Up to an extinct volcano in Rwanda

<sitting in the bus from Ghanzi in Botswana to the border of Namibia>

Once in Rwanda there is no way to leave the country without visiting one of its National Parks. Totally the country has three of them.

Roman and I opted for hiking the Bisoke, one of the extinct volcanoes of the Volcanoes National Park. The start point for the adventure is the city Musanze situated on northwestern Rwanda, close to the border to DRC Congo.

The park Volcanoes National Park comprises five extinct volcanoes and is famous for its population of gorillas. The renowned scientist Dian Fossey, famous through the movie "gorillas in the mist" spent 18 years studying the gorillas in that area until her assassination in 1985.

The hiking track covered approximately 900m altitude till the top of the Bisoke at 3700m. Crossing five different kinds of vegetation including a dense rain forest ending with the rocky summit of the volcano and the crater lake.

All the way up and down we had the company of four heavily gunned army soldiers. According to our guide they were supposed to help us against attacks of the buffaloes and elephants, which inhabited that area of the forest. I asked myself if the dangerous, and probably heavily gunned animals, would come across the border from the DRC Congo side.

Well our expectations of nice walking in the forest spotting a few gorillas and maybe some chimps along the way were in vain. It was rainy, cold, muddy, the volcano was misty and we didn't get to see even the shade of an animal. Nevertheless we enjoyed the whole mud action.

Despite of being soaked to the bones and the hard laundry action at the end of the day all the mud and rain challenge was a huge fun. I obviously lost the bet on not sliding down the before reaching the finish line.



The 900m up to the top were finished in 2:20 hours instead of 4:00 hours. We all reached the finish line happy, some thorns in our hands, some great pictures in our pockets and no fight against "buffaloes or elephants."



Next stop Burundi.
Cheers peeps!