Cape 2 Cairo 2 Cape Blog

By 7:30am we were locknloaded and hanging out in the parking lot of the Hotel Des Mille Collines (in Kigali, Rwanda); “home sweet home” as some of us put it, having stayed there more days than any other place. We were all hanging out in the parking lot, preparing for the journey ahead of us and waiting to hear about K’s KTM shock. We didn’t want to leave our comrade behind so we decided to stay another half hour to see what would or wouldn’t come out of the proceedings with his shock.

At about 9:30am, knowing very well that we would have a very long day ahead of us, we sadly said good-bye to James (who was going to take an R&R day at the hotel and leave for RSA the next morning, and then onto Mozambique, his home. However, fortunately, James did suggest that he would take care of business and probably join us again once in Malawiwith either his other KTM 990 or 1100 GS!) We also left behind K, who went to the office to check on his shock and who would have to play catch up to reunite with us along the way. The plan was to leave Kigali, go through the Mbarara border post into Uganda and onto Jinja, past Kampala (700kms in total).

Ule with his police clearance scrap paper

With Archie in front and Ule and I at the rear, and the back up vehicles at the back of us, we finally hit the road. By the time we got to the border post, K sent word that he had gotten a hold of his shock (yippee) and had left Kigali around 11:15am. We went through our usual proceedings: filling out our exit cards, getting our visas stamped and changing our money into Ugandan shillings once more (of course, the exchange rate had changed again and needless to say, not in our favour). 

Meanwhile, at the Ugandan immigrations office, Ig had issues with the authorities because their colleagues on the other side had stamped the wrong visa. A small error, caused by their own neglect and idiocy, became a 20 minute long controversy. Ig had the right amount of visas, and it was just a matter of stamping the earlier visa (since the more updated one had already been stamped by mistake), but no, the immigration officer needed to take a while to “understand” and ask his colleagues why such a problem occurred. Anyway, we were soon on our way once again (driving once more on the left side of the road; compared to the right side in Rwanda). Seeing that it was going to rain (and not wanting to make it more difficult for Ule on the bike, I decided to return to the Headhunter, bribing my way back in with chocolate!

Just a few kilometres from the border (while Marlene gets knocked out for the fourth time by a helmet that shuffles out of place in the IVECO with the tremor caused by the uneven roads), a truck had slid and overturned into the side of the road and a tow truck was blocking the entire passage. Trucks, busses and cars filed up behind the tow truck waiting to get across. It was overcast and started to rain lightly. While waiting for something to happen, Jacques and I took out the masques and snake to entertain or should I say scare the villagers and children gathering around the Headhunter. [The Silverback was missing its top right side mirror having clipped a passing truck on the road]

Uganda is a beautiful country, with pastures, banana plantations and rolling hills as far as the eye can see. However, unlike Rwanda, the streets are rather filthy and disorganized. Despite the fact that we had already journeyed on the same road to go to Rwanda, it all seemed different and we all had altered impressions and came across diverse obstacles on the way to Jinja. We all waited on the side of the road, overlooking grass and swamp lands, while Ande and his buddies helped him change and fix his punctured tube.

While everyone was busy with Ande’s tyre, I gave an IVECO shirt to a little boy to replace his torn one. He was so reluctant and shy to accept it that Marlene and I helped him put the shirt on and took pictures thereof, with the villagers gathered around looking on.

Coming into Mbarara, it was raining harder and there was lightening in the distance. We stopped at a petrol station to refuel and get some snacks and drinks to re-energize. Once stopped, we realized the trailer tow bar of the Headhunter had broken off and with the help of the motorcycle riders; we hooked it onto the Silverback, while under the rain and being attacked by swarming mosquitoes. In the Headhunter itself, we had ourselves a wonderful picnic, opening cans of tuna with our leathermans, eating chips, rice crackers, mango jam, and bread and sipping on our drinks.

A few kilometres away, we passed an accident (head on collision between taxis); I doubt anyone survived. This just goes to tell you how dangerous these roads are and how your concentration needs to be spot on the entire way from point A to point B. Traffic here is highly undisciplined with trucks, busses and bora bora’s overtaking while going up hills and at upcoming bends and corners, pushing you and oncoming traffic off the road if need be. Let’s play chicken in other words.

As it being a Sunday afternoon, we hit Kampala during rush hour. People were out and about in town (despite the rain) and traffic was hectic (even though we had taken a road southwest of the main road ofKampala). The music in the pubs and discos was blaring, the smell of maize and meat cooking was poignant in the air, and the bora bora’s were zooming away with their passengers. It was already dark and hard to see oncoming traffic. Trucks and busses were overtaking each other on either side, as we were, pushing oncoming traffic to the side. The roads were becoming slippery and we remained on high alert as a consequence. Just thinking about the motorcycle riders and especially K, doing it on his on, was nerve-wrecking as it is.

After the bridge, going into Jinja, we took the dirt road up to the River Lodge, where we were supposed to stay the night. Much to our amazement, the motorcycles had not yet arrived. We were worried for we couldn’t reach them over the radio. After the staff told us that the lodge was closed and otherwise fully booked and after Ray decided that it would be too difficult and an absolute nightmare for the motorcycle riders to go up the slippery dirt road to the lodge itself, we decided to return towards the main town of Jinja and hopefully regroup at a petrol station.

We started down the muddy road and ran into our motorcycle riders, quite wired as well as covered in mud. Archie, Brian and Kenny had fallen over (Kenny’s fall having broken off his tool box). We helped them turn their bikes around under the rain and down the slippery hill to the paved road. We stopped at the IGAR petrol station where Ray organized the Muslim owner to reopen his kitchen and serve us some much needed chow and coffee and tea. The owner even went out of his way to check out some hotels that could accommodate us at this hour (being almost 11pm). Meanwhile, Marlene was desperately sending K smses and voice messages to inform him of our new plan.

We arrived at the Hotel Paradise on the Nile. After signing in, we all left a trail of orange mud behind us as we walked up the stairs and through the corridors to our rooms.

Ray and Jacques went to the IGAR petrol station to wait and look for K, while Ig and I waited patiently in the parking lot of the hotel for their return. Much to our relief, after an hour and a half or more (time just becomes blurry as fatigue settles in), around 1am, Ray and Jacques returned with K. Our birthday warrior had made it, having gone all the way to the River Lodge himself. He was literally full of shit (covered with mud from head to toe). Nevertheless, he was safe and had made it..we all were safe and survived the long and gruelling road to Jinja under the rain, in the dark and after succumbing to many an obstacle.

Breakfast at Peace Guest House. Smallest, sweetest (as in taste) bananas. We have an hour or so to mess around:

• KTM being repaired
• Marlene was attacked by a crow
• Excellent photo opportunities of Lake Kivu
• Chat with Pierre Robert from Canada. He is doing an around-the-world trip all by himself. He has been stuck at Cyanguru for 3 weeks trying to get a visa for the DRC. Has been in the road for 8 months!
• Jacques, Sakkie and James had a technical maths conference with Innocence – the waiter at the guest house re the exorbitant cost of a bowl of scrambled eggs ($25). After several sums and comments regarding Innocence and Guilty – the price was dropped to $15!

Lock and Load! Rock and Roll!

James is on the KTM – his face is beaming – think the hours in the truck have been getting to him. 10kms later, the KTM gave up the ghost … and James was back in the back-up vehicle and the KTM was back on the trailer.

We saw several convicts dressed in orange or pink doing manual labour on the road. “Orange” convicts are individuals who have been tried and convicted of crimes during the genocide. “Pink” outfits mean that the ‘convict’ was involved in the genocide … but the individual felt that it was
the right thing to do – to volunteer and pay his dues.

210 kms to Kigali – back to 5* everything

K celebrates his 56^th birthday tomorrow – so he took all 15 of us out to dinner. Loaded in the vehicle: “9 seated passengers + 0 standing ONLY” – all 15 of us fitted.

We went to a restaurant, “Heaven”, down the road. Jacques was in heaven and broke into song: “I’m in Heaven”. We had a great meal … superb service and cuisine.

A special moment when the restaurant staff marched into the restaurant bashing pot lids, spoons and all kitchen equipment singing “Happy Birthday” in French and English. Think a few of us had lumps in our throats.

Yesterday morning we had ordered a cake from Des Mille because we assumed we would be in the DRC for K’s birthday and we wanted to do something special. So this 40cm² sponge cake had the royal seat in the back-up vehicle – surrounded by pillows, extra clothing and propped up by luggage. Precious cargo carried 600km (and into the DRC). Then we brought it all the way to the same hotel that baked it.

We say farewell to James – he flies out on Monday for Jo’burg and then on to Tete in Mozambique (his home town). Was great having James with us – great sense of humour and masterful mechanic and a gentleman of note. Rumour has it that he may join us in Malawi…

Awards given:

1. James gave his floating trophy to Kainan … for the great part K plays in the team
2. Garth gave Andre the award for the huge amount of effort and skill Andre puts into his photography – there are certainly going to be some award-winning shots.

Great evening…

Tomorrow:

• Lock and load by 08h00
• K is going to try to get his rear shock from KTM (Sunday – and they may not release it)
• Leave for Jinja in Uganda (another border crossing)

Some scribbling from the back of the back-up vehicle reflecting on how we see different individual in the group:

James:

J              Jubilant

A             Always “Tea, Please”

M            Maps

E              Eccentric

S              Small Packer

Andy:

A             Alexandria??

N             Never in a mood

D             Drinks coffee

R             Road videos

E              Endless Skype

W           Wealth of knowledge  

Arch:

A             Always “Tea!”

R             Robust mechanic

C             Charismatic

H             Hells Angel

I               Instigates pranks

E              Expressive

Speak again when we are online

Farewell Rwanda … the possible Singapore of Africa … you have touched our hearts. We have learnt much from you about suffering and reconciliation!

After a yummy buffet breakfast at the Hotel Des Mille Collines (in Kigali), we were locknloaded and refuelled. At the same time, we sadly had to say good-bye to our beautiful Alta, once again, who has been a great support to the team and whom we consider part of the group.

At 9:30am, it was time to rocknroll out of Kigali towards the west, to Cyangugu (now called Kamembe in the Rusizi District), via Butare, approximately 300kms in total. Ray finally got onto the KTM, first time on a bike since our departure from Cairo. As our Commander in Chief, he led the front of the pack while Arch took the rear. Die Hard style, Ray was the only one riding in shorts and a t-shirt while the rest of us had our protective riding gear on. Ule had kindly offered to take me on his motorcycle once again (since I’m such a fantatic of motorcycles).

It was an absolutely beautiful ride through the hills and mountainsides through windy, paved roads; that were in overall very good condition..with occasion potholes that each rider respectfully pointed out to the next in line as we were passing through. We passed hundreds of villages with villagers either shocked or excited to see us (shrieking with exhilaration or bewilderment when they realized a female was riding behind Ule).

We passed thousands of pastures, agricultural plantations of maize, bananas and rice. Rwanda is a stunning country and the Rwandans have gone through great effort to turn the country around since the Genocide of 1994..clean as can be and hard at work in turning the country to one that all of Africa can look up to. We stopped on several occasions to take in the beauty of the scenery.

We stopped on the side of a hill top to take some pictures, shortly reunited with the Headhunter and its passengers. Needless to say, a crowd gathered around us, staring, checking out the motorcycles and IVECO and thinking who knows what. As we were taking pictures and taking a rest, with striking silvery blue eucalyptus plants in the distance, Jacques and Archie all of a sudden scare the entire crowd (women, men and children combined) by taking out our “pet snake”. They all enjoyed the farse! 

A few kilometres later, we stopped on the side of a road surrounded by bamboo trees as the KTM was giving Ray some problems. Once more, the KTM was loaded onto the trailer.

Again, after another few kilometres, under Ray’s direction (now on the BMW and Archie in the Headhunter), we stopped at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda, Ethnographic Museum, for those who wanted some cultural education, followed by a stop in town for some snacks and drinks.

Kenny, are keen rider, always joking around and smiling, except when he's tired of course

Ande, riding smoothly as he usually does

We rode through the Nyungwe National Park were we enjoyed a spectacle of dense tropical forests on either side, as far as the eye could see. On one side was to be the Nile and on the other the Congo River(however, the vegetation was so thick and bountiful, we would never be able to spot them).

The vegetation was so opaque neither Marlene nor I would ever be able to find a clearing to do our “business”.  The roads were beautifully paved until the last kilometres where the Chinese and Rwandan and Congolese workers were constructing and refurnishing the road (gravel, potholes and mud).

Just as we passed through an arch with a sign thanking us for travelling through the Nyungwe National Park, the forest changed into a tea plantation (Gisaku) so vast you would have thought it would never end. The supervisor of the tea plantation and its workers was quick on his feet and insensitively barred us from taking any other pictures. I had a word or two with him in French; basically letting him know-how ridiculous he was to object tourism and a friendly conversation. It was nevertheless a breathtaking view with the tea plantation and solid jungle in the backdrop with a menacing sky and loud thunder building up in the distance.

Several kilometres away from Cyangugu (or Kamembe), a bora-bora infiltered himself into the motorcycle file, taking over Brian in second position, as the rest of us struggled with the potholes. Needless to say, Brian started competing with him, desperately trying to regain his position behind Ray. It was quite a funny exhibition of egos (whether one sided or not!!)

As we arrived into Cyangugu, we could see the magnificent Lake Kivu on our right, with the late afternoon sun reflecting off of its surface. We first went through the Rwandan border with the authorities getting restless because we weren’t taking the right entrance into the office area. After half an hour, we finally went on to the Bukavu border post where the chief in command greeted us with disdain.

So close but yet so far:

James did not have a visa for the DRC (since he wasn’t supposed to still be with us at this point in time). I desperately tried to convince and negotiate with the commander in chief in French..explaining that it was perfectly normal to buy a visa (or even a temporary visa) at the border. I was in-between immigration and customs with issues arising as they usually do in the DRC (please understand, it is a backward country and there is never a moment of peace, but it is a country worth visiting for its beauty is beyond words. It is still a wild frontier and not for the faint hearted and definitely requires a lot of patience). At the customs office, the lady wanted to charge each biker a $15 entrance fee, but yet had not resources to stamp the carnets. I convinced her that it wasn’t the normal procedure and after she checked, she agreed to drop the entrance fee. The carnets remained unstamped!

The chief of command, on the immigration side, was ready to say good-bye to all of us since we wouldn’t leave our comrade behind. He didn’t care whether or not the DRC was losing out on 15 tourists and their money. The debate went on and on until I convinced him to call his boss, who himself agreed that James could buy a temporary visa, valid for 14 days. However, they were asking for $300 ($250 for the visa and a $50 entrance fee). Needless to say, that was an exaggerated and ridiculous amount that James would never agree to pay, even so for only a one to five day visit. I tried negotiating the price down to $100 but no can do. We all had our passport entry stamps cancelled, and headed back to the Rwandan border where our passport exit stamps were also annulled.

We drove a couple of kilometres to the Peace Guest House, owned by the Anglican Church of Rwanda (on Lake Kivu), where Ray negotiated a good price for our rooms. We were all very tired and hungry. We waited two hours for our buffet to be set up, but what a delicious buffet it was (steak, chicken, coleslaw, French fries, spinach, thick pancake, scrambled eggs and the most delicious sauce). Everyone ended up going to bed content and with a full stomach (well, except for Jacques and Ray who seem to be taking coca-cola as a substitute for food). [Note: the windows open towards the inside due to the mosquito net fixed on the outside. This is definitely mosquito country..and you can only imagine what dangers come with that. Everyone sprayed their rooms religiously and popped their anti-malaria pills quite hastily]

Last day in Rwanda – riders attended to their bikes.

1994 … heartbreaking!                                                     

Most of the group went to the Memorial Centre:

Extract from “Jenoside – Kigali Memorial Centre”

In 100 days more than 1 000 000 people were murdered. They killed one, then another then
another … day after day, hour after hour, minute by minute. Every minute of the  day, someone, somewhere was being murdered, screaming for mercy.

Receiving none

And the killing went  on and on and on…

10 000 each day

400 each hour

7 each minute

The results:

There were over  300 000 orphans and over 85 000 children who were heads of
households. There were 1000’s of widows.

Many families were totally wiped out, with no-one to remember or document their deaths.

The streets were littered with corpses. Dogs were eating the rotting flesh of their owners.

The country smelt of the stench of death

The genocidaires had been more successful in their evil aims than anyone would have dared to
believe.

RWANDA WAS DEAD.

James looks spiffing with his new hair cut – compliments of Jacques

Zozo – a survivor of the genocide gave us a talk. The hotel we are staying in was the venue where 1200 families of Tutsi and Hutus stayed here as it was said to be a place of protection

Group meeting so we could consider the route from Rwanda. Anticipated route:

26^th -> Bukavu (DRC) next to Lake Kivu

28^th -> Northwards on teh west side of Lake Kivu

29^th -> See where the mood takes us

Many options:

Back to Kigali -> Jinja; Jinja -> Arusha; Arusha -> Makume; Koronga; Senge; Livingstone; Namibia; CAPE TOWN.

Challenges: some of the road; no fuel in Malawi (but can carry extra fuel with us)

Good-bye to Alta – she has spent 10 days with us and has to go. We are going to miss the superb outfits she managed to put together … while the rest of us wore clothes for the third time. Alta is sad to leave – but family commitments call.

19h00 met to go to The White Horse Restaurant. Excellent dinner and we got the chance to bogey. Never managed to get K or Andy or Andre on the dance floor.

The owner of the restaurant Gaperi Edward has helped us over the last few days with spares and contacts. He is the biggest BMW dealer in the area and is working on setting up a bike hire component to the business. In so doing, he will facilitate bike touring in Rwanda. gaperiedo@yahoo.com

20h00 – sleep

Tomorrow:

09h00 Alta leaves

09h30 lock and load and leave for the DRC

%3

Hotel Des Milles Collines (Hotel of Thousand Hills translated from French)

4:30am (GMT+2) departure from Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali, with our Toyota bus driver named Bonaventure (good adventure when translated from French) (Volcano Express company), to go visit the gorillas. It was a two hour drive to the Volcanoes National Park. One could already see the towns people and villagers walking along the street, going to work, and going to the fields with their machetes and farming tools. The drive was beautiful as the sun was coming up in the background; shining upon the pastures, tea, potatoe and banana plantations, with steppes of crops, planted up on the hills and mountain sides.

We arrived at the Volcanoes National Park where we were offered tea and coffee and provided with Rwandan entertainment, while the guides, trackers and drivers organized people into groups of 8.

The organization of the groups was a bit chaotic so I tried to push things along with the “boss” on the side using my French. Our group of 12 (Alta & Sakkie, Marlene & Kenny, Garth, Jacques, Ande, Brian, k, Ule, Andre and I) was to be split up into groups of 8 and 4; where 4 of us would join up with another group of 4. With a whole convoy of 4x4s and our bus, the Volcano Express, we went on our way up the mountain to where our starting point (or hike to see the gorillas) would begin. The road to the starting point was really intense and rocky and although our driver was doing an excellent job, it got stuck on the rocks half way through. Fidele (Loyal when translated from French), one of our guides, organized for all of us to jump out and placed us in other people’s 4x4s for the rest of the way up. The group of 8 (Alta & Sakkie, Marlene & Kenny, Garth, Jacques, Andre and Ule) were led through a different trail, while the rest of us (Ande, Brian, K and I) joined up with 4 other tourists (one couple travelling from Germany all the way through to Cape Town with their motorhome and a father and his son visiting Rwanda) and started our hike up the mountain on the Amahoro trail.

The group of 4:

With our newly made friends, our guide, Fidele, and two trackers (one with a gun), we hiked through a number of spectacular environments: villages on potatoe plantations (Irish potatoe) with the mist of the morning still lingering; bamboo and dense equatorial forests; savannahs; rocky and muddy surfaces; ortis plants (which were a nightmare; stinging through our plants and leaving behind a burning, then itchy, then tingly and numb sensation), and buffalo, mustard colour faeces.

It was a good two hour hike, up and down and around the volcano mountain (as promised and predicted by our main guide) and we finally met up with 3 other trackers, who had been tracking and staying alongside the family of 18 gorillas (consisting of 3 Silverbacks, 4 females and young ones, as young as 5 months) since early this morning. We left our bags behind and with the trackers hacking through bamboo, savannah, and vicious ortis plants; we could spot our first young gorilla five metres away. The trackers and guides continued to hack their way through the brush with machetes, making a clearing for us to stand in as the gorillas were napping and unperturbed by our presence.

Can I just say on behalf of all of us: WOW

It was absolutely mind-blowing and so humbling to be able to spend time with these majestic animals; which are really just like us human beings. We were not even 2 metres away from the gorillas: a huge Silverback resting while a female was grooming him; other females resting or taking care of the young ones while the teenagers (as they do) played around and caused havoc, shaking leaves and branches onto the adults.

I myself was confronted by a young one who came past me and rested his arm and hand on my thigh. Distracted by my camera cap hanging on a string, it started to pull and chew on it until it was gently choowed away by one of the trackers. I was also confronted by one of the young females, who came past me and decided to come straight at me and tug at my jeans.

We all had a bit of a scare when the females, carrying their small ones, came to the clearing where the Silverback and other females were resting. We were so close that they confronted us and came straight at us, standing their ground and showing us who is boss. Due to the uneven ground and small surface area where we were standing, it was quite hard for us to back up and give them room. However, we all kept our cool and slowly stumbled back to give them some space. We had regained their confidence and content once more.

The Silverbacks, females and young ones started to move about, some coming out of the thick brush, others passing through right in-between us, changing locations. It was an amazing show and we felt so welcomed. The guides and trackers were obviously very respectful of the gorillas, keeping them at ease with grunts and other familiar gorilla noises. It was a fantastic experience, one that we will never forget.

We left the trackers behind, who are in charge of staying with the gorillas until 6pm, noting their whereabouts and last position for the next morning’s group of tourists. Our guide took us on a different hike back to the starting point; one that was much shorter and with less climbing. Needless to say that the way back was welcomed for we hadn’t eaten since 4am and were out of water; exhausted with the strenuous hike to the gorillas as it is.

Vicious plant

We met up with the other group back at the starting point where our bus was ready to take us back down the bumpy road. The other group also looked quite shattered; red and fatigued, but nevertheless, amazed by what they had seen and experienced.

The group of 8:

We had “Hope” and “Clement” as our tour guides. What a great time we had. The grueling 2.5 hrs up the side of the forest took its toll on all of us … by 11h00 – some of us had lost our sense of humour.

On entering the forest – our guides heard a water buffalo – the security man rushed out the forest – almsot white with fear! In his panic he couldn’t get the AK47 to operate … we were concerned that he was going to shoot one of us … if not himself!

Finally we met ‘Charles’ – the silverback and his family of four wives and 3 babies. They were hidden in a thicket and it was difficult to take good photographs. The porter hacked through the foliage and this aggravated Charles who jumped forward and made a screaming noise. Jacques moved from a standing position to a lying pose in a nanosecond!

As we sat there quietly … some of the gorillas moved too close for comfort and we decided to move away.

The porters did a great job of guiding, carrying and pushing us through the forest … they were rewarded handsomely with US$ and huge smiles all round.

The trudging up the mountain had been worth it. A day to remember

 On the way down, a huge rock had lodged itself between the back tyres. With the help of the villagers, and after several minutes of reversing and going forward, a young man was finally able to dismantle the rock from its position. The crowd of spectators hollered with delight. After stopping at “La Palliote” for some water, beer and small snacks, we headed back to the hotel. Needless to say, everyone was sleeping, except for Ule and I cramping up as usual.

Back at the hotel, Ule and I invited our driver for a drink for his younger brother actually worked as barman at the hotel. After a quick shower, everyone met upstairs for dinner where we were reunited with the others who had stayed behind to work on the motorcycles and IVECOs (James, Ray, Arch and Ig). Arch’s BMW is back in the game. The KTM still needs some final repairs but should be back on the road by tomorrow morning. The IVECOs had also been repaired and thoroughly cleaned. Thank you to the crew (James is definitely included at this point!).

WHAT A BRILLIANT DAY. Everyone went to bed quite exhausted but highly content.

Rwandan facts:

-          Area: 26,338 sq km (47% crop; 22% forest; and 18% pasture)

-          Borders:Burundi;Democratic Republic of the Congo;TanzaniaandUganda

-          Elevation: 1,500 – 2,500m above sea level

-          Capital:Kigali

-          Population: 8.2 million

-          Languages: Kinyanwanda, English, French and Kiswahili

-          Vegetation: Dense equatorial forest in the northwest to tropical savannah in the east

-          Geography: Part of the Albertine Rift Valley; 5 volcanoes; and 23 lakes

-          National Parks:NyungweForest;AkageraParkandVolcanoesNational Parks

-          Currency:Rwandafranc (Rwf)

We had to wake up at 09h00 – but everyone was downstairs by 07h30.

Ray discussed the different scenarios for the route after Kigali:

• Congo River is no longer an option. The 10 days planned would be 20 days on a flat barge – no ablutions or food or cover.
• Also there had been an incident in which a group of tourists were all murdered (barring the doctor with the group). So Garth was alright … K mentioned that we would not have to be concerned about the likelihood of being murdered because 20 days on the barge under those circumstances would mean we would slaughter each other!!
• We could hire a house boat at $70 000 and we would have to stop at night
• The UN could assist – we would just have to make a donation
• Option to go through Tanzania
• Some riders weren’t too keen to drive the same route back

Decisions would be made when we got to Kigali @ Des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda)

The border crossing was without incident and a bit long-winded. The Rwanda side of the border was very thorough.

Did a 100kms through a mountain pass – was a hair-raising trip … Jacques had to go lie down at the back of the vehicle because he felt he was going to throw up and we got his millionth rendition of “Jesus loves me … this I know”

Des Milles Collines – was the hotel “Hotel Rwanda” when the genocide took place – it is hard to believe that this beautiful establishment was once the scene of slaughter and death! We are back in civilisation … three days of 5* treatment.

Riders sorted out bikes and we did laundry so we could have clothes for the next leg of the trip.

The Hadden-Gracie room was transformed into a temporary bar … where we polished off 1l of Johnny Walker Green – while next door the Fourie’s set up a washing line and washed all their clothes.

Outstanding venue for dinner – top floor of the hotel with a spectacular view of the city! Rwanda is extraordinary – no litter anywhere – discipline and pride run this city. Every 3^rd Saturday all citizen of Kigali (that includes the president) have to clean up! If we could get this right in SA?

After dinner – another briefing and trophies were handed over:

• Arch gave his to Ken as Ken is now ‘self-appointed’ management
• Ig gave to the passengers in the back-up vehicle and gave it to Garth to take charge
• Brian gave his to Jacques for keeping spirits up
• James gave his to K for his excellent riding.

Ken didn’t remember what he had for dinner … too much WALKING??

Sleep tight