Rwanda

We always knew that Rwanda would be a highlight of our time in Africa and we can safely say that it has both met and exceeded every expectation we had. Known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, Rwanda is literally covered in them. Even though it doesn’t look it, Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in the world given its small size. Every square inch of land possible is used for farming which coupled with the rains leads to a very green and picturesque country with stunning scenery of endless terraced hills and tea plantations wherever you look. The population, on the outside at least, appears amazingly to have moved on from the horror of the 1994 genocide with the unbelievable ability to forgive at its centre. Whilst it is clear that the people do not want to forget what happened with memorials scattered all over the country and people still being tried in traditional village courts for the parts they played, they are determined to not let it get in their way or more importantly to ever let it happen again.

Arriving in the capital Kigali, it is clear to see that the country has benefited from a considerable amount of aid and foreign investment from the no doubt guilty-feeling international community that stood and watched the genocide take place. Apart from soaking up the atmosphere, the only real tourist attraction Kigali has to offer is the genocide memorial museum. Outside in the beautiful memorial gardens, strongly scented with the smell of jasmine, are the remains of more than two hundred and fifty thousand victims of the genocide buried together in mass graves. Inside is an incredibly informative account of why the genocide happened which, news to us, stems back to the 1950s before Rwanda's independence when it was a Belgium colony and the Belgians played on ethnic differences to divide and conquer the population. The government blames the Belgians for categorising the country along tribal lines which they say led to the years of tribal conflict, culminating in the brutal genocide. It was impossible not to end up in tears at the first hand accounts given by survivors who lost their families, and even more so at the details of some of the children who suffered. After also learning about the other 20th century genocides that the world has witnessed, we left feeling very low.

The Parc National des Volcans in the northwest is home to around three hundred and fifty of the seven hundred or so remaining mountain gorillas in the world which can only be found in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The stunning park is made up of the rainforest covered Virunga volcanoes which seem to disappear in the clouds most of the time, hence the title of Dian Fossey’s book, Gorillas in the Mist. The trek to find our assigned gorilla group took a couple of hours up the dense bamboo and jungle covered steep slopes of Mount Karisimbi with the help of several trackers and their machetes. It is difficult to describe the feeling when you first see the human like mountain gorillas but it had us almost in tears for the second time in Rwanda. We were lucky to be visiting the Susa group, the largest in the park with forty nine members including four silverbacks. The experience of spending the allowed one hour amongst a mountain gorilla family, just several feet from them in their territory is beyond words. The similarity to humans is so evident and the connection one feels from their gaze so great that the wildlife experience really is like no other. The youngsters fooling around playing tug of war and wrestling with each other, the females nursing their very young and the silverback male just kicking back and relaxing. Overwhelmed by it all and after a climb up one of the volcanoes (Mount Bisoke) the following day to see its impressive crater lake, we decided that one visit to the gorillas wasn’t enough. As luck would have it, there were some permits available on our third day in the Virunga and after a two hour clamber through the mud and vegetation of the rainforest, we were standing with Group 13. Whilst a much smaller group than the Susa group, the gorillas were much more active with the dominant silverback having a few issues with one of his females that day who seemed to have more control over the group than he would have liked. This led to the 200kg pure muscle male charging several times, once less than a metre passed a petrified Susie. We really cannot recommend the experience to you all enough. Before leaving the volcanoes, we visited a traditional village in the area complete with a resident healer, Intore dancers and drummers and banana beer brewery. Whilst totally laid on for tourists, it was an ingenious conservation idea with the village being run by ex-poachers from the forest so that they too could benefit from tourism - a cause we were more than happy to support.

Some amateur video footage we took of the gorillas:



After the high of the gorillas, we headed to the enormous inland sea that is Lake Kivu for some relaxation and stopped at the lakeside villages of Gisenyi, Kibuye and Cyangugu. Whilst we had heard good things about Kibuye, neither of us could believe how spectacular the scenery was with a coastline of steep terraced hills, numerous pine covered islands protruding from the blue watered lake and the volcano filled backdrop provided by the Democratic Republic of Congo. Susie relished the beach time and after eight busy weeks on the move, it gave us our first chance to properly relax for a couple of days.

Our final stop was the high altitude and primate rich Nyungwe rainforest in the southwest, one of the oldest in Africa. As well as trekking along its misty ridges and tumbling forests, we tracked a group of five hundred Angolan colobus monkeys, the largest arboreal primate troop in Africa. Sadly the chimpanzees escaped us by moving too deep into the forest.

Whilst not the easiest place to visit as an independent traveller, the effort was truly worth it as Rwanda really is a beautiful country, East African in feel yet somehow different to the others.

Click on the album cover below to see some more of our pictures from Rwanda.

Rwanda

Having touched north, west and east Africa, we are now heading south to Zambia where we are renting a land rover to drive ourselves down to Cape Town via Botswana and Namibia.

Ishi and Simone - sending you all our love on your wedding day, sorry we can't be there to share it with you!

We hope you are all well and thank you for all your news!

Lots of love,
Susie and Dan xx