Uganda / Rwanda - July 2013

How Adorable is He!

Following in the steps of Jean and Dick (Keith's parents), we decided to book a two week safari to see the gorillas and chimps in Uganda and Rwanda.  After doing some considerable research, Shawna landed on booking with Volcanoes Safaris who operates a 12-day trip in the two countries and owns their own lodges.

Accommodations:
Chez Melissa - We stayed with Melissa and Sebastian for one night in London in their beautiful four-story home.  They have the house rent-free as Sebastian is an expat in London working for Fiat. 

Chez Charlie - We stayed with Charlie for one night in London in his pad in Camden, a young, hip neighborhood of London.  He had welcomed us to his apartment by decorating it with American flags to celebrate Independence Day.

Lake Victoria Serena Hotel - We stayed here one night when we first arrived in Uganda.  It is a beautiful hotel located on the lake outside of Entebbe.

Lake Victoria Serena Hotel

Mweya Lodge - Located in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. This lodge is not a Volcanoes Lodge - they put us up here as there was a problem with the Volcanoes lodge. We stayed for 3 nights. The lodge has over 30 rooms and the main building was good with a nice swimming pool. The rooms were basic but were clean and had good A/C. The showers were not hot but had really good water pressure We were not impressed with the food - there were buffets for breakfast and dinner and a menu available at lunch. There were a few dishes that were tasty but for the most part it was as you would expect when the cooking is for a large group. The dining room was not conducive for the group to eat together so we all ate separately.

Bwindi Lodge - Located near Bwindi National Forest in Uganda. We stayed 3 nights at this Volcanoes Lodge.  The lodge has 8 bandas, each facing the forest. The rooms have stone tiled bathrooms, thatched roofs and a porch where you can sit and take in the sounds of the forest. All of the meals were served in the main lodge where we sat together and this is where we could access the Internet (although it rarely worked) and charge our electronics. The staff were extremely nice and accommodating. The food was quite good. Each morning, we had a selection of breakfast items that we had to order the night before - Keith latched on to the porridge and Shawna ordered the egg dishes. Each evening, we had a choice of two appetizers and two entrees and we were served dessert. The drinks were all included and thus we usually went to the lodge an hour before dinner to have a few drinks, catch up on email and look at our photos from the day.

Bwindi Lodge

Mount Gahinga Lodge  - Another Volcanoes Lodge located near 3 volcanoes in Uganda. We stayed here for 2 nights. The arrangements for meals were the same as Bwindi. The rooms here are a bit more sparse and do not have running water - there was a squat toilet which surprisingly never smelled and they brought warm water to the room for a bucket shower. Despite it being rustic, we still enjoyed it. We met the owner of Volcanoes here who is in the process of updating all of the rooms to have running water - we all thought that, with the water problems in the country, he should leave the lodge as is but apparently not all travelers are as adventurous as us.

Mount Gahinga Lodge

Virunga Lodge - This is the last of the Volcanoes lodges where we stayed 3 nights. It is located near Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and is only 2.5 hours from Kigali so it is the most frequented lodge by travelers. It also had a similar set up as the previous lodges with communal dining and separate bandas. However, this lodge was by far the nicest. The rooms and bathrooms were huge and nicely decorated and the main lodge was also very large with a wrap around porch with views of the volcanoes and lakes near by. The food was also better here with a choice of three entrees for dinner along with the typical choice of two appetizers and one dessert.

Virunga Lodge

Hotel des Mille Collines - This hotel located in Kigali is the basis of the movie Hotel Rwanda. We stayed here one night before we flew out. The lobby is nicely decorated but the rooms are basic and the A/C did not work well. We ate lunch and dinner here - lunch was OK but dinner was terrible. While the food was OK, the service was 'dead slow'. We had to ask them to do everything such as to bring our wine, pour our wine, take our orders, bring our food and bring the check. It was quite disappointing considering the history of the hotel and that it is considered the second best in Kigali!

Activities:
London:
We had a few days to kill before our safari started so we decided to spend two nights in London before heading to Africa to catch up with a few friends.  We left Denver on Wednesday evening, flew through LA (yes, in the opposite direction but it was a free flight) and then on to London.  We almost missed our connecting flight in LA due to the plane from Denver being late.  We arrived in London around noon on Thursday.  Surprisingly, we slept OK on the plane, getting about 5 hours of sleep.

We met Melissa at her house and quickly showered so we could wake up.  We chatted with her for a while before Sebastian came home from work.  We all then went to dinner to the only Michelin star pub in England and had a great meal.  Both the jet lag and wine at dinner kicked in and thus we crashed as soon as we got back to their house.  Luckily, we hugged them both before going to bed as we didn't get up the next morning until 9am - apparently we were both knackered!

Keith and Rachel

After showering, we left Melissa's and dropped off our luggage at Charlie's apartment.  Charlie was studying in the library for his exam and so he left the key behind with the guard.  The guard was on break so thankfully the woman who cleans his apartment was there and let us in.  One of the older guys in the building met us and we found out that Charlie's nickname is 'scooter guy'.  We quickly left to meet up with Rachel and Oli for lunch - had a really nice lunch in the hotel where Oli works.  After lunch, we joined Rachel for one more drink before heading to the business district to meet up with Ewan for a couple of drinks.  We had not seen him in a couple of years so we caught up on his work and the family.  We met Charlie back at his apartment where we also met Sima, Charlie's girlfriend who joined us for a glass of champagne before she left for work.  We had a few more drinks at his place and then went out for dinner.  What a whirlwind day of catching up with friends!

Keith and Ewan

We slept in the next morning (this time we could only blame the drinking) and then had breakfast with Charlie before we headed to the airport.

Keith and Charlie

Uganda:
We had a 7-hour layover in Doha on our way to Entebbe which was in the middle of the night so we read at the airport and tried our best to stay awake.  We arrived into Entebbe at 1pm on Sunday - very pooped!  One our guides, Vincent, met us at the airport and drove us to the hotel.  After a shower, we attempted to go to the pool to relax but they had very few lounge chairs so we returned to the room to read.  We tried to have an early dinner so that we could crash but the restaurant only opened at 7pm so we had a beer on the balcony first.  Our dinner was tastier than we expected - we shared the bruchetta and avocado and shrimp salad followed by a chicken curry.

Keith and Aman

Uganda - Queen Elizabeth:
We started our safari by meeting the group in the lobby of the Serena Hotel. There were 8 of us in total - 4 in each Land Rover. Our guides were Amon (who drove the car we rode in) and Vincent. In our car was a woman from Australia (Elizabeth) and a woman from Pennsylvania (Stephanie) who were friends that traveled together. In the other car was a family (Pat, Anne, Catherine and Francesca) who live in New York but have lived in multiple countries prior to NY. Little did we know from day one what good friends we would become - we all traveled quite well together and by the end, we felt like family!

The Gang!

It took about 10 hours to get to the first lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park from Entebbe. Along the way, we enjoyed seeing the beautiful countryside and watching the locals in each of the towns walking around, many of them carrying very heavy objects on their heads including sacks of potatoes, 10 ft long pieces of wood, large yellow containers with water, and huge bushels of hay. A few things we quickly noticed is that the country was much more lush and hilly than we expected (reminding us of Central America) with many fields growing produce and tea and that everyone walked, sometimes up to 10 miles a day as they walked to work, school, the markets or safe water locations.

Look at What They are Carrying!

Keith and Shawna at the Equator

To break up the drive, we stopped a few places - at the equator to take a few photos and to snack on guacamole and chippati chips, at a roadside stand to try the bananas which were so sweet with a hint of lemon flavor and at a roadside restaurant to have a buffet lunch of goat, chicken and vegetables, including spinach, pumpkin and plantains. We finally arrived in the park around dusk and saw a few animals before we got to the lodge - water buck, warthog and buffalo. We checked into the lodge, had dinner and then crashed after a long day.

While in the park, we went on multiple game drives where we saw various deer and bird species, buffalo, elephant, monkeys, and baboon. On one of the drives, we saw a female lion relaxing and some young lion cubs playing in the grass. We also watched the female lion attempt to kill an injured kob but she was unsuccessful. We were all cheering for the kill!

One morning, we went to Kyambura Gorge to go chimp trekking. We had a late packed breakfast overlooking the gorge and then we drove to the start of the trek where Godfrey, our guide, took us to find the chimpanzees. After about 45 minutes of walking, we came across ~10 chimps and we spent about an hour with them, watching them groom one another, climb the trees and eat, and pound their chests and screech as they communicated with one another. We were amazed at how habituated they were - they were not in the least bothered by us. Along this hike, we also saw a few baboons, black and white colobus monkeys and red tailed monkeys - they were not habituated so we did not see them for very long.

One afternoon, we went on a boat cruise of the Kazinga Channel between Lake Edward and Lake George. We got the VIP boat which meant less people (it was the 8 of us plus another couple) and included beer and snacks. We saw a gazillion bird species, so many that we did not write down all the names but we did remember seeing pied kingfisher, malachite kingfisher, woodland kingfisher, herons, and fish eagles. We also saw a ton of buffalo and hippos and a couple of crocodiles. There were so many hippos in the water that we were amazed they didn't tip us over. Shawna tried to keep up with taking photos (everywhere you looked there was something to take a picture of) and at one point she started to sweat and got a cramp in her hand from carrying the heavy lens - Keith pointed out that this was certainly a first world problem!

Uganda - Bwindi:
It took us about 8 hours to drive to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest from Mweya, mainly due to the fact that we spent a couple of hours in Ishasha looking for the tree climbing lions. We did not luck out but we did see other animals along the way. After checking into the lodge, we got a massage which was not the best - they did not use the smooth, fluid movements like is done in the US. Instead, it was fast, jerky movements so it was not relaxing.

We did our first mountain gorilla trek here. The mountain gorilla is one of two subspecies of the eastern gorilla, and they are only located in the two places we visited.  The gorillas were endangered in the '80s, but the population has climbed from ~300 at that time to almost 900 today.  Our group was split up into separate groups as you are assigned a gorilla family based on when your permit is booked. After the orientation, we had to drive about an hour to the start of our trek where we joined 6 others who were in our group and where we hired the porter to help carry our bag and 'push/pull us' up the hills. We were trekking to see the Habinyanja Gorilla Family which has about 20 gorillas in the group, including 3 juveniles and 2 babies.

After about 30 minutes of walking, we came across the gorillas. They were mostly hiding in the vegetation, but we got a clear view of the silver back, a few females and the young ones. The young ones put on a show by climbing up the bamboo, swinging around and attempting to make a nest. At one point, we got too close and the silverback charged us - Keith had to grab Shawna's arm to prevent her from running. You are only allowed to stay with the gorillas for an hour and the time flies by so fast. They were amazing to watch and it was eerie to see how similar they are to us.

Later that evening, we all shared our stories from the day. Stephanie and Elizabeth's group ended up hiking back to the lodge where their gorilla family decided to hang out for a few hours while Pat, Anne, Catherine and Francesca had to hike up 2.5 hours before they saw their gorilla family but they were treated with seeing the silverback making sweet 'gorilla love' twice!

Farming Tea

One of the Orphans We Almost Adopted

The following day, we went on a 4 hour culture walk through the village in the morning.  Our first stop was to watch an old man making tools by heating metal and pounding it in the shape of knives or swords.  The metal was heated by using a bellow that blew air onto the fire.  A few of us took our turn trying it out.  Our next stop was to see how they make bricks from the mud - after forming them into the shape of a brick, they are put out to dry and then put into a kiln to burn for over a week.  We came across a few kids pushing a wooden bike so several of us took a turn riding this bike (which looked more like a scooter) down the hill.  We stopped by one of the orphan schools and saw the classrooms which were quite sparse.  Some of the kids were so cute that Shawna even considered adopting - thankfully she quickly came to her senses!  The children then performed for us and we took turns dancing with them.  The hilarious part was when Elizabeth and Stephanie joined them as they ended up on all fours, gyrating their hips as if they were mimicking the 'gorilla love'.  Even some of the local people were laughing!  Our last stop was to see the pygmies where we saw one of the traditional houses which was so small - we could not imagine how they lived in such tight quarters despite the fact that they are shorter.  They showed us how they make fire, demonstrated hunting techniques with a bow and arrow (we all tried the bow and only Keith and Shawna hit the target) and danced for us.  Keith did not like this part of the trip but Shawna enjoyed going to the school.

Dancing at the Orphan School

Walk in the Village

Later that afternoon, we went on a three hour hike to see a few waterfalls located in the park. We had a guide who pointed out some of the flora and birds along the way. On the hike we ran into a group that is teaching the kids the importance of keeping the water source clean and they had returned to test the water to see if they were accomplishing this. As we got to the falls, we ran into another couple who was staying at the lodge and was doing a private hike. They did not want us around as they hiked up to the falls and swam so we had to wait around for about 15 minutes until they were done. It chapped us all, especially since we had started the hike first. This then led to all sorts of theories as to why, including a possible proposal that went awry. We never did find out if our theory was true. We ended up swimming in the pool of the second waterfall which was freezing (refreshing?) so we did not stay in for long. As we were dressing, Anne accidentally flung her underwear into the water so we cracked up as Catherine scrambled over rocks to save the underwear!

Keith and Shawna - Waterfall Hike

Uganda - Gahinga:

Terraced Caldera

It only took about 4-5 hours to drive to this lodge. Along the way, we saw one of the refugee camps where some of the people who have fled the unrest in the Democratic Rebublic of the Congo (DRC) are staying. We stopped and tried grilled corn along the roadside which tasted like popcorn. The corn is drier and chewier than what we have at home. After checking into the lodge and having lunch, the group went on a walk up a nearby caldera. Shawna was not feeling well so she stayed behind. The hike took about 3 hours in total and at the top of the caldera, you could see Rwanda and the DRC. There were three calderas on top of the hill, each terraced with crops. The group sang Sound of Music songs as well as songs from other musicals as we hiked up and then down the backside. Along the way, we passed a muddy watering hole where over 200 locals were standing in line to fill up their yellow jugs with the muddy water - one kid was filling up each jug using a small cup so the process certainly was going to take some time! Apparently the safe water faucet in the village was dry so they had to resort to this.  It certainly put the problems of the world into perspective!

Carrying Water Home

The following day we went trekking to see the golden monkeys. The hike was very nice up a hill and took about 3 hours in total. We came across a swarm of safari ants which we had to run through very quickly in order to avoid them crawling up our legs. A few managed to still get on our shoes but we managed to brush them off. Catherine, however, did not go unscathed and she ended up stripping off her pants twice as they somehow had crawled up into her underwear. It was quite hilarious to watch her do the 'ants in my pants' dance! She finally got them all off and we proceeded with the hike. We found the monkeys in a bamboo forest and we stayed with them for an hour. There were about 50 of them in the group and we watched them climb the trees, jump from one tree to another, and eat. We had a few close calls as they urinated from above! Their faces are so different from any other monkey we have seen.

Rwanda - Virunga:

Keith and His Followers

It only took us two hours to drive to the next lodge, including crossing the border where we went through customs on foot. The countryside is very similar to Uganda except that there are more hills and lakes. After checking in and eating lunch, we went for a 2.5 hour hike down to the lake. We had many children following us, asking for sweeties, money and of course water. A few of the boys asked Keith for his email which he did not provide. We later found out that they send emails asking you to 'sponsor' them. At the lake, we watched some fishermen attempt to catch some fish using nets but they were not successful. There are 6 islands on the lake, with the largest including 40 people that live on the island. We watched the school kids from the island canoeing to return home as one continuously bailed water out of the boat - it looked to be a slow going process!

We ended up doing two gorilla treks here. We had only bought permits for one trek but Amon hooked us up for the second permit. He had secured one permit for us and then we both went to the park on the second day as they often have cancellations. When we arrived, he let us know that we both got permits - we were so thankful especially since we were both arguing for the other person to go if we only ended up with one permit.

Trekking to See the Gorillas

On the first day of trekking, the group stayed together. When we arrived, there were about 80 people there as they have 10 gorilla families that can be seen and they limit each group to 8 people. We were amazed at the number of people and how efficient they were in getting everything organized. Our group was assigned to see the Agashya family which has about 18 gorillas in the group including one silverback known as Mr Special (he got this name as he was famous for stealing females from other groups) and a few younger ones. Our guides were Bernice and Vincent who were very good. When we first introduced ourselves, we asked Vincent if he was excited and with a dead pan face he said "No" - we knew right then that we had a good group! It only took us about an hour to get to the gorillas as we hiked through the farms and then through a bamboo forest to get there. We watched the young ones playing as well as one female and her baby. The young ones were incredibly playful as they wrestled one another, grunting as they played and pounding their chests - it was adorable! The silverback finally showed an appearance after climbing down from his tree-top nest so we took photos with him.

For the second day of gorilla trekking, we joined Pat, Anne, Catherine and Francesca and an older Swiss couple. Elizabeth and Stephanie did not join us. This time we hiked to see the Umubano family which has two silverbacks. We had to hike up a steep hill for about 10 minutes and then along a trail for another 10-15 minutes. We then had to cut into the thick jungle to get to the gorillas. The trekkers had to use the machetes to clear a path for us - it was tough to walk through as we were getting stung by stinging nettles and stumbling on the roots. We got to the gorillas and first saw a male sitting in a thinking position - he looked quite content. We then saw a female chilling out and then came across about 8 of them including a few young ones who were wrestling and rolling around. As we watched the young ones playing, one of the silverbacks came running around the corner towards us - we all stumbled backwards to give him some room and some of us fell over. Shawna was shaking for a good 10 minutes afterwards. We followed the silverback and a few others as they moved around to eat. One of the gorillas took a long stinging nettle and then walked by Catherine and Shawna, brushing the nettle against their thighs - they stood there with mouths open squelching the screams as it was quite painful. We also saw a young one in a nest whose foot had to be amputated as his leg got caught in a snare. We were amazed at how different the experience was from the prior day - not only the vegetation and the hike but also what we got to observe of the gorillas habits.

After the hike, we drove to Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes, to see the stunning beach of Rwanda. Along the way, we saw another refugee camp, this one quite large containing refugees from the DRC - we were only a few miles from the border. The lake was not as impressive as we had formed the image in our minds but we spent a few minutes wading in the water. We decided that we wanted ice cream so we went to the Serena Hotel. Our ice cream came rather quickly but the banana splits that Anne, Pat, Catherine and Francesca ordered took a while - it first came out with the wrong ice cream and then when the waiter took it back to get it fixed, they broke a knife in the ice cram barrel so they had to wait for another barrel. We were perplexed what they were doing with a knife to scoop ice cream! We then drove around and found Amon with Stephanie and Elizabeth who had spent the day in the area and we drove back to the lodge with them. That evening, we had a passion fruit mojito at the lodge with Amon - it was quite yummy.

Refugee Camp

Rwanda - Kigali:
It took about 2.5 hours to drive to Kigali - we enjoyed seeing our last bits of the countryside and still were amazed at how many people walked and what objects they carried on their heads. In Kigali, we went to the genocide memorial telling the story of the 1994 genocide that killed almost one million people. We took the audio guide tour and spent about two hours there. We then stopped at a market but didn't buy anything. After checking into the hotel, we relaxed by the pool and read and caught up on email and then we joined Pat, Anne, Catherine and Francesca for our last meal. We had tried to reach Stephanie and Elizabeth to join us for dinner but we couldn't remember their room number and the front desk had messed up the registrations so they could not find their names to connect us.  Earlier in the day, we all swapped emails and then we said our goodbyes, saddened that this wonderful trip had finally come to an end.

At the Genocide Memorial

We really had an amazing time in Africa - the trip had a great mixture of hiking, animal watching and cultural activities. We felt that we got a good sense of the culture and the people and discussed that we want to return someday to do volunteer work in retirement.

Doha:

Keith and Hilary

On our trip back home, we had an 8 hour layover in Doha and thus we left the airport and met up with Hilary, a friend of Keith's from when he was an exchange student at the University of Surrey. Hilary picked us up from the airport (she lives only a few minutes away) and took us to a wonderful dinner at Yum Yum atop one of the boutique hotels that had great views of the skyline.  It was fantastic to catch up with Hilary!  The last time Keith had seen her was when she was traveling the states after college and was in Texas - back then Keith and Juan had rented a small Cessna plane and flew her down to New Orleans for a weekend of fun!  Hilary has been an expat in Qatar for four years working in HR, so had some great stories.  It inspired us to head back to the Middle East before she leaves so we can see Doha, Dubai, and Oman.

The rest of the journey routed us through London and Dallas (both with several hour layovers) to arrive home at 10pm on Sunday night - 48 hours after we left the hotel in Kigali. 

Keith and Shawna in Bamboo Forest

Restaurants:
Harwood Arms - We had dinner here with Melissa and Sebastian.  It is the only Michelin star pub in England.  The meal was quite yummy - we shared the wild game appetizer (which included a venison Scotch egg), lamb for our entree and almond apricot upside down cake for dessert.  We also had a couple of bottles of prosecco - surprise!

Flemings Grill - We had lunch here with Oli and Rachel.  Oli is the GM of the Flemings Hotel so we got our lunch covered.  It is a small, boutique hotel in central London.  Keith had the chicken caesar salad and Shawna had the tomato, mozzarella sandwich.

Cafe Vergnano 1882 - We had a few drinks here with Ewan.  It is a bar located in one of the business districts.

Moro - We had dinner here with Charlie.  It's a great Spanish restaurant with great food and a fun atmosphere.  We shared several plates among the three of us. 

Yum Yum - We had dinner here with Hilary in Doha.  We shared an appetizer compilation and then Keith got the chicken bryanni and Shawna got the lamb tangine - the lamb was very tasty and tender. Since it was Ramadan, we could not have alcohol but we had some refreshing non-alcoholic beverages instead.

For More Photos of This Trip:

For a Video of the Gorillas: