Hello again!

So from Kabale in Uganda, we crossed into Rwanda for the main purpose of visiting the mountain gorillas. First though we stopped in Kigali (the capital) to visit the genocide memorial. Luckily we'd watched Hotel Rwanda in Kabale (as apparently its illegal to watch it in Rwanda!) - the memorial was really interesting and pretty scary at the same time (in that that much hatred and inhumanity can develop in such a small area), so I'm glad we'd stopped off. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the actual hotel, but we moved onto the gorilla national park. Oh my god, words cannot describe how amazing the mountain gorilla trek was. It cost a lot of money, but we managed to get so close to the gorilla families, and watching them was just awe inspiring. They did get a little close and personal at times (at one stage one was running towards us, and there is a brilliant photo of me and two of the girls trying to run through a bush to get out of its way!), but it was a great experience. I'd actually managed to slightly rip my trousers on the trek there, and after our bush clambering moment, I managed to completely flashed my turquoise underwear to the gorillas (which was maybe why they got so active!).

After a couple of days in Rwanda, we headed back into Uganda and visited Lake Bunyoni. We went to a local orphanage (who Oasis help fund) and also swam in the lake. I jumped off a 10ft high platform into the lake (to access the platform you had to climb a tree - I was a little scared to say the least, especially as you had to jump in a particular direction to avoid the reeds and rocks!), but I managed to do it (plus kept my bikini on!). From Lake Bunyoni, we travelled to Kampala and then back into Kenya to Lake Naivasha to visit Hells Gate National Park. Hells Gate was amazing - its one of the only national parks which you can cycle through, as there are relatively few predators apparently! It was so cool, as we were cycling through the park with zebras, warthogs, giraffes etc just grazing on the side of the road. The scenery was also beautiful, with massive cliffs overhanging the scrub land. In the park, we also went for a hike through to Hells Gate gorge which apparently was the inspiration for the Scar and hyena sections of the Lion King, plus a scene in Tomb Raider. The gorge was really cool to walk through, so all in all, I loved Hells Gate :)

From Lake Naivasha we drove onto Nairobi, marking half way of our trip - see you at the next blog!