From Rwanda to Zanzibar

Rwanda was fascinating but unsettling. I've never been anywhere before where they need roadside signs warning of the evils of genocide.


It seems accepted that one of the contributing factors to the genocide of 1994 was the extreme poverty, and pressure for land. "The Land of a Thousand Hills" was noticeably poorer than either Kenya or Uganda. Every inch of usable land is planted in crops - there are terraces up every hill with tea or banana plantations. Outside of the capital Kigali, the locals live in traditional houses with only the occasional rusted tin roof - unlike in Kenya where every building we passed was daubed in the gaudy colours and logos of cellphone companies or breweries. There were very few cars or even motorbikes on the road; everyone walked or rode rickety bicycles, and there was very little tourist infrastructure.

Despite all of this it was a very nice place to visit. The locals were extremely friendly, and the government has taken steps to ensure that the country can move on from the events culminating in 1994. It is illegal to ask anyone whether they are Hutu or Tutsi (everyone is now Rwandan), and locals get very edgy if discussion ever turned towards the genocide. One of our drivers was telling us how he'd seen gorillas himself in 1994, in the Congo, for free - obviously he'd taken refuge in the jungles out of the country. He'd only say that the bullet wound on his forehead happened "a long time ago".

It's also nice to see that the government has also banned all plastic bags and apparently many people are stopped and searched at the border (although we managed to sneak (smuggle?) ours in). More worrying is the fact that the current President Paul Kagame seems to be intent on constructing a personality cult in his favour. There are real fears locally that he may soon become Africa's next "Big Man" ruler for life - like Robert Mugabe or Idi Amin. I read a very alarming magazine article/piece of propaganda published about him - referring to him in almost saintlike terms as a "gift from God" who has been able to draw out the best of Rwanda.

After crossing into Tanzania we had two long and exhausting driving days - interrupted only by a night in a very small village. No other Overland company travels that route, ours had only come that way twice before, and the locals were noticeably more sceptical of the truckload of mzungus. As we ate our dinner, about thirty children huddled around the gate of our guesthouse to watch us, but as soon as anybody took a step towards them to talk, or to take a photo, they scampered, screaming.

Eventually we arrived in Mwanza, on the southern tip of Lake Victoria, for a rest day before two days looking for game in the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorogoro Crater.


The first day in the Serengeti was a bit disappointing - we spent most of it frantically swatting at Tsetsi flies, after having been warned about the sleeping sickness that their bites can cause. It's fair to say that the flies probably won that encounter, nobody arrived in camp without at least a couple of very itchy bites. We camped in the middle of the park that night, but this time, very few animals came through our camp (that we know of).

We were really lucky though, on our next day in the Serengeti . After first finding a leopard raiding a birdsnest for eggs, we ran across a pregnant lioness wandering along the road, and followed her to the rest of her pride (including two very cute cubs bounding through the long grass) who were standing guard over a buffalo carcass - the vultures were circling above. We snapped about 300 photos and moved on. our next encounter was my favourite - another leopard in a tree right on the side of the road, resting after having just hauled the fresh carcass of a baby wildebeest up to the lower branches. Off in the distance you could still see the baby's mother! Needless to say, we'll post photos (one day).

Leaving the Serengeti, we stopped off at Olduvai Gorge, the location of some of the earliest finds of humans, and their ancestors. Down the road they have found 3.5million year-old footprints from Australopithecus Afarensis - aka "Lucy" - our earliest confirmed ancestor thus far.

We spent the afternoon driving up to the crater rim, through the now inevitable herds of wildebeest, ostriches, gazelles and zebras, and into endless fields of yellow flowers. We camped at the top of the hill (this time bushpigs got into our rubbish bin), and the next morning piled into 4x4s for a game drive through the crater - it has the highest concentration of game, anywhere in Africa, because most of the larger animals can't climb out of the crater! We saw some more lions, and had a very close encounter with a couple of elephants - almost too close when one of them started urinating firehose-style.


That night in Arusha we met the six new members of our group, and farewelled our guide Moses, and driver David. We've all joined another truck called Pumba (this one even has windows!), with an Australian guide called Dennis (understandably he prefers us to use his nickname 'Gracie'). there are now 26 of us on the way down to Livingstone (where we get off), and beyond.

At the moment, we're at a beach resort on Zanzibar, off the coast on Tanzania. Unfortunately the rainy season has been living up to its name - yesterday's snorkelling excursion became a six-hour hypothermia-inducing ordeal. Great fish and coral though, and we were warmer in the water than we were on the boat. We've also been through a spice farm, and the site of the former slave market - the Zanzibar archipelago is still famous for the former (as well as being the birthplace of Freddie Mercury) , but was once a centre of the slave trade, under its Omani rulers.


Tomorrow we hit the mainland again - and on to Malawi, then Zambia, Zimbabwe and Zambia again where Alex and I depart the tour in 17 days.