 Bonobo2005's Rwanda Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | Impressions from Mt. Visoke | February, 2003 |  6 |
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| Page Views: 1,005 Last Visit to Rwanda: February, 2003 | Impressions from Mt. Visoke by Bonobo2005 - last update: May 11, 2003 |
At 6AM Greg and I gathered at the ORTPN office in Ruhengeri. It had been raining all night, like the days before. Thunder and lightning made the volcanoes north of town look inaccessible and angry. Although the sun should have risen, it didn't get really light.
Squeezed on the frontseat of the Parks' Toyota pick up, we enjoyed the rough ride as we passed several pittoresk villages hidden in the beautiful green fields and hills.
Due to some huge delays it was close to 10AM when we finally reached the base of Visoke and could go off for the ascent. Four soldiers (to protect us from the "buffalos") and a ranger were waiting for us. The latter communicated with the gorilla tracking group and cared for that we weren't to encounter any gorillas on our way, since we didn't pay for that.
Luckily in the meantime it was not raining anymore and we could even see the summit. |
|  | We set off in a sturdy pace, initially along well used but muddy trails through dense rainforest. |
| | Soon the trails became more tight and more steep. The scenery was simply awesome, exceptional green, beautiful mosses, untouched wilderness. |
| | The higher we reached more open spots appeared. Although it was a cloudy day, the views were still great through the mist and darkness. |
| | As we approached the rim we entered the Afro-Alpine zone, low green vegetation, swampy soil where you sink in a bit and beautiful mountainflowers such as giant lobelia. |
| | We reached the crater rim just after 2,5 hours of steady hiking. After a short rest we continued to complete the circuit around the crater, that marks the border with DR Congo.
It's a gorgeous walk around the craterlake with a large variety of mountainflowers and even some birds! The views are great although we were not so lucky with the weather.
We spend an 1 hour around the crater, including a small picnic of chapatti and bananas while observing the peaks around us.
On the extremely slippery way down I amused myself watching others sliding down, while it happened to me a couple of times as well.
The roundtrip had taken 5 hours + transportation, a not too difficult but rewarding activity!
Tip: bring a raincoat or poncho... |
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| Bonobo2005's Rwanda Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | Impressions from Mt. Visoke | February, 2003 | 6 |
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 Comments for Bonobo2005 about Rwanda | | | | |
angiebabe Mon Oct 6, 2008 02:50 UTC
Inspirational page thanks - great tips and photos.might be somewhere I could get to next...!? | marcoparco Sat Jul 22, 2006 20:21 UTC
Bo nobo, you have an amazing page here and I came back to visit once more before I move to Rwanda for 6 months next week. I will be hitting most of places you have visited in hope that I will have as good of time as you had! Thanks for your input! Cheers | hindu1936 Thu Apr 13, 2006 05:49 UTC
Ms. Fossey's work has long been a story of great emotion for me. I did not know the memorial site was still intact. I had heard that the murderers of the genocide had destroyed it. thanks. | chewy3326 Fri Mar 17, 2006 20:20 UTC
Rwanda has probably been unfairly stereotyped as a very violent nation, but it looks very beautiful and diverse. Great page! |
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