This was my first time in what I would call ‘proper Africa’ (Egypt doesn’t quite count for me). We gave ourselves a full schedule without a day off but that’s how I like my holidays! We sat with Gorillas in the jungles of Rwanda, climbed a mountain in Tanzania (I got a cerebral oedema – not pleasant!) and we spent 3 days on Safari. The below cover image is myself and my friends half way up Kilimanjaro watching the sunset; the views were breath taking every day of the 7 day trek.First off we landed in Rwanda and after what happened there barely 20 years ago, I was surprised to find it a really laid back country and I felt very safe. We visited the genocide memorial on day one and it was a harrowing but interesting experience.
Day two saw us hiking into the jungle to track Gorillas… and this was PROPER jungle. I have hiked through jungle in the South Pacific, Asia and Latin America but have never gone completely off trail like we had to. The guide hacked a trail with a machete whilst guards armed with AK47s protected us from the front and back (the jungles are known to have poachers, but the real threat was buffalo that are known to often charge at humans); we had to push out way through thick foliage, often getting stung by some nasty stinging nettles.
It was about 3 hours before we managed to find a band of gorillas and it was a humbling experience. We weren’t allowed to approach them but they certainly weren’t worried about approaching us, often brushing past us as they wandered around searching for more food (adults can eat over 30 kg a day!).
We spent an hour with the gorillas until we had to leave. On the way back we came across this little guy on the trail.
The next day we flew to Tanzania and had a day preparing and packing for our trek up Kilimanjaro. It was to take 7 days in all. We started off at around 1500 metres altitude (the top being 5985 metres – over 500 metres higher than Everest base camp). The landscape started off as misty rain forest.
After only a day though we broke through into moorland and finally into an alpine desert like below. Every day as we gained altitude and as the air thinned, it got harder to breath and our pace slowed. A lot of us had headaches and pains and nausea from the lack of oxygen.
Each night it got colder but the skies became clearer and clearer. I have never seen such a clear sky and view of the Milky Way as I did up Kilimanjaro.
Finally, on day five we arrived at base camp (4600 metres) and got some rest as we would be summiting at midnight. None of us slept well and we were up at 11 pm feeling terrible. The lack of oxygen really makes you feel exhausted and run down and every day tasks like just walking to the bathroom can really take it out of you. The trek was to take 7 hours to reach the summit. Unfortunately at 4 am in the morning I began to develop a cerebral oedema (my brain was swelling inside my skull due to pressure) and it would have been dangerous to carry on. My head was thumping, I was barely moving but couldn’t breath, I felt sick and could barely stand upright and decided it was time to turn around and was helped down by one of our guides. I reached 5400 metres. The whole experience was amazing; even though most of the time I was in pain it was worth it for the views and the feeling of achievement. Everyone else made it to the top and met me several hours later at base camp to start our two day descent of the mountain. Below is a shot of my friends James and Belinda half way up. The photo doesn’t do the views justice but even so you can see how incredible the Milky Way looked.
We arrived back to town on the evening of the seventh day and had just the evening to relax and grab a beer to celebrate before heading on Safari the next day. It was my first time on Safari and I was very excited about it (even more so after walking all that distance that we got to sit down for 3 days!). Here are some shots from Safari, we were lucky to see a lot, only missing out on the elusive leopard from the big five.
