MT SABYINYO
Leave Entebbe and crawl up to Kampala in peak hour traffic.
Get to Bugalobi after dark and stay over with Bobbitt and Sonet. Next morning
finally meet up with John and fellow passenger at Kabera Country Club – this
wasn’t as easy as it sounds, as plenty of correspondence back and forth over the previous week couldn’t determine who
was actually coming or not.
Pick up another passenger Fabian and head out of Kampala.
The road to Masaka and further on to Kissoro has been travelled many times by now
as the western part of Uganda hold s much interest to me, the scenery the mountains, virgin forests and the brill
national Parks. In fact it was only two
months back I was down this way to check out the White Horse Inn in Kabale for the owner .
John works for SBI
and an Israeli construction Company that are building roads down where
we are heading, a main artery ( only artery ) for traffic between from the
commercial hub of Kampala to the DRC and Rwanda. And they are truly the best
stretches of road in East Africa– true Israeli engineering.
The other vehicle (full) that we were
supposed to meet up with at the country Club has only left Kampala now and will
be in morning traffic – we won’t see them in Kissoro until much later that
evening.
Mount Sabyinyo ('Sabyinyo' is derived from the Kinyarwanda word 'Iryinyo', meaning tooth)
is an extinct volcano in eastern Africa, in the Virunga Mountains. It is
located northeast of Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes and
west of Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda. The summit of the
mountain, at 3,645 metres (11,959 ft.), marks the intersection of the
borders of the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. It also
lies within the adjoining national parks established by these countries: Virunga National Park in
the DRC, the Volcanoes National Park in
Rwanda, and Mgahinga
Gorilla National Park in Uganda.
The slopes
of Mt. Sabyinyo are a habitat for the Mountain Gorilla. The
mountain carries the local nickname "Old Man's Teeth" because its
serrated summit resembles worn teeth in a gum line (in contrast to the perfect
conical summits of the adjacent mountains in this range).
PARK AT A GLANCE
Size: 33.7km2, making it
Uganda’s smallest National Park.
The park takes its name from
"Gahinga" -
the local word for the piles of volcanic stones cleared from farmland at the
foot of the volcanoes.
The British administration declared the area a game
sanctuary in 1930; it was gazetted as a National Park in 1991.
The original inhabitants the Batwa
were self-sufficient but
moved from the park
Dinner of Chicken Curry washed down with a few Nile
Specials. Off to bed with an early rise in the morning. Still not too sure who
is actually joining us or if we’re on our own. The Mahinga National Park is one
of three , covering 33.7 sq km, making up
8%, of the greater Virunga Conservatory area. Whilst Mahinga covers the
Uganda side, the Volcano National Park covers Rwanda and the DRC has the Virunga
National Park. The big attraction is the Virunga massif - 7 peaks – 2 active volcanoes,
2 water filled crater lakes, and gorillas in the forests all spanning 3 countries.
The park was gazetted in 1925 by King Albert of Belgium making it the oldest
park in Africa.
Mgahinga
Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
sits high in the clouds, at an altitude of between 2,227m and 4,127m. As its
name suggests, it was created to protect the rare mountain gorillas that inhabit its dense forests, and it is
also an important habitat for the endangered golden monkey.
As well as being important for
wildlife, the park also has a huge cultural significance, in particular for the
indigenous Batwa pygmies. This tribe of hunter-gatherers was
the forest’s “first people”, and their ancient knowledge of its secrets remains
unrivalled. Mgahinga’s most striking features are its three conical,
extinct volcanoes, part of the spectacular Virunga Range that lies
along the border region of Uganda, Congo and Rwanda. Mgahinga forms part of the
much larger Virunga Conservation Area which includes adjacent parks in these
countries.
The
Virunga Mountains
4,507
|
14,790
|
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4,437
|
14,560
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4,127
|
13,540
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3,711
|
12,180
|
||
3,674
|
12,050
|
||
3,474
|
11,400
|
||
3,470
|
11,400
|
||
3,058
|
10,031
|
Next morning we meet at Golden Monkey Lodge and meet the
others who made it here late last night. But there still looks like there are a
couple of others who are coming from Rwanda who didn’t make it to the border
before closing time, the previous night. We all squeeze into Mikes 4x4 and head
out of Kissoro – it’s only 12 kms away to the Park office but due to the road
and traffic ,takes us an hour and half. So now I get it- Mzungu builds the
roads when they are beneficial to him – ie for commerce and transport of goods
- but not necessarily the less lucrative business of transporting backpackers
to a conservation area. The government can then pocket the road transport
budget money.
After an hour and half were only too happy to fall out of
vehicle and stand on solid ground. Register names and pay $60 fee, meet our
quiet soft spoken guide Elly. Weather is perfect, overcast but mountain clear
of cloud.
Our first hour or so is through grass and bamboo forests,
until we get to the rain forest proper. The climb got steeper and became quiet
challenging – find myself struggling to keep up with the much younger members
of the group, though old man John is doing well!
After 2 and a half tough hours we reach the top of the first
peak, and straddle the top of Rwanda and Uganda. Down the other side and start
on the second peak. The climbs and descents are VERY steep and though wooden
and at times very rickety ladders are in place, it’s not a place to be if you
suffer from vertigo!!
Second peak reached after another 45 minutes and then
finally the last. But by this time the cloud had closed in and visibility was
almost zero – bar a few brief glimpses through parting clouds. It’s hard to
believe that the glimpses we saw of the Parc Du Virunga’s below us in the DRC
actually harbours ant DRC government rebels. I
Mgahinga is home to
the habituated Nyakagezi gorilla group - a fairly nomadic bunch that have been
known to cross the border into Rwanda and the Congo. The family includes the
lead silverback Bugingo who is around 50 years old and father to most of the
group; his silverback sons, Mark and Marfia; and two black backs, Rukundo and
Ndungutse, who love to pose and play in the trees. The two females, Nshuti and
Nyiramwiza, both have babies Furraha and Nkanda respectively.
Down was equally difficult as up – were going
down and over the three peaks again, and the wooden ladders had collected
moisture from the clouds and had become very slippery – some of the drops
