The journey to Africa is a long and tiresome one, but it is like no other journey I've taken, just so much diversity in the people I meet. I was waiting at gate 68B thinking to myself, is the screen broken? It says we are going to Dublin... So weird. Also there sure are a lot of white people on this flight to Addis Ababa... I finally asked someone and, oh boy, I can think of a few more on-the-way stops than Dublin... So it was something like 11 hours to Dublin, 2 hours of sitting on the plane, and 9 hours to Addis. I saw a woman with a Kenya bracelet on and chatted with her, wanted to practice my Kiswahili. Turns out she owns a construction company in Nairobi... And there were a couple girls sitting next to me on a 3 month excursion starting with a wedding in Malawi. The good news: we arrived early, at 5am! The bad news: my flight to Kigali was schedule to leave at 2pm. The airport wasn't horrible, there were great reclining chairs which ended up being uncomfortable after 5 hours of trying to sleep on them, but the food selection was non-existent.
Colorful African fashion
This is what happens when your flight is the last to leave
Our flight ended up being delayed too, with no announcement so I was petrified I was missing it. There was a guy Andrew I met in the gate who was traveling to The Congo to work in Emergency Conflict Resolution indefinitely. Pretty amazing career (don't worry mom, I'm not interested).
Finally leaving Addis Ababa
View of Kigali from the air
So I finally landed in Kigali and got through customs with their broken printer around 6pm, just in time for a 4 hour drive to Bwindi forest! Augustine picked me up with one of those handwritten signs outside the airport... I felt so VIP. He drives the most amazing vehicle that looks like a minivan, but navigates like a land cruiser. I have been stuck in the desert in brand new rental SUVs and this guy is driving through mud pits with ease.
Looks like I've found the Last Gentle Man
Kigali is a city that is very clean compared to other cities I have seen, typically in Tanzania. I found out later that there were many war criminals from the Rwandan genocide that elected to do City beautification instead of prison, or to lessen their sentence. Makes sense. The roads were all paved well and there were brick paver sidewalks. I was impressed. Driving seemed similar to Tanzania, where you can drive wherever you want, on whatever side of the road (or off the road) you want as long as you beep or flash your headlights.
It was a 2 hour drive to the border, which looked straight out of some dark foreign suspense thriller movie. The line at the Rwandan border was about 30 minutes, but the Ugandan border was forever. Fortunately Augustine has connections because he got me to the front of the line... And only one person called me out and asked me why I thought I didn't have to wait in line. I just pointed at Gus and said "he told me to", playing dumb mzungu (white people are called mzungu in East Africa).
Then began our 2 hour trip up to Broadbill Camp, a guest lodge with 4 canvas tent suites. They were super cute, I wish I had gotten their earlier to enjoy tea on the porch or something. Instead I tried to scarf down dinner, shower, and get to bed for my 6am wake up call. Broadbill runs on solar power that shuts off from 10-5:30 but they said they would keep it on late for me. Needless to say I was glad I had taken out my headlamp before they shut off. And I definitely should have turned off the switches so when they turned the power back on at 5:30 they didn't flood my restless sleeping morning with light... But such is Africa lodging....
Didn't have time for the soak tub with a view...
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