WEEK TWO 

We were camping in Kasese for two nights. Day eight we spent at Queen Elizabeth National Park in search of game. It was just our luck that it was raining, which meant some of the animals we're in hiding. We saw plenty of kob, water buffaloes, vultures, water birds, impalas, warthogs and monkeys. But these were not what we had come to see! After about 2and half hours or searching through the ridiculously bumpy, muddy roads, we finally found a family of African elephants. You can imagine our excitement after so much disappointment. These huge animals were about 10 meters away from our truck, it was fascinating. There was huge adults and amongst them, these tiny little elephants following their parents every move. Just as we were about to make a move in the truck, the family of 6 or 7 started walking towards us and then casually crossed the road right in front of our truck. It was fascinating to watch. 
After lunch we went for a boat cruise on the Karina channel in the same park, in search for more game. Apparently many of the animals come down to these (huge) channel in the hot afternoon for water and to cool down. But of course,because it had been raining I was a little skeptical as to how much we would see. However, I was presently surprised - for the entire two hours, we were surrounded by hippos in and out of the water. We saw more elephants grazing and taking water, more buffalo and many more water birds. 

We spent a day on the road towards Lake Bunyonyi, where we would be spending four nights. It was maybe a 400 km drive but it took us close to ten hours - the roads throughout Uganda are horrendous! Road works going on everywhere. The lake itself is actually a crater amongst forest-sloped mountains. So you can imagine how windy the roads were and how long it took us with the truck. This is where we go in search of the near to be extinct mountain gorillas. We arrived into our beautiful campsite around 530. This gave us enough time to unpack and tent up. A couple of the guys even went for a swim in the lake. We found a really cool tree that had be altered into a jumping platform, roughly 10 meters high. I ran over towards it, only intending on taking photos of the guys.. However, somehow I was convinced to give it a go myself. Fully clothed, I climbed the tree and went for it.. I had a pretty big cheer squad right behind me! The water was beautifully warm though, even so late in the day. Apparently the lake is 2km deep, so there was no chance of me touching the bottom.

We had 3 full days allocated to lake Bunyonyi and only one day was allocated to the gorilla trek, so we had the option to take part in other activities; one of them being a day trip to Rwanda. So a group of 8 of us decided to organized a driver for the day. It was a real effort though - we left camp at 0630. The border crossing was only maybe half an hour away but we had to physically hop out of our car, line up, get a stamp in our passports to leave Uganda. We had to walk across the line from Uganda. We then had to jump back into the car, drive about 500 meters through 'no mans land' (land not allocated to Uganda or Rwanda), jump back out, fill in paperwork, line up again for about half an hour to get the Rwanda visa, jump back in the car, drive another 500 meters, jump out again, show the guard our visas and physically walk across the border into Rwanda. 
The country itself is very beautiful and lush - first entering from the border you are met by kilometers of tea leaf farms and the scenery is Magnificent, watching dozens of people picking the leaves and another dozen running on the side of the road with sacks full of the leaves over the heads.   
We arrived at Kigali Memorial Centre at 1030, where the driver gave us until 1pm to complete the visit. There is absolutely no words to describe the overwhelming sense of sadness. I have visited many 'memorial'/museums similar to this during my travels, but I have never felt more emotional than I did here. even now, writing this, almost brings tears to my eyes.
The visit starts with an introduction from a guide giving details of the centre itself. We all hired a hand held device that gave an audio guide at different parts of the centre. I started outside with the mass graves to some of the unknown individuals. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and a wall full of names of those who were killed and were identified. 
Back inside, the centre was set up as a museum with various exhibits, and boy was this confronting; at many points it was too confronting. I think the hardest part to accept was that these mass killings occurred during my lifetime, less than 20 years ago. It is estimated that over 2 million Rwandans were killed - the country had a population of 7 million. The whole genocide thing just angers me; we learnt about it all during Hitler's time, but how could this have happened all over again, so recently? Locals witnessed their family, friends and neighbors being shot, macheted and raped, with many still alive dealing with this pain. 
The memorial included several videos of interviews of husbands/brothers/children of Tutsi's murdered. For many visitors, including myself, this got a little too much and tears were free flowing. Strangers hugged and consoled each other. 
One exhibit was just a room of clothing that was recovered at some of the mass graves. Another exhibit was a room full of bones - you could clearly see some skulls with machete dents, some skulls were smashed in. It was horrible. 
There was another exhibit of photos of those killed, submitted by family members. 
The last room was also hard to bear; the children's room. Big posters of these beautiful, innocent children, with placards of their name, age, favorite things to do and how they were killed. One little girl was stabbed in the eyes, while an infant was macheted in its mother's arms.  
Needless to say, it was an extremely emotionally-charged morning, all of us leaving in utter disgust. Driving through the city, it was hard to believe that anyone over the age 20 most likely had someone close to them killed. 
We then headed to the hotel where the film Hotel Rwanda was shot, where we had lunch. Apparently the actual hotel no longer exists. The  hardest thing to adjust to in Africa is 'African Time' - you can never be in a rush for anything! Because they are just sooooo slowwww! Lunch took us well over two hours in total! 

The following day we had a 0430 wake up call in order to go in search of mountain gorillas! And what an exciting day it was! 
The tour group was split into 3 groups - 2 groups of 8, and I was in a group of 6. We all went in separate cars to very separate parts of the forest to find our particular gorilla family. 
My group had to drive about 2 hours to the entrance of Bwindi national park, where we going to find the Nshongi family. we were briefed by our guide all about the family and all the do's and dont's. We had to make sure our camera flash was off (gorillas think you're throwing things at them), stay a minimum of 7 metres away from them, no loud noises, if they charge don't run. The guide was also in contact with 'trackers' .. Two guys that had been out in the forest since 430 in the morning, searching for our gorillas.
So we were off, with no idea where we going and how long we would be searching for them. Our starting point was a level of 2600 m above sea level, and we would potentially get as high as 3000 metres. The hike was a little tough, but there was a path to follow which meant the ground was quite stable - that was until we got word from the trackers the exact location of the gorillas. We got right off the beaten track, with our guide cutting off branches and twigs to make some kind of path! It was muddy, slippery, steep and full of weird bugs! But a lot of fun! 
After about 45 minutes of walking/climbing/slipping through the deep rainforest we found our family! And it was incredible! We were literally within 2 metres of these humongous creatures, we could smell them, hear them chewing their food. We were all just in awe, astonished at their calmness and comfortableness with humans. The guide would regularly make these grunting noises, which he said tells the gorillas that we come as friends, not to harm them - and the gorillas even respond! We literally just sat there, staring at their every move, for a (limited) 1 hour. We were even lucky enough to see the silver back (the leader of the family) beat his chest several times! It was an absolutely amazing experience, once in a lifetime. That afternoon and evening we spent celebrating our find with drinks by the lake and bonfire.

Day 10 I had my first sleep in this trip - 8am! I spent the day relaxing and  catching up on sleep. It was actually pouring down rain for most of the day, so there wasn't much else we could do anyway; until about 4pm when the sun came back out. So 8 of us went and hired 4 canoes to take out. And what a disaster is was - for Carolyn and myself anyway! We were the unlucky ones, to be the only female pair, and the only ones with a canoe that curved to the right. The other 3 canoes paddled out to the middle of the lake with no problems; meanwhile it took us about 20 minutes to reach the same spot. Our canoe just kept going around in circles and circles! Locals were paddling past giggling at us. In the end the others paddled off to and island, and while carolyn and I attempted to follow, we ended up giving in and let the canoe continue going around in circles while we drank beer and relaxed in the middle of the lake! It was a funny afternoon, that's for sure.

We then spent about half of a day traveling to lake mburo national park. We arrived at lunch time, so after lunch we went for a game drive - we didn't see any animals that we had already seen, unfortunately. We then set up camp right along the shores of the lake. A few of us then went for a guided walking tour back through the park lands. It was great to get up a little closer to these animals and learn a bit more about them. Around 7pm we were lucky enough to witness a couple of hippos reside out of the water and graze in amongst our camp site. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night as I was surrounded by hippos and wart hogs grazing and snoring all night long! A great experience, none the less.