Shine on you Crazy Diamond

Fabulous camping spot

Thunderstorm

 Lilongwe 24.02.2012

And suddenly I’m all alone again. The last week has gone extremely fast. We’ve had many kilometers to do, so it’s mainly been driving. Initially we wanted to go west through Tanzania, but we soon figured, that way might not be too passable in the rainy season, so in the end we decided for the long way around, getting all the way east to Morongoro.

One of the pleasant things with this decision was that we had some more time with Jeremy, who unexpectedly caught up with us at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania. Things had not worked out for him in Gisenyi. We split in Morongoro, after having witnessed a beautiful evening light with thunderstorm all around us, and the following night, a thunderstorm with hail of several cm. diameter. It’s beautiful, but not always practical when all gavel-roads turn into mud, and your tent is wet every morning.

From Morongoro we went via Iringa to the Kitulo NP. We were a bit annoyed by the pricing-system, where you pay 20 USD for 24 hours in the park, but camping is 30 USD, so effectively you pay 50 USD for 24 hours, or as we did camp outside, and only spend the day (fee is for single entry, so they really make life hard for you). Kitulo is not the typical NP with game and the likes. It offers good trekking-opportunities, and now in the rainy-season it is supposed to be bursting with flowers. We saw some flowers, but not the colored fields we had hoped for. The area is nice though, but overpriced.

The last two days we spend in Malawi. We had one afternoon at the lake, with was lovely. The beach is nice, like in Gisenyi, but the water is much warmer, and more pleasant to lie in. If you avoid being eaten by a crocodile or crunched by a Hippo, you’ll have a good time.

Wombosi has been a good boy, staying strong, now when we could not afford much time-loss. Roger has naturally also been a good boy. We’ve managed to spend almost two intense months together without any fighting. For him the highlights were being in South-Sudan, meeting Ekke and climbing an active volcano in Congo. We (Wombosi and I) will miss him a bit. Usually I am glad to be on my own again, because a (short) visit “disturbs” the routines you have, but after such a long time I guess we’d made different routines. Still it’s going to be good to be in solitude.

Ahead lays Zambia. I’m going to take it slowly, fuel being a big expense, so doing 300-500 km every day, like the last week, is not in the budget. Zambia has not much to offer except for NPs though, and those I’ve done, and will do with Daddy and Mparany, so the Victoria-Falls will make the next highlight. I will just go slowly and live the overlander’s life.

Next week;)

Rocky landscape

Jeremy with proof of hail

Cool 1

Cool 2

In Kitulo NP

Orchids

Roger enjoys the view

Bookends

Sunset over Kitulo

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Jeremy

Posing kid on the beach

 Kigali 16.02.2012

This Week has been a lot of waiting, but we got a nice reward in the end, so to sum it up, it hasn’t been too bad.

We planned to climb the Niarangongo on Saturday the 11^th. Jeremy arrived in Gisenyi on Friday in the evening, so everything was set except for the Visas. Roger and I got our Visas on Saturday, but Jeremy’s did not come at all. On Monday we finally got confirmed something we’d expected for some time. They had messed up with Jeremy’s Visa application, and forgotten to send it to the authorities, so the process was not even started. At that point we’d already decided to go without Jeremy on Tuesday if he couldn’t come by then, and so we did.

But waiting was not all we did in Gisenyi. Being camped on the beach of course gave us a lot of “beach-time”, but due to personal preference and rather chill and rainy weather we dropped the common beach activities like sun/water-bathing. A lot of time was spent reading, some repairing tent and chairs and some cutting my hair. I gave Jeremy a go, who’d never cut someone’s hair before, and demanded half-long overland style. First he made it half-long, and then he tried to make the overland style. In the end he said I’d gotten the half-long hardcore overland style, which was fine with me.

We also used the time to do two trips around Gisenyi, along the Nile-Congo-Trail, a trail along the Lake Kivu. The landscape was beautiful and we found a hot spring and a waterfall.

Tuseday we were finally set for Congo. Jeremy was sadly left behind at the border, while the two of us and Wombosi crossed cost (except prepaid Visa) and hassle-free. Soon after, we were standing at the foot of the Niarangongo, Roger in his Istanbul-shoes, which gave him quite some trouble, and I in my Namibia-shoes who behaved much better.

And off we went with two rangers to climb from 1900 meters altitude to 3470 meters. Getting up took us about four hours, and at first sight we were disappointed at the sight. Instead of watching the volcano, we relaxed and sent out a couple of Valentine-sms’, because you’re not in DRC too often. When night came, we gave the volcano another go, and this time it really impressed us. The Niarangongo is not an active volcano in the sense that it spits and grows, but it has the biggest lava-lake in Africa, that glows and smokes. We obviously spend some time sitting on the edge of the crater taking plenty of pictures, until we got really cold and crept into our sleeping bags.

Yesterday we got up early, and descended in only two hours. Before noon we were back in Rwanda after yet another trouble free border crossing. We said goodbye to Jeremy and headed for Kigali, were we first went to the genocide-memorial, and then found a nice American pastor who let us camp in his garden. If everything goes smoothly, we’ll be in Tanzania tonight.

The Genocide-memorial here in Kigali is a really good museum (even to European standards), and it is free of charge. It tells the story about the Rwandan genocide, where the Hutus (a people) slaughtered 800 000 or more Tutsis (another people) within only three months. The story is terrifying, but to see how Rwanda has managed to get up after this incident in 1994 is incredible.

What happened here was really bad, and can easily be compared with the holocaust in Europe or what the Red Khmer did in Cambodia, which is systematically whipping out a people (or group of people) in the cruelest way without regarding gender or age. Many Tutsis were cut up with machete, kids beaten to death and women raped in front of their children, and yet the Rwanda you find today is peaceful and quiet. There has been a lot of focus on Rwandans as one people, and healing the wounds not by revenge, and it works. Rwanda is really a remarkable country to African standards, with a history and a present that impresses. We’ll leave Rwanda with a positive feeling. The land of the thousand hills in friendly. 

Kigali

Lava-lake 1

Lava-lake 2

After the haiscut

A plane-grave-yard in Congo

Our spot on the Gisenyi-beach

Roger at the top of the Niarangongo

Lake Kivu

The land of the thousand hills

Almost there

Time

Full as usual

The banana carrier

 Gisenyi (Rwanda) 09.02.2012

We left Kampala and the crazy boda-bodas (moped-taxis) on Friday. On Thursday we had visited the Mabira-Forest with Ekkehard (Ekke). The Forest itself was a disappointment, presumable because our guide took us to the wrong way, but the day was great. We spent a couple of hours in a beautiful café in the forest, drinking tea, talking well and watching the apes jumping from tree to tree.

To be back on the road was fantastic. It is hard to describe how immensely I enjoy driving through Africa at a medium pace, looking at the people and the landscape, listening to music, talking or just enjoying the quiet. It’s such a worry-free life. Hakuna matata, even though the breaks still don’t work properly. Hakuna matata, even though the swamps were too expensive and the cave not accessible at dusk and dawn when the bats come and go.

So off we went to Fort Portal, full of ideas of what Uganda had to offer. That things turned out to be too expensive for us or not available at all was surprisingly enough more to our amusement than to our disappointment. What we did have, was an amazing camping-spot just outside Queen Elisabeth NP, in the wilderness. Some whiskey made the spot even better!

The following morning we met an elderly Englishman with an elderly Land-Rover at the gate to the Ishasha part of Queen Elisabeth. Instead of visiting the tree-climbing lions, we tried to help the gentleman figuring out what was wrong with his Landy. That afternoon we had a beautiful drive along Bwindi Impenetrable NP.

The rest of our week has been spent figuring out the easiest way to climb the Niarangongo, the active volcano in Congo (DRC). We spent two days in Kisoro, organizing, and have now headed to Rwanda, to cross the border to Goma on foot. We’ll probably be climbing the mountain on the 11^th, if we get our Congolese visa until then. Jeremy will be joining us, caching up with us here in Gisenyi on the 10^th.

In Kisoro we were so lucky to stumble across a group of American girls. On Monday evening we sat until after one in the night outside our tent (easily the latest evening we’ve had) talking and (of course) playing guitar and singing. It was refreshing to meet a different kind of people than what we’ve met the last weeks.

Rwanda has also been a good experience so far. The border was very smooth, and the landscape beautiful. For African standards Rwanda is an extremely clean and ordered country. Ekke described it as Africa’s Singapore, and that’s not too far from the truth considering that plastic-bags are forbidden, and you can be fined having one=). The first night here, we camped on a beautiful spot in the forest, and now we’re camped on the public beach of Gisenyi, and (it seems) legally so.

This morning we were woken by the alarm of Wombosi. We raced out of our tent to see that one of the back windows had been opened. The thief had disappeared, and with him Rogers Leatherman. We were lucky though, not to lose more. He could have grabbed one of the camera-bags, and if it had not been for the alarm we’d be much poorer now. The rest of the day has been beachy; swimming, sun-beading, reading e.t.c.

The last week has for me been one of the best, not because of what we’ve seen, but because of the time we’ve had, the people around me (Roger of course most importantly) and the enormous feeling of freedom and safety. The blessings to take it slowly many westerners have forgotten, these days. Good temperature and nice sceneries add to it. It is incredible how good package-soup and noodles taste, even the third evening in a row. 

Looooong horns

Roger in beach mode

Ape

A brilliant spot to camp

Ekke

Our beach

The Happiest Days of Our Lives

Colorful guy

 Kampala 01.02.2012

Uganda is an absolutely beautiful country. You get gas and bread everywhere, the landscape is nice, the wildlife good and the Ugandans themselves are incredibly friendly. I’ve heard that they are thieves and liars as soon as money is involved, but my own experience down here has been splendid so far.

We had a relaxing day of planning in Juba last Tuesday, getting our clothes washed, the car clean and reading guidebooks and maps. Our first destination in Uganda was the Murchison-Falls NP. We got there on Thursday and spend two full days in the park. The main attraction is the fall, which was impressive enough. The other thing, that I enjoyed at least as much was the game.

We did two game-drives, and even if we were unlucky with the cats (we only spotted some lions quite far away in the grass) we had some nice encounters. The absolute highlight was a meeting with a small group of Elephants. They crossed the Road only two or three meters ahead and behind of the car. We had turned off the engine, and were surrounded by the huge animals for some minutes.

In the park we also met doctor Ekkehard, a German doctor on tropical medicine, who has been around in Africa for over 30 years, and has worked in as many African countries. He actually joined us on our second game-drive, and could tell us amazing stories. He has also given us a lot of ideas and inspiration on what to do here in Uganda. It’s a shame that our time here is quite limited due to Roger’s flight from Lilongwe. I think I’ll have to come back here and track around for some weeks or even months.

Ekkehard has also organized the place we’re living here in Kampala. We have stayed here for some two or three days to fix Wombosi a bit. He needed a general service, and the breaks finally needed some tending to. We’re staying at a friend of Ekkhard’s place. They’re both crazy about African art, so this place is full of sculptures and statues.

As you can read between the lines, we have had a splendid time. Not just have our western friends (Margo in Juba and Ekkehard here) been an absolute blessing, but also the Ugandans have made our time great. They are always smiling, asking how you are doing and helping us out with whatever little we need. In the evenings we have not wild-camped (in its proper sense), but have went to a Church or School or other compound and asked if we could stay there for the night, and not one time have we been rejected or asked for money for it. People even come to us and thank us for staying at their place.

Tomorrow we are heading on a day trip to some semi-primary forest, with those gigantic trees with Ekkehard. We’ll also use it as a test-drive for Wombosi. We have fixed the vacuum-pump of the breaks, but the breaks are still not functioning as they are supposed to, but they might just need some time.

The plan ahead is to use some more days here in Uganda, focusing on the mountains in the South-West. We might even wander across the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to an active volcano called Niarangongo. That would be absolutely fantastic! After that we’ll be heading into Rwanda, stay there a few days before we hit Tanzania. Tanzania will probably be a bit of a drive-through. We just don’t have the time to appreciate everything as much as it should be, but I guess that says a lot about how blessed we are. Anyways, you’ll hear from me before that time, so you can see how it evolves for yourself. 

Boooo

A beautiful Elephant! Boom boom

And we met at the middle...

Reflections

"New" license-plate-number

At the falls

Thompson

Bird riding a warthog

The wave

Freshly "showered" by the falls