Today we left Bwindi heading for Volcanoes National Park in
Rwanda. Before leaving we had a
wonderful breakfast at the lodge and said goodbye to the wonderful staff. While the lodge has capacity for 8 cabins we
were the only people staying at the lodge.
The staff did our laundry for us and they even cleaned our hiking boots
after our gorilla trek… they look new again.
It’s about a 7-hour drive from Bwindi to Rwanda, but it was
a beautiful ride. Beautiful scenery and
we passed through many villages. While
the beauty is plentiful there is also plenty of poverty.
Where the Bwindi forest ends and the farm lands begin... Incredible how the very lush forest just ends!
Uganda village:
View along our drive:
View while we had lunch...
Safety moment #3 – Davis putting our hiking boots on the
roof of the vehicle so they will dry.
On our drive today, Davis told us about his family and his
father. Davis is 1 of twelve children,
his family has two sets of triplets! He
is part of one of the sets of triplets.
All of his brothers and sisters have either gone through college or are
currently going through college. His
father was an only child, of older parents who both passed away by the time he
was 8 years old. He was left land and
cattle. Missionaries to care of him until he was twelve. At the age of twelve he decided to move to
the UK to be educated by the missionaries and he gave his cattle and land to
the government. He went back to Uganda
at the age of 21 and took over management of the school and hospital that the
government built on his land. It was
very interesting listen to Davis talk about his family!
Crossing the the border on foot in African countries is an
experience and the Uganda/Rwanda border was no different. Except we had Davis with us on both sides
which made us feel a lot better! First
stop was leaving Uganda… Davis takes us into a small office where the guy looks
at our passports and hands us a very small piece of paper. Next Davis tells us to walk across the border
first stopping at the police post, then go to immigration. He will stay with our stuff in the car while
it is searched and meet us on the other Rwanda side. Yikes!
Here we go… walk up to the police
post hand him my passport he looks at it and tells us to go ahead… not even
looking at the others. Now we get in
line at immigration… a guy hands us an immigration form and we get in line… but we don’t get right behind the person at
the counter… our mistake as two people decide to go in front of us… Ok now we
get this… Kim steps up right behind the person and we wait our turn. The guy in immigration seems to be amused by
us… hmmm! Ok we all make it through and
no one even looked at our Yellow Fever certifications. :^( Now we wait for Davis… Once he is past the
border patrol we get in the car and wait for all the paperwork he needs to
complete to move into Rwanda. Now we
need to exchange US $$ for Rwanda Francs… Davis knows a guy! So we stand outside border control exchanging
$$ on the street! We actually got a
pretty good exchange rate 730 Rwanda Francs to $1 US dollar.
Rwanda seems like a wealthier country than Uganda. Paved roads, laws that seem to be enforced
and we saw roads with sidewalks. As soon
as we crossed the border, Davis put on his seat belt and told Kim (who was
sitting in the front) to do the same… apparently seat belt laws are
enforced. The motorcycle taxis have
passenger limits, only two people can ride on a motorcycle (not 5 like Uganda)
and they must both wear helmets.
We are staying at Jack Hanna’s private cottage at the
Gorilla’s Nest, it is a two-bedroom home with a private staff and it is our
home for the next two nights. This place
is incredible!!!!
…and now for the best news, there are NO mosquitoes or
snakes here, the elevation is too high for them!
Fun facts:
- There are 800 gorillas in Uganda and 300 of them have been habituated
- A silverback weighs three times more than an average man
- Gorilla’s share 97% of their DNA with humans
- Gorilla’s spend their waking hours on the ground, but sleep in trees each building a temporary nest
Soooooo glad you have Davis with you! The border crossing sounds bizarre!
ReplyDelete