A long drive against the clock got us to the Rwandan border late
in the evening, and we crossed into this recently troubled country.
The country is small, very densely-populated, and now peaceful
and rather prosperous, with lots of farming, good roads and excellent
hotels!
The following day was Julia's birthday, and as planned, we trekked
high up onto the flanks of the Virunga volcanoes (3100m), in search
of Mountain Gorillas.
We found them after about three hours of climbing, and had an
amazing hour with a family party of eight or so, including a massive
200kg silverback and a tiny baby. Extremely David Attenborough!
The birding in Rwanda was very much secondary, and is actually
quite poor in this part of the country! But that was not our main
mission here - we had come for the big hairy beasts, and we'd seen
them.
Continue to wetland sites
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