Worked our way back through Kenya, first we went to our first game park in which I encountered, a plethera of zebra, buffalo and flamingos as well as a few rhinos, girraffes elephants and lions.

Moved on into Naivasha

Meet lots of cool kids here, realized I am traveling with the wrong group and touched an electric fence while looking for hippos, that had there been hippos…they would have killed me. All in good fun and moving on we entered Maasai country and the land of animals…Into Narok we went. Traveled through game parks, seeing lots of animals…the wildebeast were migrating. They really just run in a line across the Prairie to somewhere that no one knows. The lions were in full force and killing for sport. Saw a lone leader wildebeast wondering around through a killing Field of his companions. I also watched a pack of vultures clean a wildebeast to the bone in less than an hour.

I returned to Nairobi and back to James, Kuzi and Marcus. WE had a rowdy weekend in Nairobi that lacked sleep and was way too short, saw all the babes at the elephant orphanage and gathered myself for the last week of the tour. With rain in Nairobi again. We headed south…

written by  crAsh13 on August 24, 2007 from Naivasha, Kenya
from the travel blog: East Africa in 2007
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We drove like bats out of hell across Uganda to get to the Southwest corner. A place where Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were initially suppose to go into Rwanda to see gorillas. However, there were only three of us so are guide got us on a group in Uganda (I would have loved to go to Rwanda but then our visas would have become invalid...costs going up even more). So, we went to Kusoro. A small town in the corner, from the hills you could see both Rwanda and the Congo; my cell phone bounced between signals.

We stayed at a small campsite right outside of the town. It is hard to describe the atmosphere in this area. This region has seen refugees from Rwanda, the Tutsi army hid out in Southern Uganda, Idi Amin reeked havoc all over, and the wars in the Congo often pour over into this region. There was already one refugee camp with around 10000 refugees from the Congo. You could see this past on everyone's face. The tension in the air made it obvious that the past was not long ago and could erupt at anytime. At night I was actually woken up by the sound of mortar being shot into the refugee camp that was 6km away by Congolese rebels. However, all this said, there was a wedding that night and the people that came by our campsite were excited and happy. You would not be able to foresee what we would find out a week later. But first the actual trekking experience.

we woke at 4am to head up into the Ugandan mountains. driving for an hour and a half and meeting up with the rest of the group. While waiting to head out we were told that the day before they trekked for 6 hours and it rained for 4 of those hours. With doubts of even seeing gorillas, we piled into the cars. Our guides rode with us. A nice young man sat next to me with his rifle between his legs and the tip wedged into the ceiling of the car. we rode for another 15 minutes and then piled out. about four guides for six trekkers. All, but the lead guide, had rifles. We headed out. First were a series of villages, some having Sunday mass in small clay churches, in others little kids would walk with us and giggle, speaking a little English with us. We went down one mountain and up the next, on the way down that one, through the rain forest (which actually looked a lot like Washington forests) and to a stream. Here we were stopped, it had been about 45 minutes and the guide had been on his walki talki with the scouts the whole time. We were worried that maybe it was bad news...quite the opposite. The gorillas were coming towards us. We walked down the side of the stream and around a bend we almost stumbled right into a gorilla sitting on a branch right above the stream dipping his hands in and drinking. His back was to us but he immediately noticed us and moved into the bushes. We went slightly up the hill and waited. He emerged from the bushes sat down and ate right with us. We then moved up the hill and were able to watch a whole family of gorillas eat.

The funny thing about this is as we were standing watching these gorillas, we could here shouting just over the ridge. I asked our guide what was going on and he told me that it was the local farmers chasing the gorillas out of their banana plantation. We had trekked for an hour to see these creatures and these people were chasing them out of their property like crows or rabbits. Granted the gorillas were eating a lot of the bananas, tree and all. After an hour we were forced to leave, and made a different trek back. I chatted up the nice young man with the gun in front of me and learned that these rangers work f three weeks(seven days a week) and then have a week off. He told me that if he leaves at dawn he would get home at dusk that day. Interesting that this is how he could describe the distance from here to his home. Not in miles, km or time to drive. Literally if he sets out on foot how long it will take him.

We got out to the main road and it started to rain. I talked to some little kids while waiting for the car to come back. We all piled in Guns and all. On the way back, I felt it safe to ask the question, 'why the guns?' I was told what I was afraid to be true. Guerrilla fighters come over the border a lot and so the guns are for our protection.

We got back to camp, said good bye to the Doctors without Borders that I had met the night before and Kelsey and Malia returned from a trek of a different kind. They went into one of the local villages with a guy from the campsite and played with the kids, tried banana beer and talked to locals. We headed out. Our guides were set on getting out, they said for our safety but we just assumed it was their asshole ways again. However, we learned the truth to this about a week later.

Two days after we left another 10,000 refugees flooded into Kusoro and set up another camp. And an added bonus the campsite we were in actually had guerrillas come in, looking for someone. We were very lucky. I honestly know how close we were to the conflict now. An idea that excites me and makes me want to go back. an idea that scares the crap out of my parents, both my location and my excitement about it.

That is it my trekking gorillas experience. I loved it and have about 300 pictures of these mountain gorillas, 18 of only 500 left in the wild.

written by  crAsh13 on September 2, 2007 from Kampala, Uganda
from the travel blog: East Africa in 2007
tagged Uganda and Gorillas
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1. beautiful scenery (Lake Victoria and source of Nile)map2

2. White Water Rafting

3. Monkeys in the trees

4. Nile Special is brewed locally

So while in Jinja, we relaxed, met friends, went shopping in town AND white water rafted the White Nile River (beginning of the Nile river system). I fear that I could, if given the opportunity, become an Adrenaline junky like the guides of the rafting trip. The river was amazing. We started out with smaller rapids that built in intensity and forced us to work hard. Our guide was a crazy Irishmen who had no qualms with dumping us into the water. However, except for the occasional times that the entire raft went into the air and over, I managed to stay in the boat. Malia did not have the same luck and she somehow managed to go into the water on almost every rapid. Midday we beached on an island and had a lunch, followed by a slow paddle through CROC infested waters...don't fall in there.

At one point the safety boat (nothing bad suppose to happen to it) broke an ore and at another he actually flipped in the rapid. This was a little unnerving to us waiting to go through the rapid. To calm our troubled minds there we kayakers around us at all kayak times. The second you fell in they would scoop you up and take you back to your boat. They seemed to really enjoy the fact that all they did was ride through rapids all day, everyday.

Last rapid of the day, called 'BAD PLACE' it is the strongest rapid of the river and well, being badasses we decided to take it as hard as we could. I think Graham, our guide, said to be prepared to be under water for ten seconds at a time. He made us all count it out really slow so we would know how long that really is. Oh, and he said every time your head breaks the surface of the water to take a quick breath, because you are going under again. We had to walk the boat around the first part, too dangerous and prepare for the second. I think we lasted about 30 seconds before our raft was flying into the air and we were cascading into the water.

Kels shot through the rapids and emerged in calm water, not sure exactly Malia's route but I went for the entire rapid being jostled about, dunked and spun until I raft emerged, hanging onto shorts with one hand and the ore with the other. I was told I could get rid of it but it made a good weapon against the rocks I was battling. Just at the end of the rapid I felt myself bump into something, prepared for another rock I realized it was the tip of my kayak rescuer. I chose to discard the ore and keep my shorts. hanging on to him I was paddled over to a boat, Yes I was the last one of our entire group to emerge from the rapid.

A great day and beers waited for us at the top of the hill to celebrate or success.

This story seems to have a happy ending but that is not the case. The river has been dammed and the rapids have been destroyed. We got word from a friend hat they are no good now and all the rafting guides are leaving. There are so many affects of this that it is hard to focus on the good; increased electricity. Jinja thrives off of the rafting tourism and will suffer greatly if it is completely lost. As well the wildlife in the surrounding areas, as always when a dam is created suffer. I am very torn between the pros and cons of damming rivers but I know in the case of this one it saddens me. I will never again get to experience rafting that river. All things change, but sometimes you can relive experiences, not this one!

written by  crAsh13 on September 5, 2007 from Jinja, Uganda
from the travel blog: East Africa in 2007
tagged Rafting and Nile
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