Photos

Most of the photos from my trip are now here. Feel free to browse. But I'll post a few here just to give a wee flavour...

And to start things off here's the one you've all been waiting for, yes Debs (or should I say sweaty Betty?) with the hair-braid which lasted less than 24 hours because it kept freaking me out in the middle of the night:

Here's Eric & Mary who were my guides on the day of my visit to the Nyamirambo district of Kigali:

Here's the obligatory tourist photo of 'Hotel Rwanda' - Hotel Des Milles Collines:

And this is the guesthouse I stayed in for the four nights I was in Kigali:

This photo of Lake Kivu was taken at Kibuye:

And this is the church at Kibuye which I mentioned here was the site of over 11,000 deaths during the genocide:

Lake Kivu from Kibuye was just gorgeous. I missed the sunset when I was there but I went to Moriah Hills for my evening meal of deep-fried sambazi and chips (wee small lake-fish which you eat whole - super-tasty!) and watched a lightening storm possibly a hundred-odd or more miles away on the other side of the lake light up the sky.

Beautiful Lake Kivu - Day 7

I've come back to the shores of Lake Kivu, this time to a town called Kibuye. It is absolutely beautiful, the scenery is just amazing - green hillsides sweeping down to blue lagoons. I'm really glad that I've chosen this place for my last evening in Rwanda - where has the time gone to? I'm staying at a Presbyterian Church-owned guesthouse which is right beside the lake. Getting here was a bit of an adventure - the bus journey from Kigali was much quieter than the last bus-trip, but when we arrived in Kibuye there were no taxi-voitures (cars) just moto-taxis (motorbike taxis) but somehow my moto-taxi driver managed to balance my big bag on his handlebars and get us up and down the steep hairpin bends and along the bumpy dirt-tracks to the guesthouse - about 4 km away. Who needs Charley Boorman or Ewan McGregor? Something tells me they'd charge more than 50p too!

After the most delicious lunch of lake-fish brochettes (kebabs), rice and stir-fry veg, I decided to wander back to the town to take some photos and soak up the scenery. On the way I passed a Catholic church which in '94 was where over 11,000 people died in the genocide. Kibuye was one of the places which suffered the most during the genocide, it was estimated that 9 in 10 people from the area were murdered. It is desperately hard to take in in such a beautiful place as this...

Well this internet connection is painfully slow so I'm going to chill out the rest of the evening, catch the sunset and then get my last rays of sun in the morning before heading for the airport. When I get home I'll do more updates and stick up some photos etc. Thanks for tuning in!

African tea appreciation - Day 3

Having gotten engrossed in my blogging yesterday I managed not to leave myself enough time to visit Kigali's Genocide Memorial as it closes at 5pm so wandered round the city centre a bit more, got the necessary tourist photo of the entrance of the Hotel des Milles Collines - made famous by the film, Hotel Rwanda (the film wasn't made on location, they filmed in S Africa instead, but it's a famous site in the context of what happened here in '94). I also dipped in and out of a few handcraft shops. I think I'm gradually beginning to switch off and it's superbly blissful to have the time to simply read. Last night I tried out some African tea (as opposed to black tea - same as the stuff we drink at home more or less) which is a bit like a mildly spicy milky chai. It was absolutely delicious, I want to figure out what they put into it.

This morning I went to Kigali's Genocide Memorial and to be honest I don't think I'm ready to write about that yet - I'll leave it for another time. It was moving and awful and beautiful and still and disturbing all at once.

A bit later this afternoon I'm heading by bus to Gisenyi at Lake Kivu in the west and I'm looking forward to some chill-out time by the lake. The route should take me within good view of Volcanoes National Park famous for being home to Rwanda's mountain gorillas. I'll blog from there tomorrow if I get the chance or else when I get back to Kigali on Monday.