8 December, 2009
I am thoroughly exhausted, my body is fatigued in a way it hasn't been in a while, if ever. Today, for our day trip, we went to Ruhengeri, which is the third largest city in Rwanda and in the northern tip of the country - 30 minutes from both Uganda and Congo. We left at 6:45am and it took us about 2.5 hours to get there - maybe a bit more with the stops.
In the north you have the 3 major volcanoes of Rwanda - Muhabura, Karisimbi, and Volcano #3. There are a couple other small ones, but these are the big ones. You also have all the gorillas, and a huge lake in the province of Muhanze, where many postcards are shot.
The plan was to visit a cave and a lake. Guiding us on this tour was William, who can safely be described as The Coolest Person in Africa, and a strong contender as The Coolest Person in Any Continent. He is Rwandese, and was in the RPF starting in '91 when he was 18. He helped free the imprisoned RPF soldiers in 1991 and retreat back to Uganda to retrain the army. He took Kigali along with Kagame in June of 1994 to end the genocide. He marched to Kinshasa in 1997, and fought in Darfur. Now that he is done with the army, he takes people on treks through the mountains of East Africa, figuring out what they want to see and making it possible. He knows everything about the land and is like the ultimate McGyver. Obviously, he is Dano's hero.
The drive was completely stunning and after about an hour and a half we could see the volcanoes. It were so high up that we looked down on other mountain tops and clouds. I tried to get a picture of it but we were speeding by and nothing came out. There were several waterfalls along the way. The size of the volcanoes and the ethereality of the clouds was just phenomenal.
We dropped off the weaker ones at a hotel to walk around while we continued our journey to The Cave. I was pretty nervous about going because I heard it was a long, arduous trek in pitch blackness, and that there were thousands of bats that would fly around you. We all brought flashlights. We drove 10 minutes outside of town and then pulled over into a field. William pointed straight ahead and there was The Mouth of The Cave. There is no way to describe it except that there was a giant black hole in the hill. I began to get more nervous. I, of course, took the lead. (Behind William.)
The Cave was one of the most incredible things I have ever done, if not the most. The ground was slimy and rocky, a million times worse than climbing in anything I've ever climbed before. The darkness was something I wish I could describe - it was eternal. I could hold my hand in front of my face and I would not see it. I could hold a white piece of paper in front of my face and not see it. A couple of us were wearing white and you could not see them. Our flashlights were insignificant, at best. I have never, ever imagined darkness could be like that. It was so incredibly cool. As we climbed down deeper into the cave, I began to hear a slight hissing. "The bats!" I yelled, and William said yes, you could hear them. It sounded like a lot. A few of
the weaker wanted to turn back. We forged ahead.
The hissing got louder and louder, and soon you could pick out bat eyes hanging from the ceiling. Then you noticed there were bats flying everywhere, and more than you could ever imagine. They weren't in your face like I expected them to be, but I was grateful for that. We stood there, turned off our lights, and listened to the bats.
300 years ago, warriors would walk into The Cave and stay there for two weeks without any food - it was a rite of passage to prove themselves to King Mutara. It was a spiritual journey. In 1994, many Rwandese ran into The Cave to hide from the Interhawme. The genocidaires followed them in, and slaughtered all of them, then threw grenades in to finish the job. There was a "left turn" that would have led us down a 6 kilometer wing of The Cave, but the government closed it off because of all the bodies, and it is now a sort of sacred burial ground.
My camera died while in the cave, but I managed to get one of the ceiling and the bats (kind of hard to distinguish) and a very bad one of Oliver and I. The pictures almost ruin in though, because you can't tell the magnificence of the caverns and the flash is so deceiving - the blackness was not a color, it was a void. Insane.
The Cave was shorter than I hoped, because about two minutes in I was more into it than anyone. In only took us about 25-30 minutes to walk through the whole thing - we came up on the other side of a hill and walked back to the cars. I, of course, was the first man out. I win.
We then picked up the others and drove to the lake - a huge, huge lake I do not know the name of. There were many islands in the lake, and the volcanoes kind of surround it. We sat there for a while and relaxed. We skipped stones in the water. I was all about canoeing out, and got everyone excited about it, and William commandeered us a boat. He and I picked it up a bit down from where we were picnicking, so we oared it over to the people, and picked everyone up. Everyone piled in.
We oared for a while. I was starting to get tired, and really hot. We kept going, out, and out and out. My arms felt like they were going to fall off. The water looked so, so good. Kerry said she had an extra pair of pants. I flung off my flipflops, tore off my sweater, and jumped into the lake. Fully clothed. Everyone looked at me as I bobbed there and Jen said "I can't believe you just did that," and then about 5 other people jumped in.
It was glorious. Until I felt the current which was pulling me out into the middle, and I began to (attempt) to swim to shore. Perhaps swimming a half mile in a strongly currented lake after already hiking through The Cave was not a good idea. It must not have been, because I felt like I was going to die. My chest was burning and I couldn't breathe - Dano reminded me of the altitude and asked if I wanted to get back in the boat. Clearly he doesn't know me very well. I did not succumb to the pain, and pushed on, in a very slow combination of back stroke/crawl/side stroke - basically, whatever felt good for a few seconds. I think something may be wrong with me.
Either way, we all made it shore, and we were all also in a lot of pain from our ears - they were popping like there's no tomorrow, worse than any plane I've been on. So I sat there, sopping wet, feeling like I was about to have a heart attack and my ears were going to explode for about 10 minutes. Definitely the low point of the day. But it was all completely worth it.
I am thoroughly exhausted, my body is fatigued in a way it hasn't been in a while, if ever. Today, for our day trip, we went to Ruhengeri, which is the third largest city in Rwanda and in the northern tip of the country - 30 minutes from both Uganda and Congo. We left at 6:45am and it took us about 2.5 hours to get there - maybe a bit more with the stops.In the north you have the 3 major volcanoes of Rwanda - Muhabura, Karisimbi, and Volcano #3. There are a couple other small ones, but these are the big ones. You also have all the gorillas, and a huge lake in the province of Muhanze, where many postcards are shot.
The plan was to visit a cave and a lake. Guiding us on this tour was William, who can safely be described as The Coolest Person in Africa, and a strong contender as The Coolest Person in Any Continent. He is Rwandese, and was in the RPF starting in '91 when he was 18. He helped free the imprisoned RPF soldiers in 1991 and retreat back to Uganda to retrain the army. He took Kigali along with Kagame in June of 1994 to end the genocide. He marched to Kinshasa in 1997, and fought in Darfur. Now that he is done with the army, he takes people on treks through the mountains of East Africa, figuring out what they want to see and making it possible. He knows everything about the land and is like the ultimate McGyver. Obviously, he is Dano's hero.
The drive was completely stunning and after about an hour and a half we could see the volcanoes. It were so high up that we looked down on other mountain tops and clouds. I tried to get a picture of it but we were speeding by and nothing came out. There were several waterfalls along the way. The size of the volcanoes and the ethereality of the clouds was just phenomenal.
We dropped off the weaker ones at a hotel to walk around while we continued our journey to The Cave. I was pretty nervous about going because I heard it was a long, arduous trek in pitch blackness, and that there were thousands of bats that would fly around you. We all brought flashlights. We drove 10 minutes outside of town and then pulled over into a field. William pointed straight ahead and there was The Mouth of The Cave. There is no way to describe it except that there was a giant black hole in the hill. I began to get more nervous. I, of course, took the lead. (Behind William.)
The Cave was one of the most incredible things I have ever done, if not the most. The ground was slimy and rocky, a million times worse than climbing in anything I've ever climbed before. The darkness was something I wish I could describe - it was eternal. I could hold my hand in front of my face and I would not see it. I could hold a white piece of paper in front of my face and not see it. A couple of us were wearing white and you could not see them. Our flashlights were insignificant, at best. I have never, ever imagined darkness could be like that. It was so incredibly cool. As we climbed down deeper into the cave, I began to hear a slight hissing. "The bats!" I yelled, and William said yes, you could hear them. It sounded like a lot. A few of
the weaker wanted to turn back. We forged ahead.
The hissing got louder and louder, and soon you could pick out bat eyes hanging from the ceiling. Then you noticed there were bats flying everywhere, and more than you could ever imagine. They weren't in your face like I expected them to be, but I was grateful for that. We stood there, turned off our lights, and listened to the bats.
300 years ago, warriors would walk into The Cave and stay there for two weeks without any food - it was a rite of passage to prove themselves to King Mutara. It was a spiritual journey. In 1994, many Rwandese ran into The Cave to hide from the Interhawme. The genocidaires followed them in, and slaughtered all of them, then threw grenades in to finish the job. There was a "left turn" that would have led us down a 6 kilometer wing of The Cave, but the government closed it off because of all the bodies, and it is now a sort of sacred burial ground.
My camera died while in the cave, but I managed to get one of the ceiling and the bats (kind of hard to distinguish) and a very bad one of Oliver and I. The pictures almost ruin in though, because you can't tell the magnificence of the caverns and the flash is so deceiving - the blackness was not a color, it was a void. Insane.
The Cave was shorter than I hoped, because about two minutes in I was more into it than anyone. In only took us about 25-30 minutes to walk through the whole thing - we came up on the other side of a hill and walked back to the cars. I, of course, was the first man out. I win.
We then picked up the others and drove to the lake - a huge, huge lake I do not know the name of. There were many islands in the lake, and the volcanoes kind of surround it. We sat there for a while and relaxed. We skipped stones in the water. I was all about canoeing out, and got everyone excited about it, and William commandeered us a boat. He and I picked it up a bit down from where we were picnicking, so we oared it over to the people, and picked everyone up. Everyone piled in.
We oared for a while. I was starting to get tired, and really hot. We kept going, out, and out and out. My arms felt like they were going to fall off. The water looked so, so good. Kerry said she had an extra pair of pants. I flung off my flipflops, tore off my sweater, and jumped into the lake. Fully clothed. Everyone looked at me as I bobbed there and Jen said "I can't believe you just did that," and then about 5 other people jumped in.
It was glorious. Until I felt the current which was pulling me out into the middle, and I began to (attempt) to swim to shore. Perhaps swimming a half mile in a strongly currented lake after already hiking through The Cave was not a good idea. It must not have been, because I felt like I was going to die. My chest was burning and I couldn't breathe - Dano reminded me of the altitude and asked if I wanted to get back in the boat. Clearly he doesn't know me very well. I did not succumb to the pain, and pushed on, in a very slow combination of back stroke/crawl/side stroke - basically, whatever felt good for a few seconds. I think something may be wrong with me.
Either way, we all made it shore, and we were all also in a lot of pain from our ears - they were popping like there's no tomorrow, worse than any plane I've been on. So I sat there, sopping wet, feeling like I was about to have a heart attack and my ears were going to explode for about 10 minutes. Definitely the low point of the day. But it was all completely worth it.
1 comment:
All right, this one was excellent :) I'm guessing the photo of you all climbing into the boat, the guy in the army fatigues is the Rwandan MacGuyver (btw - MacGuyver was Minnesotan and created to mimic the quintessential Minnesotan's ingenuity). I loved the darkness of the cave too - but I would have for sure freaked at the hissing sound and screamed "Snakes!" (hello, Indiana Jones anyone?"). Lastly, I too would have instantly wanted to canoe the lake and definitely jump in (after determining what type of lake creatures abided there). What a beautiful trip.
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