busy town of Masindi. Geoff did some masterful driving along narrow off road tracks as the rest of us bumped from one side of the car to the other. Stayed at the Kolping Society Guesthouse in little Cottages built in pretty and amazingly manicured gardens.

We had an interesting visit to a local market which was filled with food stalls and market stalls selling a wide range of second hand clothes which had come from Europe (Click here to see the article ) Bizarrely there was also a small travelling  zoo from a local conservation project. They had the biggest python I have ever seen and brought it out to show us. I have never seen Drew jump over a waist high fence so quickly when he started trying to wrestle it back into its cage. They offered to put it round our shoulders for a photo but unsurprisingly there were no takers. It was so big that I’m not sure whether a ruptured disc or being squeezed to death was the most likely outcome.

For our evening meal we decided that the more upmarket Masindi Hotel might be a better option than ours. It’s an old Colonial hotel where Ernest Hemmingway, Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart once stayed. Our hotel (if the simple but delicious breakfast was anything to go by) might have been a better choice. The food was expensive, slow even by African standards and barely edible. Definitely pining for my tented camp now.

As we settled into sleep it became apparent that the market was also a live music venue booming with African drum and base. Not quite as relaxing as the animal noises of the last few nights but quite entertaining to listen to.

We were very sad to leave our tented camp. I was starting to get very attached. The plan was to travel to Murchison Falls but as it’s a long journey, due to the variable standard of Uganda’s roads we decided to explore en route.

Baboon Attack

First stop was Kibale forest, known for chimps, a wide range of monkeys and  very entertaining troops of baboons who hang out on the road side. Everyone was keen to pass a biscuit out of the window, I had to be “very stern” and insist that this was neither a responsible or safe course of action (in my very best safety officer voice reserved just for these occasions. ) This is because unlike the teenagers I have been to a safari park where monkeys have removed a  significant number of parts from my car and baboons are much stronger than your average monkey. Turns out they are just as quick too, as one suddenly appeared on our car bonnet. I laughed my socks off as the girls alternated between squeals of terror and laughter.

We arrived at the Kibale Forest Camp just outside Bigodi. Lovely spot with cosy tents, monkeys playing in the trees and any number of birds. The manager was very chatty and we had a really interesting discussion about Uganda’s politics and what the future might hold after Museveni. He recommended a local guide to take us on a forest walk and as he was so nice we went with it. BIG MISTAKE. Elephas appeared shortly after, he was without a doubt pleasant and keen to share everything about the forest with us but he was a bit lacking in emaothy with his guests! He asked us what we were interested in, we said primates and he preceded to give us minute detail on every single forest plant and its medicinal properties. He wasn’t entirely convincing as he reeled off a list of miracle cures for everything from baldness to impotence through to acne. He also seemed to enjoy telling us as many interesting facts about monkeys sexual habits as he could muster. We had been on the walk for at least 35 mins before we had really walked anywhere. Luckily Cara had one of her fainting episodes and I walked her back to camp with one more faint and lots of sitting down. We had quite a pleasant afternoon watching monkeys, river birds and reading.

Geoff and Drew soldiered on with the rest of the tour, the funniest part was that when they came back, Elephas trapped me and Cara in our seats and attempted to run through the entire tour. We were saved when he was called away by some fellow guides. We made a speedy escape and headed into town but as Geoff was changing his boots behind the car he snuck up and asked for a lift to town. As he began his educational program again I employed a change of tactic  and whilst trying to ignore the silent giggles around me I kept up a constant stream of questions until we dropped him off. If there’s anything you want to know about forest plants or monkeys testicles I’m your woman!!

Quick beer in a local bar, back to camp for dinner and an early night.

This is a family that has been Elephas’d:-

Slightly put off by the $140 price tag to enter the park again we decided to visit some less mainstream places. On the bumpy road to the village of Katwe eagle eyes Cara spotted several families of elephants some distance away on the lake shore. We watched them through the binos playing in the water wishing we could see them a little closer. Luck was on our side and by the time we were close to the village the elephants had made their way up the hill and were crossing the road in front of us. Elephants in all shapes and sizes, some of whom made it quite clear that driving past was not going to be an option. One local motorcyclist decided to give it a go then made a hasty retreat as Mummy elephant ran towards him with her ears flapping. We watched them for ages (too long according to Drew) before continuing to Katwe.

We purchased some fruit and ridiculously hot chillies, as I later found out when cooking dinner, then drove on down to the salt pans at the side of the lake. We passed up on an official guide and when we got down to the lake edge we found a local lady who worked one of the salt pans and she gave us a really honest and interesting tour. Click on this link Salt Pans at Katwe for a better explanation of how the salt pans are formed, the back breaking work and the health risks workers face.

Final stop was a chilled beer in the locals’ lakeside bar. These are Drew’s favourite places rather than the haunts of the Europeans on their  “African Experience” whirlwind tour.

At night as I was drifting off to sleep Geoff heard crashing in the bushes and I peered into the darkness to see an elephant family on the other side of the anti elephant ditch being pursued by rangers with torches.

I woke early in the morning to the sound of villagers banging pots and pans and blowing whistles. The elephants were back again, the sounds got louder and then the sound of gunshots. Godfrey told us that they had spent the night over the road and having been chased out of the village they had decided to wander along the road and try their luck in our camp. They reached the first tent before being chased away by gunshots. As Godfrey said “there will be a big big mess if they get into camp, there will be nothing left of it”.

The conflict between conservation and people is constant. All these countries have rapidly growing populations and the communities on the borders of the national parks are trying to eke out a living growing food and keeping livestock. The animals in the reserve are also growing in number and in the dry season when food is scarce, a field of juicy watermelons or mangoes is as irresistible to a herd of elephants as a few goats are to a hungry lion. Eco tourism brings dollars in but hardly any of that reaches the poorest people. It raises the question of whether we, with our comfortable homes, well fed stomachs, free education and health care really have any right to insist that these habitats are preserved for the animals when the people are struggling to survive. Answers on a postcard please.

 

Girls really enjoyed getting up at 6am to go back into the park for an early morning lion spot. Lots of waterbuck, kob and warthog but 2 hours later those pesky lions were still hiding. However we did get a great view of a hippo walking back to the lake to join its mates. I am guessing it was a Mr Greedy hippo who was stretching his feeding time to the max.

We stopped off at the tiny fishing village of Kasenyi  where we chatted and brought fresh veg from a tiny local shop. We saw hippos in the lake and shared biscuits with the sweetest children. People here still have very little but it’s a degree or 2 less desperate than DRC. The children want to walk with you and hold your hand but they don’t ask for anything and when you do offer biscuits you don’t worry about disappearing under a raging mob of children. Nonetheless in their ragged assortment of clothes with the tiniest of frames it’s hard not to dwell on the imbalance of wealth.

Later in the day we visited the town of Kasese where the local market was in full flow. It is surprisingly easy to self cater here but shopping isn’t a quick trip. Local stalls sell the best fresh produce but they all sell different things so you have to visit several and have a chat in each one about where you come from and how you like Uganda. Then you have to go to one or two tiny supermarkets to pick up things like pasta, milk, and cereals. It’s all an experience and I have rustled up a few lovely dinners.

Final jaunt of the day was a boat trip along the Kazinga Channel . Drew drove us there and managed to collect the first speeding ticket of the holiday. This is impressive as Geoff has usually clocked up at least one by this stage of the holiday. In her defence Geoff had told her not to worry about the signs as everyone else appeared to be ignoring them, in reality perhaps I should have sat in the front and supervised. The traffic policeman was very nice about it and was most concerned that we should not think badly of his country as a result. However he was not as nice as the army guy with him who said she was only young and had to learn about these things so he decided no fine!!! Only in Africa.

The boat trip runs along the Kazinga channel for 32k  joining Lake George and Lake Edward. It was a long lazy trip with just the 4 of us on a small boat. The evening light was beautiful and we came very close to several schools of hippo cooling in the river. The guide was great, lots of information about the wildlife but not too much tourist spiel. The driver had a disconcerting habit of chatting on his mobile whilst drifting towards the hippos. On one occasion the alpha male decided to run/swim towards us in a less than friendly manner and I managed to just about contain my desire to scream “put the bloody phone down and get away from that hippo you fool” into a mere sharp intake of breath and a slight girly squeak. Our guide chuckled and said “it’s OK we are quite safe”. Try telling that to the 13 people in Niger who died when a hippo attacked their boat!

The main attraction were the hippos but just as good were the birds along the bank, we spotted 3 species of kingfishers, cormorants, storks and best of all, African fish eagles. A crocodile on the bank was obligingly still as she was protecting her eggs nearby. As the trip drew to a close, phone man received a call and we sped back to the other bank to see a couple of elephants bathing in the river. Perfect end to the day.

 

Our plans for an early escape were almost scuppered by the locked hotel gate. However by the time Drew had re-packed her rucksack (never a 5 min task) there were a few more people around. Driving from Kabale the mountain roads began to flatten out, we passed miles of tea plantations and then in a space of less than hours drive we reached Queen Elizabeth National Park, a large expanse of savannah wilderness with the Rwenzori Mountains in the distance. As Cara asked “do you think there are elephants here” we spotted several lumbering around in the distance.

We found Little Elephant Camp easily, our tented camp bore absolutely no relation to our usual family style camping. Chairs, tables, a full kitchen, separate sleeping tent and the world’s most awesome indoor/outdoor ensuite. Our host Godfrey gave us a few tips, don’t wander off into the grassland after dark, and don’t panic if you hear lots of noise or even the odd gunshot nearby it’s just the villagers chasing away a herd of elephants trying to eat their crops!

It’s so peaceful here (apart from the elephants) that it was tempting just to stay in camp but we managed to motivate ourselves into heading to Kisenyi to pick up permits and a ranger who could show us the best wildlife spots. We were so lucky to see 2 leopards but the lion proved elusive. Lots of waterbuck, uganda kobs, warthogs and cape buffalo plus a myriad of birds. The sunset was spectacular and Drew took some great photos of the view whilst Cara and Geoff perfected their wildlife photography skills.

Drew had her first off road driving experience on her way back to camp – quite strange having a 3rd person to share the driving with.

Back at camp we revelled in the pleasure of a simple home cooked meal of pasta and tomatoes. Cara and I sat for a while chatting by the camp fire enjoying the stars.

 

 

 

Driving Across Uganda

Part 2 of our trip was a journey through Uganda. A surprisingly painless border crossing at Ruhengeri, given that we now had to export our hire car from Rwanda and then import into Uganda. We wound our way round mountain roads with thick forested hills on either side. We saw large families of baboons at the side of the road and passed through  small villages. Not many cars as hardly anyone has one, just the usual array of overloaded minibuses, motorbikes and push bikes. Eventually we arrived at Kabale for our overnight stop. Not much to write about but we did manage to purchase Ugandan Sims and get some local currency. Due in part to the frequent power cuts and the usual elongated time scales for meals we waited a record 1hour and a bit for toasted sandwiches. This was almost surpassed by the time it took in the evening  to find someone at our “hotel” who knew anything about how to order food in the restaurant or even a beer in the dusty bar. However whilst not exactly gourmet, they did rustle up (better not to dwell on where from) a lovely plate of chicken fried rice.

 

After our adventures in DRC we arrived back in Rwanda for a couple of days chilling by the lake at the Paradise Malahide Hotel on the shores of Lake Kivu. It was much needed as at least 1 member of the team (me!) could barely walk after the downhill part of our volcano trek. Very entertaining staff here, who wanted to share jokes as much as look after us. It wasn’t the smartest hotel in the world and it has to be said that I could probably have shopped and cooked in the time it took for food to arrive in the restaurant (mmm maybe not given the state of my legs!). But the location was beautiful and they could not have tried harder to take care of us. When we left they came out to say goodbye and gave us fresh home made donuts for our journey.

We did have one of our usual funny excursions to the local hot springs. First of all we walked through the village dodging a huge digger reversing at speed without too much concern for human life. It was digging up what appeared to be a really good road. Oh well TIA so who knows why? We took a wrong turn and some kind soul let us walk up through his back garden. Before our travels if someone said “let’s go to the hot springs” I would have had a mental image of some kind of luxurious spa experience but after mud baths in Colombia and hot springs in Ecuador I thought I now had a better idea. However these were a new low, the 2 baths resembled very bad home made fish ponds filled with murky brown water which I grant you were hot. Drew and I wisely chose not to partake, Geoff and Cara were more game. No photos as I am not sure the local bathers would have appreciated it.

After a 5.45am breakfast we began the climb down. Easier on the lungs but harder on the legs, we made it down in 3 and a half hours. We bumped into some Polish and American guests from Kibumba, who on our last evening seemed to think it was quite OK to talk loudly on the next table about the failings of English tourists in Poland and their dislike of all English people in general. Given that they had been chatting happily to us over drinks earlier in the evening I felt this was a bit rude. They were beginning the climb and hadn’t hired the porter packs (too mean –  they are not expensive and using porters is one way of helping the local economy, if you can afford to watch gorillas you can afford a bloody porter). “Do you think we will be warm enough with our 2/3 season sleeping bags?” “I doubt it very much” I replied with more than a small internal smile of satisfaction.

Feeling very self satisfied after our climb, we were looking forward to the short drive to Goma, a hop and a skip over the border and back to a lovely lakeside hotel in Rwanda with hot showers. Sadly this is Africa or more to the point this is the DRC and we were met with the news that due to another confirmed case of Ebola the Rwandan government had decided to shut the border crossing! So the new plan was to drive to the border crossing into Uganda at Bunagana. From there a driver would meet us and take us across another border into Rwanda and to our hotel. No problem except this turned into a 9 hour travel a- thon.

Our fellow hiker Fei was staying in Goma with a friend who worked for the UN. The little bit of English she spoke seemed to desert her with the news of the change of plan. Her luggage was in Goma, she needed to get back there and her mobile phone had lost its signal. The rangers at Virunga were brilliant at letting us know what was happening but although they speak several languages Chinese is not one of them. With Fei’s bit of English, Drew’s bit of Mandarin and my bit of French we finally got to a point where everyone understood where they were going and how. We said goodbye with hugs and “be safe”. She was a very brave lady, travelling across Africa on her own with a limited amount of English. She even gave Drew all her contact details and said if she came to China to let her know.

A change of plan!!

The first leg of our  journey involved bouncing along half made DRC roads in a land cruiser with a rifle wielding guard in the front seat and 2 heavily armed jeep escorts in front and behind. A little scary, not least because at one point as we hit a particularly large pothole Drew and I flew up banging our heads on the iron roof bars. On the plus side, we went into the park headquarters in the Rumangabo sector of Virunga National Park, which is currently closed to tourists because of safety concerns about the road journey from Goma. After a quick stop at HQ we headed further into rebel territory feeling reasonably relaxed with our armed entourage until we passed a UN military convoy which had fully armoured vehicles and soldiers with much bigger guns. Not feeling quite so relaxed now!

Driving through the “Red Zone”

We passed a lone soldier carrying a huge RPG on his shoulder, we couldn’t tell which side he was on but we hoped he was from the Congolese army. On the 3hr trip (that’s one hell of an African massage) we  got to see much more of DRC than we had planned and I can tell you that as well as being utterly poverty stricken, wrecked by years of civil war, corrupt government and being a pawn in the political games of the rest of the world, it is one of the most beautiful countries I have seen. It suffers from a lack of roads, basic health care and education. We passed at least 10 NGO built schools on the journey all of which were closed up. The reason being that the school isn’t free because someone still has to pay the teacher and provide equipment. These people are barely surviving, they have no money to spare for education. In spite of this ordinary people are friendly, curious and welcoming. All the people we met in Virunga thanked us for supporting their tourist industry in spite of the risks and asked please could we tell people about our trip and ask others to make the journey. Also full marks to the park rangers for making sure we got to where we were supposed to be safely. Drew, Geoff and I were sorry to leave and would like to come back and see more. Cara is still hankering after a normal family holiday in Tenerife.

We finally reached the first border and I am happy to note that this was much more as I had imagined. Numerous forms to fill in (what do they do with them?) much waiting around, requests for money for no particular reason from a random policeman and then we were in Uganda. More waiting, this time for a motorbike courier to arrive with the relevant visa forms to stick in our passports. I’m guessing not too many Europeans use this border. With all our luggage loaded and mercifully on tarmac’d roads we made our way to the Rwanda border in the fading light. Immediately the housing improved, there were proper roads and hordes of uniformed school children walking home.  How can 1km make such a difference?

An hour later, more paperwork and the joy of having to empty most of our bags for the smiling Rwandan border guard and we are almost back where we started, apart from another 3hr road journey. Whilst searching through our luggage the guard picked up Geoff’s electric toothbrush and wanted to know what it was. It didn’t have the toothbrush head on it and he really didn’t want to accept that anyone could brush their teeth with a rotating metal spike. All credit to my lovely girls who were still remarkably chirpy considering we had been awake since 5.30am and had had nothing to eat apart from sharing a couple of cereal bars since breakfast.

At 8.30pm we arrived at our lakeside hotel, Paradise Malahide, where we were well and truly welcomed and taken care of. Our hire car had been delivered earlier in the day, hot showers, clean beds, a lovely dinner and best of all a cold beer was waiting and funniest of all they had re-opened the crossing at Goma 3 hours earlier.

An early start, back in the truck complete with armed escort, on our way to climb Mount  Nyirargongo. At 3470m rising above Goma and the shores of Lake Kivu it is one of Africa’s most active volcanos. It’s a 6 hour climb to the top and then an overnight stop on top of the cliffs above the crater rim. We did hire the “full porter pack” so we didn’t have to carry all our gear but even so it was a really tough 2000m altitude climb. There are 4 rest stops en route with a lunch break at point 3. Between 3 and 4 I felt more than a little broken, everything hurt but by this point the only way was up. The rest of the family were going strong and the guides set a really steady pace, I worked out that we stopped for a breather about every 1500 steps so it was just a case of putting one foot in front of the other. By the time we got to rest stop 4 we could see that the summit was just a short (although very steep) climb and life seemed much better. Cara sprinted up the last part like a mountain goat. She was at the summit by the time I was a quarter of the way. My porter walked up with me and several times refused to go past, he was very young, suffering with blisters, with a huge pack on his back but stuck with me, chatting in broken French. As with almost everyone we have met here he was softly spoken with a gentle manner. When we reached the top we high fived and I gave him some plasters and painkillers to help his poor feet (all the guides climb in wellies which can’t be the most comfortable). 

The view at the top is like nothing earthly, it’s very cold and sheer grey windswept cliffs plummet into the main crater which is at least 600m deep with an average diameter of 1.2km. It’s like a huge natural cauldron of bubbling lake of lava stew. The surface pattern swirls in a constantly changing pattern as blackened crusts of magma collide, crumble and melt, spewing bright red jets of molten rock up to 30m high. It conjours up images of Dante’s Inferno or Smaug’s mountain lair. As the daylight fades the glowing lava lights up a creeping red mist. We sat on a bench with Fei a Chinese tourist who came up with us, huddled together watching the display, it was a unique experience to share and well worth the climb. We unpacked our sleeping bags and discovered that the porter pack also included warm jackets and fleeces. As we had brought our own from home we dished these out to grateful guides. The one who used the super warm furry hooded one wore it with the hood up most of the way down the mountain the following day. As we unpacked our bags Geoff discovered that his new cold weather base layer was in fact a short sleeved t-shirt (having discovered the previous day that the other one only had 3/4 sleeves). Much hysterical laughter followed at his expense.

Nyiragongo

Dinner was quite astounding, soup and bread followed by pork, chips and ratatouille all cooked in a tiny hut over a charcoal grill. After a final death defying (thank God for head torches and caring daughters) trip to the pit toilet perched on the edge below the cabins we snuggled down fully clothed into warm sleeping bags and drifted off into an exhausted sleep.

Hello and welcome back to Cara’s truthful words of our adventure. So far I have loved Africa. We started off in Kigali which was a beautiful place. The people were lovely and very friendly. We weren’t too far from the shopping mall and cafe so we never had to walk too far which always ticks my box, we found a SIM card easily with no hassle and the food was brill (chicken burgers and chips). After a few days we got a 3 hour taxi ride to the DRC. The DRC border was nothing like I expected, quite disappointing actually. I expected to cross like some sort of bridge with barriers either side. Instead we had our passports stamped, sat in an office and then off we went. Going through Goma was very different indeed. Loads of kids waved, lots of traffic and people and generally quite a hectic place. We soon arrived in Virunga national park… WOW. I love it here even more than Kigali. Our camp is amazing, last night we were given hot water bottles before going bed. We even have a bathroom and shower with hot water. Glamping is the life. The kids here are so cute. Today we went for a walk and we brought back are own troop probably with 30 kids or so. Everyone is so excited to see you as they haven’t seen many white people before (mzungu). We visited a school, a tree tomato farm and the village houses.  Tomorrow we tackle  Nyiragongo volcano. An active volcano with a 6 hour walk to the top. Not sure if it will be the funniest and most exciting thing in my life however I think that the top will be spectacular and I will never see a view like it again. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the holiday has in store for us, hopefully not too scary however I’m sure with the decisions my family make some I will disagree with and others I will be up for. Thanks for taking the time to read this post full of the real facts about our holiday rather than Mum’s ever positive spin.