Saturday, June 30, 2007

Uganda and beyond: Gorillas not to be missed.

Way back, or so it now seems, in Cape Town, we decided to visit gorillas on our way. The brochure, of the Nomad Overland Co., looked good. The trip would be from Nairobi to Uganda, which should be interesting.

We had to work out a date well into the future. We pencilled out a very sketchy timetable, added contingency (as project managers do), and blow me ... it worked out just fine. Our only commitment on the whole trip.

As departure date drew close, Deb and I became quite apprehensive. We weren't sure if we were ready for a group tour. We had become quite used to doing what we wanted, how we wanted, when we wanted. We had come across a half dozen overland trips in camps, and what we witnessed made us slightly nervous.When in Lilongwe, Malawi we read a story in the local paper by a traveller who had jumped off an overland truck trip. Too many people, partying kids, and not meeting any Africans.

But, don't panic, Mad.

The 21 seater cabin truck only has eight of us aboard. Yep, us and another six, so we had stacks of room. And thankfully, they were pretty like minded people. And no 'kids'. Patrick and Beatrice (a Swiss and a Mexican, they met in Canada at French classes! Patrick then had to learn Spanish as well, and Beatrice German and Swiss German. Some people.), Aaron (New Yorker, with a Harvard MBA), Simon and Rachael (Australian/English - who had just completed a six month stint at a school in Tanzania, and a German - Volker ( who I had to not call Homer Simpson - well he was a mechanical engineer at a Nuclear Power Station). Nice people to spend 12 days with. And we had some fun times. Apparently there were to be two more. But they had been overlanding with Nomad from Joberg to Nairobi but got off in Dar Es Salaam - they had had enough.

Just one other thing. Our confirming email advised that if permits were not available in Uganda (numbers visiting are strictly controlled) then Nomad would be applying for Rwanda. And, you've guessed it, Rwanda it was to be. Well that would be interesting. Kiwis are very aware of previous visits by Kiwis to Rwanda.

Taking the organised route was differant. Being on a 'mzungu chariot' you are forever waving to people - but with little local interaction. You are also subjected to all means of imploring eyes, pleading tones, and persistent selling. Some is sad, some is bad, but some is real fun. We hadn't experienced this when travelling on local transport - just people selling food for local travellers to feed on, not expecting mzungu. We also woke very early, and traveled late on some days. You are constantly marched along. But to see gorilla you need permits, and the sure way to do that is to go with a tour.

But the chance for some differant company was also a good thing for Deb and I. Just a breather from the intensity of just the two of us in sometimes trying situations.

The trip took us from Nairobi up the East Rift Valley of Kenya, over the equator, into Uganda (waited three hours while a customs guy tried to scam our truck driver), across the Nile River at source on Lake Victoria, Kampala, back over the Equator heading south, Lake Bunyunoni, across the Rwanda border to Ruhengiri. On roads that would best be described as testing. Except, oddly, Rwanda - they were perfect. Being a French territory for a while, it's Left Hand Drive. But except for the white NGO Landcruisers all the minivan transports are Jap imports so right hand drive. Kinda weird.

Each evening the team sampled from the range of Ugandan delights: Nile Special, Club Lager, or Bell Lager.

But coming out of the Kenyan Rift Valley and up over the Escarpment at over 2,200 meters, we passed through Elravine, and there they were! Kenyan athletes in packs training on winding hilly roads or forrest tracks. Beautiful. Poetry in motion. A few wore tracksuit tops with Kenya emblazened across the shoulders. This is the heartland, were it all happens.

The volcanic soil, rich Rift Valley is farming intense. Once down the escarpment and until climbing out the otherside, still in Kenya, are productive farms. The Rift Valley is split around Lake Victoria, and the wesetrn Rift, particulary down the south of Uganda and into Rwanda is some of the most fertile in Africa.

By the way, a correction. Rift Valley Railways is more than just a marketing venture. It was actually renamed after a buy out by a South African crowd.

And, then there is the gorillas.

A truely fantastic experience. A mountain trek for a couple of hours to find them, then you are permitted one hour with the gorillas. At one point, when just meeting them our group split and a younger male hoped out onto the track between us, stood up, looked me right in the eye, then just shoulder bumped me right out of the way, pushed past deb and Volker and went on his merry way. Cool. Then they settle down to eat, and we settle down to watch them eat. Youngsters tumble and wrestle, the grand old silver back hops up, grunts, gives his 'settle down you kids' look, and sits back down and returns to his munching on a kind of wild celery.

Did you know gorillas are identified by 'nose prints'? Fair dinkum. Each one has a unique pattern just above their nostrils. As reliable as, and much more visible than, our fingerprints. Gorillas have 95% of human DNA (chimps 99%).

Both Uganda and Rwanda have nasty recent histories. In Kampala, the parliament building is riddled with bullet scars. Idi Amin's downfall came as a result of Tanzania giving Kampala a real dust up as a payback for his invasion of north west Tanzania. Idi scarpered to Saudi, and when Obeto who Idi kicked out returned to power, Uganda erupted in civil war for 6-7 years. I'm not sure when, but parliament got shot up sometime through all this.

Rwanda's Hutu - Tutsi battle was one of histores most grusome. I've recently read the gory details - it was just brutality, butchery. A lot of signs line the roadside, in French and the local lingo, but the one word painted in red that leaps out of the print is JENOCIDE or GENOCIDE. Our guide provided a translation, and they are about orphan assistance; going forward getting over the past; reminders of a future.

My current read, Aidan Hartley's The Zanzibar Chest (2003, Harper Perrenial) covers the Rwandan genocide in depth, in his role as a journalist. Deb has already read and tells me he comes out of it a near psychological wreck. When we came through Arusha, Tanzania, probably the biggest, flashest building we saw was the UN Rwandan Genocide Trials courts.

But despite these horrible histories , and not long ago, both countres have since headed off, as if they hadn't had enough, and beat up on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Unbelievable. Same old Hutu-Tutsi pretense, but the truth was it was a diamonds grab.

The gorilla trek had machine-gun armed soldiers front and rear. Our camp also had armed guards. Our trip guides weren't comfortable at all during our time in Rwanda. But I can't report anything unusual. In fact, the resilience of human beings is somewhat amazing. I went for a walk down-town with Volker, exchanged some money at the pharmacist, as you do, and then bought some Primus beer for the crew from one hard core seedy bar. While its the Rwandan 'local', it's actually a DRC drop.

BBC shortwave told us the All Blacks had scrapped through a late win over the South Africans.

The trip had some good game drives along the way. In Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, we made use of the metal framed, wooden-lined box on top of the truck that would ordinarily store luggage when carrying 20-odd people. We lined the box with sleeping mats, stocked up on Bell Lager, and took an afternoon game test-drive of the GDVU - game drive viewing unit prototype.

A game dive at Lake Nakuru, Kenya, also provided the opportunity to tick off another critter: the rarish black rhino. While at Nakuru, we bumped into the film/support crew of Ewan McGregor and Charley Borrman making their next production 'Long Way Down'. Their African journey (apart from across the top of Africa) is near identical to ours . That is, if some of our plans for 'up North' come off, but their trip south is the same as ours. They asked us how we were travelling. 'Apart from side trips like this; independant, by public transport from the bottom to top.' "Crikey! Holy shit!" or something similiar was pretty much their reaction.

Writing about our trip is just becoming more difficult. The experiences are vast. There are learning experiences, visual experiences, cultural experiences, 'spiritual' experiences, wildlife experiences, the list goes on.

I believe I sent a postcard to my Mum and Dad with something trite like 'We are having a good time', or something. Sorry about that M&D, but at least the near 35 year tradition of a postcard from every country continues.

We arrive back to the now familiar Nairobi. An Opinion article in the Saturday Nation (30 June, p11) by J.H. Oswago caught my eye. He wrote that Vincente Fox (Mexico), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) and Mwai Kibaki (Kenya) all came to power on anti-corruption platforms. He suggests none has improved things much, and perhaps have got worse. He proposes five reasons for the failure. One, graft is institutional. Two, anti-graft institutions are politicised. Three, graft fighting institutions are poorly designed. Four, eventually the civil service co-opts the incoming administration despite the initial drum beating. But it is the fifth proposal that tells the tale:

'The political leadership either fail to master the necessary political will needed to combat graft, or, become inconsistent and ineffectual in exercing the will.

Political will is the capacity to punish, promptly, the closest kin or political confederates, of the leader, for the remotest appearance of graft. Such punishment may include sackings, thorough investigations and prosecutions, jail or immediate and public restitution.'

Anyway, the first task at hand upon arrival in Nairobi: internet. You beauty!! The Wallabies 20-15 over the All Blacks. Sweet. That deserves a Tusker.

But the real celebrating we wanted to do that night was have a nice meal and toast the wedding that day of our dear friends, Tanya and Mick. Congratulations guys.

Next: The Masai Mara, then back to Tanzania and pick up from were we left off for the tooth episode - Kili, Serengeti, and Ngorogoro Crater. The wilderbeast migration is ready to kick off.

You don't know how lucky you are, boy. You don't know how lucky you are.

Max
aka Mad



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