Serengeti and Nrongogoro Crater

As soon as we left Nairobi we drove across the border to Tanzania and camped at the town of Arusha. From here I went on a 3 day two night camping trip to the Serengeti. Serengeti is a Swahili word being dry plains. The plains are certainly vast, they stretched on and on as far as the eye could see. As soon as the jeep crossed into the Serengeti my eyes were swamped with visions of thousands upon thousands of Wildebeasts. It is not the time of the annual migration so their numbers are not in the millions but there was still plenty. I also saw herds and herds of Zebras, lots of Masai Giraffe, impalas, thomson gazelles, buffalo and alot of huge birds including wild ostrich. Thaio that a leopard had ben spotted close by so we raced off. Leopards are the most difficult animal to t first eveningI was fortunate to see a herd of elephant with a handful of babies with them. One elephant was seperated from the others and we came across her later. She got that close to the jeep I was in that at one point the dirt she was flicking about her head landed in the jeep. I must admit when she was only around 3 metres away I did get a little aprehensive but she only scowled at us and walked by. Late in the afternoon a call came over the radio that a leopard had been spotted, so we raced off. Leopards are the most difficult of all the animals in Africa to find and the majority of people do not see them. We were incredibly lucky. The leopard was sunning itself on a big rock, hidden within the overhang of the rock but as we watched, she climbed out and perched herself in full sight. It was amazing. Everyone was lost for words.
We didn't think anything could top that but the following morning at sunset we came across a pair of cheetahs sunbathing then mock hunting. We followed them for ages, they are so graceful. This was followed by seeing a pair of lion cubs playing and shortly after that we came across a large male lion complete with large mane. He was laying down so we didn't have a good view but as we turned to leave he got up and we saw him and his mane in its full impressive glory. These two days in the Serengeti were simply too fantastic and awe inspiring to convey properly.
On the third day we ventured down into the Nrongogoro crater which is next to the Serengeti. It is an old volcanic crater with large grass plains inside. We desended 6oo metres and saw more and more animals, this time in such a spectacular setting. A lioness was laying next to the road, we could have reached out of the window and stroked her, but we all valued our arms more! There were black rhinos here but alas they stayed in the distance. It made no difference to the amazingness of the entire experience though. These past three days I will never forget.
From here we drive onwards to Dar Es Salem and catch the ferry across to Zanzibar where I will spend christmas.

Kenya - Gate to Hell and Elsamere

After re-entering Kenya after Uganda we made our way down to Lake Naivasha. This is a camp ground around a giant lake that is home to alot of hippo's. Thankfully the hippo's stayed in the water whilst we were there. Next to the Lake is Elsamere - this is the home of the late Joy Adamson of Born Free and Elsa the Lion fame. We visited Elsamere and partook in high tea. For a couple of hours I felt very civilised whilst I ate cakes and drank home made lemonade in the company of frightfully posh old English ladies who are trustee's of the estate! On the other side of the lake is another national park - this one is called Hells Gate - I have literally been to the gates of Hell and they are situated in Kenya. You are allowed to cycle around this park but that sounded a bit strenuous so I opted to take a gentle stroll around the Crater Lake part of the park. I walked so close to giraffes and Zebra's you would not believe it. Giraffes are far taller in the flesh when you are stood next to them to when you simply view them from a car.
From Naivasha we made our way to Nairobi and stayed in the Karen area. This suberb is named after Karen Blixton of Out of Africa fame. It was here that we had to say goodbye to some of our group, which was very emotional. Whilst based here I visited a centre for orphaned elephants. baby elephants are so adorable and have the biggest eyelashes imaginable. I also visted a Giraffe centre where they breed Rothschilds Giraffes. From a viewing platform I was stood next to the giraffes head which is the same size as my torso! The Giraffe also licked my face, I have a cool picture which I will hopefully upload soon. From Nairobi we cross the border and head into Tanzania and straight into the Serengeti. Wild animals here I come...

Uganda

My first stop in Uganda was the capital city of Kampala. Its a beautiful city, very green and I managed to do a fair bit of shopping. I even treated myself to a pedicure - who's says travelling through Africa has to be hardcore. We stayed for a couple of nights at the side of Lake Bunyoni - such a picturesque place. The lake has many islands on it. One of which is known as prisoner island. This is where they would take unmarried pregnant girls and leave them to die. If a local chap couldn't find a wife he could go to the island and take a woman if he could find one alive - nice! Another island is being put to much better use - it is a community for orphaned children, they are given homes and schooling. We went to visit the children, they were adorable but they did almost kill me in an intense game of tickling!
We also visited the town of Jinja. This is on the shore of Lake Victoria and is in fact the source of the Nile. There are grade 5 rapids here which many of our group ventured into but I gave the white water rafting a miss this time. Just to liven things up a bit, before pulling into the campsite in Jinja the group as a whole decided to celebrate Tranny Tuesday and we all swapped clothes. The boys, it has to be said, did look better in the dresses than the girls usually do! The girls got to spend the evening scrathing their crotches and burping loudly. Its fair to say we did make an impression at this particular campsite....

Rwanda - Genocide and Gorillas

We drove from Kenya, through Uganda (more about that later) into Rwanda. The countryside here is absolutely stunning, its quite a hilly country most of it terraced for agriculture with lots of tea plantations. Because of the hills, mountains and volcanoes there is always low level mist in the mornings and driving through the plantations with the rolling mist is simply stunning. We went straight from the border to the capital of Kigali. Here we stopped for a couple of hours in the Genocide Remembrance musuem. The history of Rwanda is a lesson in how appalling colonisation can be. Very brief snapshot - When the Belgiums colonised at the turn of the 20th century, they introduced identity cards. Before that all tribes had been living peacefully for 600 years, The Belgiuns split the population on nose size and how many cows a person had on a certain day. THis resulted in the ethnic groupings of Tutsies and Hutu's. Then the Catholic Church made the minority Tutsie's in charge and then the French would only grant independence to the country in the 1960's if the majority Hutu's overthrew the Tutsie's, so they armed them. There was a number of small genocides towards the Tutsie people up until the 1990's but in 1990 the Hutu goverment of the day got extreme. Through propaganda they turned 95 % of Hutu's against the Tutsie's. People who were once good friends and neighbours and people who had inter-married were suddenly hated. THe government began training people in how to kill with blunt weapons and lists of people's to be killed were drawn up. In 1994 the Genocide started. In just 100 days over one million people were killed, most in horrific and slow ways, mainly with machetes. Whole families were wiped out and still have not been identified. Eventually those in power were overthrown. The problem was then rebuilding the country where most of the small population had fled as refugees, had been victims of the genocide or had particpated in it. The museum was incredibly moving and extremely thought provoking into the depths to which some people will stoop. The following day a local gentleman in his late 20's gave us his personal account. The part most of our group had trouble with is how quickly everyone is living side by side with each other again. The organisers are treated differently but the everyday person who helped with the killings are mainly still living in the same villages as the families of those they killed. They are having to do some time in prison but mainly community service, helping to rebuild. Francis told us this community way of justice is working because the perpretrators are free to come forward and recount exactly what they did. It means the families of the victims can have closure and know for certain what happened. As I say, most of our group struggled with this, as most imagined they would want some kind of vengence but the majority of Rwandans think differently.
On a must less sombre note, my other time inRwanda was spent visiting the Mountain Gorillas. There are only 600 left living in the wild and this is mainly to do with the conservation work started by Dian Fossey (of Gorilla's in the Mist fame). The Volcanoe National Park were I went has 15 Gorilla families. 7 families can be viewed by the general public whilst the remaining 8 are only tracked and studied by the conservationists. 8 people are allowed to visit each family for just one hour a day. My group visited the Kwitonda family. There are 15 gorillas in this family including 3 Silverbacks and a two month old baby. We trekked for half an hour to the boundary of the national park, then we trekked through the very thick and wet undergrowth of the park. The nettles and thistles were shoulder height and the branches kept trying to trip us up. After just another half an hour we could hear noises above us. The Gorilla's were in the tree tops. It was amazing. Then as we turned a corner a Silverback was sat right in front of us eating away. He was not bothered by our prescene at all. He was mesmorising. It is difficult to find the words to explain what we were feeling at this point. We moved on and found another Silverback, as we were watching, the first silverback came running through the bushes and charged us - we very quickly moved back a couple of metres. Hearts were in mouths at this point. Even our guide had run! He was not being aggressive though, simply showing us he was the boss. He definately was. He was so big, and the muscles on his back so well defined. After making his point, he pissed in front of us and then buggered off. We were very fortunate in that other Gorilla's came down from the trees just in front of us, including the baby. All too quickly our hour was up and we had to leave. To say this was a magical experience is not really doing it justice - it is something I will certainly never forget. I have seen Mountain Gorillas in the wild!!!!!