We did venture to a very nice location in the farming country of Uganda. Uganda is a very green country. It rains and lot and with a temperate climate, it can be ideal for farming. At this location, on a farm, we upgraded to a room inside a house so we wouldn't have to sleep on the ground (again). This was to be the mode of travel for the last leg of the trip as sleeping bags and the set up and take down of tents got really old.
From this location, we set off on a trip to track chimpanzees, which we're told are the closest thing to human beings genetically. On this trip the group is separated into three equal groups and each group tries to find the chimpanzees and then the other groups are called to join them. We are allowed one hour with the chimps. The chimps were located after a one hour walk but because they preferred to stay in the trees the entire time we were there, the resulting photos are not up to my typical standards so please excuse them. I am including them here to record the event and show you what we saw...
Our next stop was in a remote section of Uganda at a beautiful lake called, Lake Bunyoni. One thing we could do on our day of relaxation was visit the pygmy tribe living nearby. So, off we went in the cool of the morning to observe this unique group. Of course, we expected pygmies to be rather short people but they were the same height as many of the women on our trip, which was a bit of a disappointment and we referred to them as Giant Pygmies, which felt oxymoronic, for the rest of the trip. Some photos from the boat ride in and the locals at the Pygmy village...
The pipe smoker is the matriarch of this group...
A scene along the way...
From here, we headed for Rwanda. Of course, since peace has come relatively recently to Rwanda, not many people have been there. Our first event was to go see the Gorillas in the wild but that subject has it's own blog so I will just describe what happened next. After viewing the gorillas, we headed for Kigali, Rwanda, the capital city and the scene of many atrocities during the recent genocide. We visited the genocide museum which is a game attempt by the country to remind everyone of what happened and make sure it doesn't fade from memory. Outside the museum, where many people are buried in a mass grave, there was this sign...
and this one which is part of a wall of victim's names. Unfortunately, it's only partially complete. The whole complex seemed not quite ready for prime time, yet. We did run into the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda.
After this we proceeded to our camp for the night which was in town and gave me a chance to go to the Hôtel des Mille Collines which is the featured location for the movie, "Hotel Rwanda". It has been rebuilt into a very nice, classy hotel. I took the opportunity to go to a shopping area near by wearing my new tee shirt which had one word on it, Mzungu, which means which man who travels around in Swahili. I got lots of great reactions from the locals and was very impressed with the people, the cleanliness and the layout of the city.
The trip was now in the wind down mode as we left Rwanda and headed to our last national park for game viewing before going to an action/adventure location for the last stop on our trip.
On the way, we came across these very strange steers...
Then on the the game park...
Cape Buffalo
Can you see the bird inside this nest?
Here he is on the outside...
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