Thursday, July 28, 2011

Nyungwe National Park


The 3 Laws of Nyungwe:
1. What goes down must come up.
2. Double any length and time you are told. (A "4km hike" is at least 8 or 9km)
3. Energy cannot be created, only destroyed.

Nyungwe National Park is a huge span of afro-montane rainforest on the Albertine Rift. It was BEAUTIFUL. Some of our plans to see primates were sadly foiled (we didn't get to see chimps or black and white colobus) but we did see mona monkeys and grey-cheeked mangabeys. The rainforest totally made up for everything though. The place we stayed was the camp for all the Rwandan students studying to be park rangers. It was pretty nice, but the food was horrible (haha). We had the same thing every day (I think the soup was a different color one night...) and by the end of the week we were all ready to be done eating soup and rice and peas twice a day. 

The hiking was absolutely gorgeous, but it was probably one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done. The entire first half of every hike goes straight downhill (and I mean painfully downhill). And then, once you're good and tired and you've watched monkeys for an hour or so, you have to climb straight back uphill (see law #1). But, it was all worth it in the end because it was so dang beautiful. Our motto: Go big or go galago!

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