The 1000 Day Holiday

Kigali isn’t as happening as Kampala on the night life front. But it didnt matter, since I was couch surfing with Irene. A kenyan almost local.

we spent many hours at the car wash. now this sounds odd. but its also a large bar. Was great to hang out and shoot the sh!t.

saturday saw us hit new cadillac. one of the two clubs in kigali. had a blast shaking can’t dance, white ass. and attempting to out shake all these africans.

I was on a bus in Kigali the other day with Irene a local.

One of the guys sitting ahead of us said something in Kinyarwanda (the local language) that neither of us understood, apart from he included the word mzungu (white person, ala me). everyone laughed and turned around and looked at me.

A girl sitting close to us asked Irene if she uinderstood what was said. She didn’t so she translated for us.

“Times must be bad, because even the white guy has to take the bus”

Quite funny really. It would be interesting to find out their impressions of western countries and how people live.

hung out with group 13 for the hour. A family of 18 gorillas. totally amazing, the baby gorillas playing around our feet. the big ones lazing around & eating. It was unreal how human like their expressions and actions were.

went completely snap happy w the camera. Here are the Pictures.

Back in Kigali for the weekend, to see what the night life is like.

Well after bussing it back towards Kampala 5 hours just to get to an ATM. managed to get a booking in Rwanda for the gorilla trek. Im now in Kigali. Headed for the Parc National Des Volcans near Ruhengeri. The same volcanos that I hiked in Uganda. Just on the other side that I looked down on from the crater! (travel time a total of around 16 hours to get to the other side of the volcano)

Doing the gorilla trek tomorrow, which everyone has raved about, even people who didn’t do it. So should be pretty amazing.

Had my biggest problem at the border/immigration to date.

The officer said it was not possible for me to be retired. And then spent about 15 minutes saying that it was not possible for me to be me. As I couldnt grow dreads like in my passport (issued in 2000). finally after giving my passport a thorough going over to see if it was fake/tampered, and consulting another officer I was allowed in.. woot! 

Well, we found fresh gorilla poo, and ate some leaves the gorillas like to eat (quite yummy!). But alas they had headed back to Rwanda.

We hiked the biggest volcano in the park, 4127m at the top. a 1700m climb over the 5km ascent. quite a gut busting/altitude headache inducing walk. 22km in all.

So am trying to organise either Rwanda or Congo gorilla permit. $500 ouch, but everyone rants about it, even people that didnt do it!

this is the Ugandan part of the park from gorillas in the mist.

Off to see i can get to see them.

be trekking the next few days.

Kampala is a cool city. very busy, but with a great feel. It was also nice to have the freedom to walk around at night.

The reason its safe? because in Kampala they believe in mob justice. So if something bad happens, say a bag snatch. the locals will chase the baddie down, he’ll be stripped naked and chased through town!

Met a crazy Yank missionary when we were on safari.

It seems that missionaries are crazy, religious or both in this case 🙂

She was trying to educate the Masai tribe she was living with not to perform female genital mutilation.

However while she was there, there was a coming of age ritual for 2 boys who were 14 years old.

500 tribes people turned up for the ceremony which involves them getting circumcised without any pain killer. It takes around 10 minutes. And if they flinch or move at all during the process they are not considered a man. And will be made fun of for ages.

Apparently one of them did so well that he was given 4 goats, a sign of being a great man. they then spend three weeks in bed, basically unable to walk.

and the missionary lady was saying. It was a beautiful ritual. BUH!

Rafted the first 30km of the nile yesterday. Some awesome grade 5 white water. And didnt get eaten by any crocs.

Uganda is amazing, really lush and green. Hopefully do some trekking in the mountains, and maybe even do the Gorilla Trek. $400USD but apparently well worth it.

And the beer in Africa is awesome, after the rubbish beer in India 🙂

Hung around Lake Navisha yesterday, went for a bike ride to get over being stuck in a van for 4 days. Ended up in town having beers with a local guy all arvo then biking back to the hostel (URGH!)

Then it looked like we were going to spend the night at the bus station as we missed 1 bus, but were saved ~1am with the arrival of another and the help of some lovely locals who got us on. There was 8 seats free, and about 30+ people trying to get them.

So we Made it to Kisumu This morning. Walked around lake victoria, Swimming left the schedule as soon as we saw the alge/foam everywhere and the nice brown colour of the lake.

Headed for Jinja (Uganda) tomorrow for some crazy 5+ grade white water.