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Away by 7am - and on the road to Kigali, Rwanda's capital, where Marcell was to pick up the gorilla permits.. As we climbed away from Lake Bunyoni at dawn, the early morning mist filled the lower contours of the valley. At first, the low sun gave a wonderful golden glow as it cut under the low mist, then the colour was lost as it rose higher - giving way to the grey of the misty dawn. This could have been anywhere in the Scottish Highlands, or the English Lake District. We continued on, and an hour or so later arrived at the Rwandan border, a collection of huts on a rough road, hardly what | |||||||||||||||||||||
| one would imagine for a border crossing, looking even more dreary in the early morning mist. It was only 8.30 and yet so busy, with a constant flow of people, vehicles and bicycles crossing the border. It was also a busy place for the money-dealers. Numerous locals milled around, their hands clutching wads of local currency. It was time for us to despatch our own money-dealer once again. We had a quick collection, each giving $25 to David, and he went into action seeking the best exchange rate as we acquired some Rwandan francs for the remainder of the journey, though - wherever |
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we had been on our journey, US
dollars were always acceptable. An hour later we were on the move again,
by which time the early-morning mist had cleared. Rwanda, so-called
"land of a thousand hills," was, like Uganda, very lush, with neat
terraces cultivated to the very tops of the hillsides. Tea is one of the
main crops here, and as we passed the fields were busy with women
harvesting. Four hours after leaving Lake Bunyoni, we arrived in Kigali,
and made our way into the town centre where Marcell picked up the gorilla permits for our trek the following day. |
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| We continued on our way for a couple of hours towards our destination for that day at Ruhingeri. This was close to the Virunga National Park, and was well-placed for our trek to see the gorillas the following day. On route, we stopped for "brunch." This was to be our most unusual lunch-stop, and was quite bizarre, As we drew off to the roadside, we quickly attracted the attention of many of the locals. The road was a constant stream of people on bicycles, and on foot, and as we started to prepare lunch, setting out the usual fayre of meat, salad, bread and fruit, the growing crowed became |
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increasingly curious. As we settled down for lunch we had a fair sized audience, They were quiet, saying very little. This became quite an unusual spectacle, which some of us felt we had to capture on film. Some were not too happy at being photographed - we were always careful to ask - and we readily accepted any reluctance on their part. Many however were only too ready to be photographed and the children in particular, became engrossed in the digital images we were able to show them. As we showed the images, word quickly spread, and in no time, the throng of children wanting | |||||||||||||||||||||
| to see themselves "on film," began to grow. The children were very typical - making fun of each other with hilarious laughter as each other's images were shown in turn. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable encounter - to see the joy and laughter of the children on seeing their photographs was quite special. Once lunch was completed, we cleared up, waved our goodbyes to the gathered throng, and continued on towards Ruhingeri. As we got closer we got our first view of the mountain range of the Virunga National Park - or the Parc National des volcans as it is known locally - with |
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its head in the clouds - rising to 4,507 metres (14,786 ft). We arrived at what was to be our site for the next two nights to facilitate our gorilla trek - though, as it turned out, our entire group obtained permits for the same day. The site was quite a large complex. Having camped for the duration of the holiday so far, Nancy and I treated ourselves, and upgraded to a room, to ensure a good night's rest for tomorrow's trek - our first night where we chose to take an upgrade - so we didn't feel too guilty!! |
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Other Photographs of The Day |
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