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Hello folks,
Well what a time we've had since getting to Rwanda.
Our schedule was wrong and instead of staying in the town we came out to the National Park. 3 hrs away on s***ty narrow winding roads in the dark with 100s of people walking along with no lights. Goodness knows where they were going.
We did an 18km trek the next day- after 6.15 am breakfast ( need to be at Park HQ at 7 am each day ) to see where Dian Fossey lived for 18 yrs studying the Gorillas before she was killed. Her house has gone , but she's buried next to her favourite Gorillas.
Then yesterday we had a 6 hr trek to see a family of Gorillas, where we saw 7 Gorillas between 1 - 5 metres away. Not like the 7 metres they said we had to maintain.
The teenager was cheeky and rushed us several times, I got a wallop on legs- scary! Courtney got a gentle brush from the baby while we had our backs turned trying to pose with the Silverback.
They were very laid back, was fabulous to see them. You get 1 hr with them then must go. There was a young Australian girl there, doing her PHd in research, for a yr, lucky her!
The fee is $500 to see them, covers the compulsory armed guards- AK 47s I think I heard,the trackers, rangers etc.
the forest is right beside farm land and there has been conflict between cows getting in the forest and buffaloes coming out into the farms, so there is now a 72 km stone wall the whole length of Rwanda from the Congo to Uganda to solve the problem. 10% of the fee also goes to local villages for improvements like health clinics, water tanks etc.
the children wave and say hello but have their hands out - for money and food from the lunch packs. The people are curious but not especially friendly.
Typical rural Rwandans have 5 children , are very poor, farms get smaller as land divided between sons. There is no
Power in the villages so making charcoal is a big industry , for cooking.
There are 5 volcanoes so the soil is very fertile. The main crop and staple food is potato ,and they get 3 crops a year.
Lots of goats, sheep and cows too.
Not many children go to school.
Today we had a short walk to see the endangered Golden Monkey. They were very uninterested in us. It was very hard to get photos as they kept moving !
Very inconsiderate of them !
So an amazing 3 days!
We are in a dump of a hotel unfortunately as we are here 4 nights ! Tiny window, no light , washing not drying and food not to our taste. Oh well !
Back to city tmw to see the Genocide Museum ( 1 mill killed in 100 days)
More later.
No phone reception here.
Our guide is sick so we have a useless replacement.
We are trying to organise to post out climbing clothes and boots home tmw. , not sure it will happen.
Xxx C and C
Ok, back.
We are now back in the city. We went to the excellent museum giving the history and facts of the 1994 Geniocide of Tutsis by Hutus. It also covered some of the other Genoicides in the 1900's.
We are in quite a nice hotel thank goodness.
Off to Zanzibar tomorrow and hopefully some sun and beaches, after a horrible 5 hr layover in Dar Es Salem airport.
C
Love to hear from anyone on my travelsim
- comments
Deb Hopkins you sure get about...$500 to see the Gorillas, wow I am not sure I would pay that as there are other animals and places on my list...but I am so pleased you are doing and getting to see what you like :) be safe D