Mar 2008

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! We hope you had a fine weekend parading and celebrating in true Irish fashion. We can't say that our weekend was as Guinness filled as previous years but we feel getting married in Ireland only eight months ago was suffice in that department. Today we rolled into a lush Tanzania and we hope to raise a glass of Tuskar to our favorite patron Saint tonight with long-time friend of the Irish, Skanky.

Last we blogged we were heading out of that emerald non-isle, Uganda and back to arid, western Kenya. As fate would have it, our trusty guide Skank had to attend his best mates wedding in South Africa so we were assigned a temporary guide, Andrew, for this last leg of Kenya. We had met Andrew briefly when we camped on his family's farm in Nakuru. This was indeed a fortunate turn of fate's hand. Andrew rules. He has lived in Kenya his entire life - his great grandpa and great uncles coming down from Europe to survey the land for the Brits. He knows the entire history of Kenya, every tribal ritual, every name of every flora and fauna and has a story for just about anything related to his native land. Even more of a bonus, Andrew spent most of his young adulthood as a photographer and videographer of Kenyan wildlife. He's the number one guy that movie producers and documentarians ask for when shooting here. He had great stories of working on Survivor: Africa, "The Long Way Down" with Ewan McGregor, taking care of Woody Harrelson when he wanted to tour the area (Andrew's definitely not a fan) and being on numerous sets for German, French, British and American filmmakers.

The Van De Walles are long time Survivor fans (shout out here to my Leahy cousins and Blake who also wear the buff) so I really appreciated his tale of how Mark Burnett (the producers) wanted to shoot an elephant trumpeting and giraffes running parallel to the Survivors car as they entered Samburu country. He made us feel less guilty about our love affair with the show when he told us they only had one chance to get the shot - it had to be done in real time. I always thought they'd do multiple takes until they got the shot but according to Andrew "it had to be filmed in real time or it wasn't considered authentic and therefore not used in the show." Using his knowledge of animal behavior and skills as a videographer Andrew was able to time the car so that it got between a mother elephant and her baby right as she reached the road. Cue trumpet. He also knew how to spook a herd of traditionally lazy giraffes into running right by it on their way to graze. This is just one of the hundreds of interesting tales we heard as we rambled through the countryside. Another claim to fame...he wrote his university thesis on how the traditional wildlife film should evolve to focus on the host vs. the actual wildlife. A producer from Discovery wanted to test his theory so they gave him a small bonus to film a show on snakes. In his search for a good host he followed a lead from a friend who had met a guy in Australia that knew a lot about snakes and was really charismatic. Andrew hired him and Steve Irwin (aka: The Crocodile Hunter) stepped in to the spotlight. You think this might be the first thing someone would say upon meeting you - "Hi, Andrew Nightengale here. I discovered the Croc Hunter" but no. It casually came up about three days into travel. The guy just ruled.

So we rolled around Kenya, Andrew took us through another part of Eldoret - even more war-torn following the violence - and we managed to snap a few unassuming photos of the damage to show you when we get back. Like all the places we've been in the Rift Valley, the locals were incredibly welcoming and warm and all the campsites were eerily empty. We went down into the valley for a stay at beautiful Lake Baringo. Lake Baringo, to those in the know, is famous for it's birds, crocs and hippos. Long time birdwatchers, Colin and I were in heaven. Okay, that's a total lie. Col and I can appreciate a good bird every now and then but we certainly won't be going to a Twitchers convention any time soon. We were more interested in the crocs and hippos. With Mr. Wildlife at our side we were able to get frighteningly close to the crocs. Like 2 or 3 feet close. Apparently the lake is riddled with fish so our prehistoric pals weren't craving a side of white legs. The hippos, which gaze right there at the camp site, keep to the water by day and come up by the tents at night to graze. That's right - COME UP NEXT TO THE TENTS TO GRAZE.

Now, some of you (Sinead Gildea) might recall the Time magazine article of a few years back that said Hippos are the second most dangerous animal to man. I certainly recalled this as Colin and I sat in our tent, eyes wide, listening to the various grunts of numerous hippos outside. Andrew made sure we knew what to look for should we need a bathroom break at 3am. He pointed our flashlights at a couple of big beauties just grazing away. Yeah, I think we'll hold it until the morning. Thanks. Needless to say these hungry, hungry hippos stuck to grazing and didn't add us to their death toll. I think Peter, our travel bud, and Col and I were all extremely relieved when daylight finally arrived and the hippos retreated back into the Lake.

That morning Andrew took us to his favorite spot on the Lake where we engaged in a little bird and hippo watching amidst reeds and lilypads. We purchased a few tilapia from local fisherman (there were approximately four on the entire lake) for breakfast. Again, a lie. We actually used them to lure the fish eagles - basically an American Eagle that enjoys fishing. The boat driver would wave a tilapia, the eagle would soar over from an island, the boat guy would launch the fish and the eagle would swoop down and grab it. I could have killed an entire morning with this simple game but the eagles soon had their fill and we needed to move on as well.

Next stop - Lake Naivasha. After a delicious lunch of sweet and sour pork we made our way to the next campsite. If you like monkeys, you'd enjoy a stay at the Fisherman's Camp on Lake Navasha. Monkeys galore. Anyway, Lake Naivasha is right next to Hell's Gate National Park - a natural geothermal spot where you can rent bikes and ride into the gorge. Sounds good...until 15 minutes into the ride when you realize it's called Hell's Gate for a reason and you are riding mountain bikes that really have no gears or seat padding. Makes for a long time in the gorge. On the positive side you are right there amidst the wildlife (sans large predators) and we were pretty much the only ones there so it was rather peaceful. When we reached the gorge we hired a local guide to walk us through it. Attention movie fans: This is the gorge that was a) used as the sketching place for the scene in The Lion King where Mufasa is killed and b) featured prominently in the movie Tomb Raider. It's also home to many flash floods so we did the shortened version of the tour.

Our guide, another amazing guy, was from the Northern Somburu tribe (sorry for the spelling) and was another one of those "holy cow" stories. Twin brother shot by cattle ranchers, forced to quit school to watch the cows, started teaching younger children by a tree while the cows grazed, raised money for a school, made his way to Navasha, started this guide thing, funded another school there, stopped his sisters from being married off and is paying for their schooling himself, saw 8 of his friends brutally murdered in the recent conflict, working towards changing attitudes of men regarding how they treat women. And he's only 22! Sean - you are 23 - let's pick up the pace pal.

After our exhausting ride we returned to camp, freshened up and made our way to Elsamere - home of Joy and George Adamson of Born Free fame. Had some tea and small cakes (that would be a cookie, right Dad), looked at some pictures of their life, agreed that yes, we are all born free and basically called it an afternoon. Good times. The next day Andrew took us on a tour of Nairobi and dropped us off at our campsite to wait for Skanky. It was a sad goodbye. If ever you need a tour guide through Kenya call Andrew. I promise you won't be disappointed.

We reunited with our guy Skanky and we're now officially back on track with him...which is quite a different track indeed. Unfortunately Peter had to make his way home to Britain so we said cheerio to him last night and headed off for Tanzania this morning. I'm currently sitting in a bakery in Arusha, full on meat pie and Coke, waiting for Skank to do whatever it is he does when he wanders off. Tomorrow Col and I head off to the Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater for some full-on wildlife action (as seen in the Buhrfiend's award winning video). We will be camping in the bush for two days so we won't have any access to email. Supposedly camping "in the bush" is a lot like camping in Baringo... only any animal can wander up to the tent. Gazelle, giraffe, lion. Yeah, should be a fun one. We are just hoping the honey badgers take a pass. Don't know what that is? Perhaps the scariest animal in the bush in our opinion. Look them up. They are about the size of a small Labrador and can take down a Cape Buffalo. Awesome.

Well, have a great St. Paddy's Day! Next we blog we'll be on our way to Zanzibar - Spice Island! Quick shout out to our niece Annie who just turned one. Happy Birthday, Annie! And a couple shout outs to our blog suscribers: Rich, Elizabeth, Josh, Uncle Norm and Lauren. Way to go the distance with us.

And we're off.....

The Gorilla Trek had the feeling of the climax of the Uganda section of our trip, which it probably was, but the days following it have certainly measured up.

The day following the gorilla encounter, we headed a few hours west to Lake Bunyoni, hailed as "Uganda's Switzerland". There was not a Swiss Army Knife nor a block of cheese to be found (unfortunately for Mar), however we could see what they meant. The lake itself was enormous - it took us a good hour just to drive halfway around it - and it was surrounded on all sides by mountains. Stunningly beautiful. We were greeted by a two hour downpour (hello early rainy season), but it ended in time for us to walk around to the nearest village, see some of the local kids do a traditional dance, and we even managed to get a free boat ride back to our camp from some Slovenian missionaries (I think they liked the fact that we had been to their home country).

The next day we made the long drive to Jinja, long beloved by limerick writers needing a place that rhymes with "ninja". Not too much to report that day, but the following day we had perhaps our most thrilling day of the trip so far - white water rafting on the Nile River. Having little to no rafting experience, we were quite surprised to find that we would be tackling a number of Level 5's along the way. But we went along, and despite flipping the boat a few times, we survived with just a few scratches and a solid sunburn. Thankfully our guide decided to skip the Level 6 rapid known simply as "The Bad Place"... good call. So we had a fantastic time along a beautiful stretch of the Nile, and we met some great people. We even thought about heading back out today, but decided to relax, read, and nurse our sunburns with some cold bottles of Nile Beer instead. A wise choice, I think.

The pictures above are of Lake Bunyoni and rafting - Colin's in the back with the black helmet and Mar is the one near the center of the boat cowering in fear of losing a contact lens. And scroll down to see some more photos we uploaded today.

Tomorrow we leave Uganda to back to Kenya. It's 3 or 4 consecutive camping days ahead, so it may be a while until our next post. We hope all our family and friends are doing well... take care!

Due to our upgrade to a luxury tented camp (well worth the price), we also have access to a computer with reasonable internet bandwidth, so we decided to upload some photos which we've been unable to upload so far. Enjoy!

A few years back, on our trip to India, a woman on the trip (who will make an appearance on this blog in a months time) mentioned to us that her favorite travel experience was a trek to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. I remember her description of the encounter as if she told me yesterday. A seed was planted. Couple that with my love of the movie made about the life of Dian Fossey and it's not a shocker that yesterday Colin and I trekked into the volcanic hills of Uganda to see these gentle giants for ourselves.

I believe in the last blog I said we'd be trekking in the Impenetrable Forest. This was a lie. We were actually in Mgahinga Park - a much smaller but just as dense park. There was nothing penetrable about the place so it really was an honest mistake. We drove by the Impenetrable one today if that counts. Anyway...

We left our lodge at 7am and after a VERY bumpy ride we arrived at the entrance to the Park. I believe "imposing" was the word Colin used to describe it. The top of the volcano and the surrounding hillsides were shrouded in a thick mist. The ranger told us that we might have to hike a good 5 hours to see the gorillas as they were on the move into the Congo. There were a few rain clouds in the sky so we put on our rain gear as a precautionary measure. Walking sticks in hand, we set out to find the gorillas.

We may have mentioned in the last posting that Uganda was beautiful - as green as Ireland in fact. This, of course, is due to the heavy amounts of rain the area receives over the course of 12 months. I think about 85% of their yearly rainfall fell on us during our hike. God bless Columbia sports rain pants and wide brim hats. I suppose the rain wouldn't have been so bad if the hike had been equivalent to say a stroll through Lincoln Park. But gorillas wouldn't be elusive if they were easy to spot would they?

Collectively Colin and I have hiked in many gorgeous parts of the world: The Cinque Terra in Italy, the Slovenian Alps, Yosemite Park, the hills of Vermont in the fall, etc. Nothing, in my opinion, was as amazing as hiking that volcano. The vegetation was incredibly thick; requiring a ranger to blaze a trail with a machete in front of us. Just as the rain picked up even more (if that is possible) we'd dip into dense bamboo forests where you had to squeeze yourself between shoots. Then pop out into lush greenery again. The mud was deep and slick so it was a challenge to stay upright or not lose a shoe to the sinkholes. So yes, perhaps the hardest hike (besides the time Rich and I were lost on the other side of Mount Mansfield) but may have made sighting the gorillas even more rewarding.

It happened without much warning. We were weaving our way through a maze of bamboo when the ranger just stopped and said "gorillas". WHAM. Right in front of us was the silverback just hanging out. We were about 8 feet away when a member of our group committed a cardinal gorilla trekking sin - she used her camera flash. Crash, bam, boom that silverback came charging out of the bamboo like kids coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. If I had any reservations that this was going to be like a visit to the zoo they were promptly scared out of me at that moment.

Lucky for us it was just a harmless warning. He settled himself comfortably on the grass nearby and we proceeded to take flashless photos and oggle every time he yawned or scratched himself. In all seriousness you could have given the guy a cup of coffee and a paper and he would have looked like any overweight guy on a Saturday morning. Soon we noticed another visitor peeking through the bamboo - a female gorilla and her 2 month old baby. They were quickly joined by the older brother who solicited a few "awws" from the girls in the group as he played lovingly with his dad the silverback.

We proceeded to move through the bamboo to see the rest of the troop. It was amazing how close we got to them - really just a few feet away. At one point, when I was a bit ahead of Colin, I turned back to motion to him to take a picture. As Colin was trying to decipher my "take a picture of this" hand movements, the silver back came strolling about 6 feet away from him - ripping through the bamboo like it was cotton candy. I almost screamed "Looook ooooout!" but then remembered cardinal rule number 2: No Shouting. It was totally intense and just about the coolest thing I've ever seen. We have plenty of pictures and video to share when we get home.

You can only spend an hour with the gorillas (which feels like 3 minutes) so we left unwillingly but totally satisfied by our encounter. The hike back to the base was much shorter as we all slid down the "path" which had turned into a river of mud. Exhausted but elated we said goodbye to our guides and headed back to our lodge. Note that the lodge we stayed in, Travellers Rest, has a rich history with the gorillas. It was the place Dian Fossey would come to take a break from her work. I was reading a book about her while looking out at the volcanic mountains where she conducted her research. It was one of those moments...

Special thanks to our friend Lee for her story which made such an impact and inspired this trip. Yay Lee! See you in Botswana! And another special thanks to Dian Fossey for all her early work with the gorillas. She may have gone off the deep end for awhile but her pioneer studies have helped keep these majestic and beautiful animals around for a while longer.

Okay - so I still haven't told you about our driver. Again, that is best saved for another post. Let's just say he's 28, South African and answers to the name Skank (or Skanky - which I prefer). The name suits him in many, many ways. Colin and I have grown incredibly fond of this character. He's almost impossible to describe in a blog so I might not even try. Thank God he's a good driver, though, as driving to Lake Binyoni - where we are hanging out today - was pretty trecherous. He also has a good way with matatu drivers - the crazy minivan drivers my friend Pat told me to watch out for (Side note to Pat: some little kid in one of the towns asked if we had a balloon. Hilarious.) His "good way" involves yelling "where did you get your license" out the window at them and tossing a random vegetable or whatever is handy at their car. Awesome. I can't fault the guy because he makes an amazing mac and cheese. The one thing I do give him endless razz about is his love of the show According to Jim. I need to beat it out of him.

Alright - must go. Skank is trying to lure us down to the bonfire for a Nile Special where I'm sure Colin and I will continue our debate as to whether Tuskar or Nile is the better African beer. Go, go Nile says I.

We head off to Jinja tomorrow for the "best white water rafting in the world." Also home of the mango worm that lays eggs in your damp clothing where they go on to hatch in your skin. Hmmm. Seems like we'll have to stay on the raft.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!