Rwanda trip
We progressed though Mwanza via dirt roads to Rwanda - also the main truck supply route to that country. We were in Rwanda (official language French) mainly to see the Parc de Volcans - the national park on the borders of Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda, any two of which seem to be closed to tourists because of internal troubles. This park is home to the gorillas popularized by Dian Fossey’s book ‘Gorillas in the mist’, and was another unforgettable experience - a stiff half-day hike to find one of the four gorilla families that are habituated to tourist visits, and an hour of watching the group - the adults spend most of the time eating (very destructive, as they may eat the tree bark of up to four trees each per day). The kids however are very curious, and you can make faces and watch them play with each other in a way that reminds us of our own childhood.
Both Rwanda and Burundi have very large army presences - and regular trouble between the Hutu and the Tutsi, the two major tribes in the region. There was such trouble in Burundi when we tried to enter, and the roads were closed, so we had to fly to Bujumbura. We stayed there for just a day before taking another flight to Douala, Cameroon, over-flying Zaire and Central African Republic, in order to avoid the trouble in Zaire. We exchanged trucks with another Guerba expedition travelling west to east, picking up their truck in Cameroon.