--We got up at 4 30 am (arent you impressed!) to go tracking chimps with a ranger and his team of trackers. The idea is that you walk whilst the chimps wake up and find their breakfast. Midmorning they snooze and are hard to spot. Our 6 hr walk proved worth the early start. The boys track chimps 7 days a week so were able to radio their whereabouts. After hacking a path through this dense forest we were led to the base of a tree where a huge male-size of a gorilla was plucking fruit. Whether he was more fascinated by us or us by him, not sure- but the hour we all spent together was excellent. My horror at the expense of this adventure was somewhat pacified when we learnt that most of the money goes towards preventing poaching of these mammals that are so closely linked to humans. As a bonus we also saw blue monkeys and mountain monkeys.

But back to the 14th when we crossed into Ruanda. As before we chose the smallest quietest crossing- wonderful, no hassles, no queues- we were even allowed to take pics of vast muddy torrential waterfall right on the border! Because of Ruanda's past French involvement we now had to speak in French and drive on the right. My old schoolgirl French came in use, but Rog had alternative ideas- teach them English! Actually this turned out to be useful because Ruanda wants to leave its French involvement behind- looking towards East Africa as a union where English is essential.

Well we are now in our 6th country and speaking a 4th language-swahili, portugese, french and english, not bad for a pair of oldies. Brain not too fast at addapting even tho the spirit willing. Because of our off roading in Tanzania we were absolutely filthy- red sand ingrained in skin, hair, nails, clothes, bedding and truck. The idea of pampering ourselves ina hotel with a sit down loo, running water and a soft bed was overwhelming, so off to Kigali-capital- we went. Arrived at dusk again-aaaaaaaagh, lost-stopped a copper who in turn stopped a motor cyclist, who let us follow him all the way to our hotel for a nominal fee. Brill idea. At great expense (its a very costly country, but worth it) we spent 2 nights there, cleaning up and pamering ourselves. Me with manicure, first bath since leaving home, shave legs-Rog with head inside the bakkie engine servicing it!) Gorged on wonderful food, accessed internet, filled fridge with cheeses and milk, then fully refreshed headed up into the hills with a cool altitude to chimp track.

Tuesday 20^th Dec. Border crossing Rwanda/ Uganda

Since leaving the chimps 3 days ago we turned northwards,-incidentally away from what tuned out to be the source of the Nile- following Lake Kivu its full length.   At between 6000 and 8000 ft we were actually a bit cooler- it was in its 70s rather than 90s! At night the temp dropped to under 40- quite cosy in the tent.  Lack of roads to this area makes it a disastrous place to drive to, but the scenery was stunning. At 20 kms an hour we spent 2 days on dirty, potholed gravel roads heading towards volcanoes, weaving our way around the lake inlets on hairpin bends. Scenes reminded us of Norwegian fiords and the Italian lakes. Rwanda is known as the country of a thousand hills and I think we drove around all of them! Every piece of ground (even at a 90radient) was cultivated. Rice was growing in the valley bottoms, maize and sorghum at the next level, then bananas and finally tea and bamboo on the peaks. The given effect was like a patchwork quilt, and with us arriving at the ends of the rains (thank goodness) all crops were growing vigorously giving a green lush appearance. An unforgivable sight around one bend in the mist was that of the 3 large Volcanoes which border Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.  That would be our next visit

Rwanda is a heavily populated country, despite losing millions in the genocide of 1994, consequently people are everywhere. The young ones in particular run into our path shouting mzungu (white person) - and hold out hands or yell for money. Very persistent and very annoying.  Cant imagine who could possible hand out anything to them all.  On a better note- Saturday we passed 4 separate weddings with all the villagers out in their finery, and in good humour,  and then on Sunday they were out again- all walking to church. This it seems is a very Christian country- whilst the people remain poor, there is an affluent brick built Church on almost every hilltop.?

Our accommodation for these 2 nights; the first we rough camped in a quarry entertaining at least 30 people as we set up camp, cooking and climbing the ladder to bed. The second was on the beach at the lakeside, where a hotel had kindly let us put our outfit on. A quick dip in the warm lake waters rejuvenated us before we let the hotel cook us a meal (they bought it out to us on a tray!) As you can gather there are no tourists here and very few white people.

Whoops- back to Tuesday!  In the morning we visited a tea factory, managed by a gentleman who was 1 year into a 5 year contract from India. He was eating at last nights hotel and had offered  to show us around-me being a tea addict could hardly turn that down, and we werent disappointed- a interesting trip. Afterwards however, whilst filling up with diesel we had our first encounter with crime- a boy reached into the cab and undid the glove compartment box- I heard him straight away and yelled, so nothing was taken. I was only reaching on the backseat into the fridge and we only have front doors-so he was very brave. With that, the expense of this country and the irritating demands of the younger folk, we decided to cross into Uganda, a few kms away, and visit the volcanoes from that side. A shame really as we have enjoyed our time here, seeing how the country has recovered from the atrocities of 1994 and how they perceive their future- peaceful and prosperous we hope.