Rwanda

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.