East Africa, Victoria Falls and Madagascar

[Fruitloop50]

We are staying at the Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel. We had booked a standard room but were given the 'honeymoon suite', a stand alone building.



There is a covered patio off the side with a freestanding bath, an open fire with plenty of firewood stacked next to it, and a small private garden.

 

[kpc]

Looks like you are off to Volcanoes National Park to see the Gorillas

A truly amazing experience which we did in November last year!

 

[Fruitloop50]

Looks like you are off to Volcanoes National Park to see the Gorillas

A truly amazing experience whch we did in November last year!

It certainly was amazing, we had no idea it would be as fantastic as it was. We both agree that it is one of the best travel experiences we have ever had

 

[kpc]

It certainly was amazing, we had no idea it would be as fantastic as it was. We both agree that it is one of the best travel experiences we have ever had

At US$1500 per pax it wasn't cheap but it certainly was an experience of a life time....especially when the Gorillas grabbed and pushed me and +1 away as we were in their way!

 

[Fruitloop50]

Accommodation at the hotel is on a full board basis. For lunch and dinner there is a choice of two entrees, five mains (including three vegetarian options) and one dessert. At breakfast you have to choose what you want for lunch, and at lunch you choose what you want for dinner. You also let them know what time you would like to eat.

The restaurant is on the first floor of the reception building. It has two walls of full length glass window and doors, the doors opening onto juliet balconies. It feels like you are in the treetops looking out over the tops of the trees.



Dinner menu

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MrF had the soup and meatball spaghetti. The soup was okay but the meatballs were dry and hard.



I had the lentil dish and the 'white chocolate brawn'.



The lentils were good but the 'brawn', which we later found out was 'brownie', was very dry and not at all like brownies we are used to.

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[kookaburra75]

Thank you for putting this trip report together. MrsK and I appreciate knowing about these types of experiences as we start planning our next 'big' tour. So much to see and do.

 

[kileskus]

The drive takes quite a long time because the road is only one lane each way, and really hilly, so often you get stuck behind slow trucks

Did you consider taking a taxi moto for this?

Will be following along, great photos and lots of interesting facts.

 

[Fruitloop50]

Will be following along, great photos and lots of interesting facts.

Thank you

 

[Fruitloop50]

Breakfast was a pretty disappointing small buffet with just a few hot dishes, toast and a couple of plain looking cakes. There wasn't any croissants or other pastries but they did have eggs cooked to order.

After breakfast Godwin picked us up to take us to the nearby Volcanoes National Park for our gorilla trek. Before we left the hotel staff fitted us with gaiters, and gave us a bag of snacks each to take on the trek, containing bananas, a packet of chips, and a juice box.

The park covers 160 square kilometres of rainforest, and besides gorillas, it is a home for golden monkeys, a variety of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.

We were put in the 'easy trek' group and would be visiting the the Muhoza family, the newest gorilla group in the park comprising twelve gorillas of varying ages. The head of the family is a 460 pound alpha male silverback called Muhoza, and the rest of the members are a couple of blackbacks (young adult males) several females, and lots of babies and young gorillas.​

 

[Fruitloop50]

Next we drove for about twenty minutes to an area near to where our trek was to start. There was a group of porters there that you can hire to carry your backpacks and help you walk if you need help. If you are not very mobile you can hire a stretcher that you lie in, and is carried by four porters. When we initially booked the trek we had requested a stretcher for MrF, as he can't walk well on uneven surfaces.

Godwin and Constantine, our ranger guide, were quite insistent that he would be okay without one if he hired two porters to help him walk instead. We think they were just trying to save us money because it is pretty expensive to hire. We weren't convinced that this was a good idea but they said that if he changed his mind during the walk they could bring in a stretcher at any time.

So I hired one porter and MrF hired two. The first part of the walk wasn't too bad, mainly on densely packed dirt that was just a bit bumpy.


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Soon it became much more uneven with a lot of different sized rocks on it. It wasn't easy so after about twenty minutes we decided to get a stretcher for MrF.

Shortly after another two porters arrived carrying the stretcher which was a big cane basket, large enough for someone to lie in, attached to bamboo poles. It had a pretty thick mattress inside it that was topped with a sheet, and had a small pillow. Soon enough he was hoisted up onto the shoulders of his four porters and off they went leaving the rest of us in their dust.


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We weren't yet in the national park and were walking through fields with a lot of locals farming their crops, several cows and sheep along the way, and a lot of eucalyptus trees. We even saw a tiny chameleon, about two inches long, sitting on a leaf.

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[Fruitloop50]

After a little over an hour we reached the place where we would enter the national park, up a few steep rocky steps. Inside the park the tracks were much smaller, steep in parts ,and many of them really muddy. The ranger guides and trackers carry machetes and just hack their way through the vegetation and make new paths where they want them to be.

After walking for about ten minutes we were told that the gorillas were very close. At this point we had to leave the porters behind with our backpacks, and put on surgical masks to protect the gorillas from catching anything from us.

A couple of minutes later we saw our first gorilla sitting near the top a tree, and then a couple of females eating and playing with each other. After observing them for a while we walked a short distance and found Muhoza up a tree. While up there he did a massive wee that was like a torrent of rain falling down. He then climbed down and joined the others who were there. He was massive.

There was a lot of others in the family including several babies who were running around and fighting just like human toddlers. They were climbing trees, pulling each other off the trees, rolling around on the ground, wrestling, and generally just making mischief.

As the gorillas moved through the forest we followed them and before we knew it our hour was up and we had to leave.







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[Fruitloop50]

I'm a pretty slow walker at the best of times, and on the way back I was going very slowly to avoid tripping over on the bumpy ground. Constantine asked me if I was okay and I told him I was fine, just being careful.

By this time MrF had been back at the start for quite a while and Constantine said the porters could bring back the stretcher and carry me for the last bit of the walk. Curious to know what being carried on the stretcher was like I agreed. A short time later the porters were back and off I went. The porters are amazing and at times virtually run with the stretcher.

When we got back to the hotel the staff removed our gaiters and muddy shoes and gave us a foot massage. Then they took our shoes away to be cleaned, and when they were returned later they were spotless.

A bit later we went for lunch.



We had the soup, beef, lentil pattie, and apple crumble. It was all delicious.

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[Fruitloop50]

That night's dinner



We had the soup, the chicken, and the brownie. The soup was good, the chicken average, and the brownie okay.

 

[Fruitloop50]

The next morning we were supposed to go on a golden monkey trek which everyone tells us is easy, but it takes the same path to the national park that we went on yesterday. There is no way that MrF could do it, and I didn't fancy it again either, so we decided not to go. Instead we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then relaxed until lunch time.



We had the soup, pork chops, and the chicken quesadilla, and they were all good.



The trees outside the restaurant are always full of black headed weavers, busy making nests.

 

[kpc]

The next morning we were supposed to go on a golden monkey trek which everyone tells us is easy, but it takes the same path to the national park that we went on yesterday. There is no way that MrF could do it, and I didn't fancy it again either, so we decided not to go. Instead we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast...

The monkey trek was difficult too esp. as it was slippery and very muddy....the golden monkeys were delightful.

 

[Fruitloop50]

After lunch we drove back to Kigali and then to the airport.

We mentioned to Godwin that we never saw anyone smoking, and he told us that smoking isn't allowed in public, and most people would feel ashamed if others saw them doing it so they only do it at home.

Also we noticed that everywhere was really clean and we never saw rubbish lying around. This may be due to the fact that single use plastic bags are banned in Rwanda, and tourists bringing them in risk getting a fine.

The airport is very small and there was no queue at check in, immigration or security. Our flight to Nairobi is with Kenya Airways on an Embraer 190, with seats in a two by two layout. It took off ten minutes early and landed seventy minutes later. On board we were given a bread roll to eat, chicken or cheese. They were both barely average.

We are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn again and caught the airport shuttle.​

 

[Fruitloop50]

At half past eight the next morning we were picked up by a driver and driven to Wilson airport, about ten kilometres away. The airport is tiny with just one gate. Our flight to the Masai Mara is with Air Kenya on a Twin Otter aircraft, a little plane with just eighteen seats in a one by two layout. The seats are pretty small but fortunately the plane wasn't full so we each had two seats to ourselves.



We took off at ten thirty, and after stopping at a couple of other airstrips, we reached the Serena airstrip an hour later.

 

[Fruitloop50]

We were picked up by our guide, Dickson, who drove us to our lodge just over twenty kilometres away. During the drive the first thing we noticed was the thousands of termite mounds, most ranging in height from two to four feet.

A short time later we stopped at a mud pool full of hippos. We didn't realise they were there at first because they were the same colour as the mud, and because they were partly submerged, they just looked like huge rocks.


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We are staying at the Mara Engai Lodge, located one thousand metres above the savanna on the top of an escarpment. It is located in the Mara Triangle, the north western part of the reserve.

On arrival we went straight to the restaurant for lunch. It is pretty big and located in the main building that also has the reception area, a bar, and a lounge. On one side there is a huge curved wall of floor to ceiling windows with a deck and further seating outside. The view is fantastic overlooking the savanna below.


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Each menu for lunch and dinner has two choices of entree, four choices of main (including two vegetarian), and two choices of dessert, one of which is always is fresh fruit slices.



We had the soup, pork chop, lamb skewers and beetroot flan.

The soup and pork were really nice but the lamb was a bit tough. The flan was pretty good.​

 

[drron]

Boy I am glad we went to Bwindi to see the gorillas. The road to the park was well made although dirt. Mrsdrron really didn’t want to go as she was in a moon boot. However they used a “sedan “ chair although it was an old plane seat.
Then she didn’t want to go because she would hold everyone up. They assured her she wouldn’t and they were right. She had to wait for us. They used 12 fellows with 4 carrying her at a time but extra crossing gullies.
Then when we were with the gorillas a young male charged her. One of her boys immediately stood in front of her.
She ended up having a marvellous experience.

 

[Fruitloop50]

Boy I am glad we went to Bwindi to see the gorillas. The road to the park was well made although dirt.

Funnily enough when we were researching this trip we chose Rwanda over Uganda because we thought the walking would be easier.

Just to clarify, if anyone is reading this and is thinking it is really hard, it won't be hard for most people. If we were twenty years younger, or even ten, it wouldn't have been an issue.

My balance isn't what it used to be and I was a bit worried about rolling an ankle or tripping. My porter was fantastic in helping me and I never felt rushed or that I was holding anyone up. We can't praise the porters or ranger guides enough.

MrF walks with a stick when on uneven ground and when we had to leave the porters and sticks behind, one of our guides took MrF by the hand and led him through the muddy tracks ensuring that he could still have a wonderful experience.

If we were ever to do it again I wouldn't hesitate in hiring a stretcher or sedan chair, probably even for me, it's a great way to travel