Rwandan Adventure - 7th Day - Golden Monkey Trek in Volcanoes NP

 

Golden Monkey Trek in Volcanoes NP

 - Wednesday, 14 December 2022

Another early morning.  Breakfast at 6:15am and in the jeeps by 7am.  But a glorious day!  Clear skies & comfy temperature.  

Once again, we passed by the park where they hold the annual Gorilla baby naming ceremony.  It is not only to name the baby gorillas, but also to thank all the locals that help with keeping them safe & the tourist happy & willing to come visit!

Once again, we had a short wait while we were assigned to a group.  This time we were allowed to stay together.  We were only 9 today, Pat had to stay back at the lodge to nurse her foot.  Had another African coffee!  

It was a short drive to our starting point.  I couldn't resist taking a lot of pictures, the mountain silhouette's were gorgeous this morning!!

Our starting point was near where the other group had started their Gorilla Trek yesterday.  Didn't take any pictures at the drop off point - it was a very busy tiny village & their were several small shops with very pushy salespeople.  I hurried through both sides to avoid them.  But once again, we were just walking through fields to the edge of the park - marked by a small stone fence.

Once we found the monkies, we spent about a half hour in the field with them.  The government subsidizes the local farmers for the potatoes that the monkies eat, so they will be there for the tourist.  It took a few years for them to decide that potatoes were good to eat, but now they love them and provide an easy way for the tourist to see them & enjoy them.   Quite a few of them had babies hanging on their chests.  The babies had their tails tightly wrapped around like a rubber band to hold them on!!!  They didn't pay much attention to us, so it was hard to get a full face photo.

One ran right between Ken's legs & I happened to get a video of it.  Too cute.

We crossed over the sty into the park & spent another half hour watching the Monkey's in the trees.  Our guide spent a bit of time talking about them & how they have intermingled so that some of them look very similar to the Blue & Silver Monkeys.  They are all definitely related.  It was really entertaining to see their antics as they jumped from tree to branch & ran nimbly across tiny limbs.  There were lots of babies & plentiful food for them.  

Ken of course had gotten the best pictures.  Here's a selection of his for everyone's enjoyment!  Thanks again Ken!!!!

Just a couple of fun videos of the monkey's in motion!  It was a fun marvelous day!!!

Northern Grey headed sparrow

Pin Tailed Whydah

White Browed Robin Chat

On the way back out to meet Isaac & Bachu, I managed a few bird pictures.  Added Grey headed Sparrow, White Browed Robin Chat & a Pin Tailed Whydah to the day's checklist.  I did get a few pictures of the little village at the Trail head.  Not much to look at & very pushy sales people.  Rick did buy a nice walking stick that came apart for storage in the luggage.

We made a short stop back at Mountain Gorilla View Lodge for lunch (they met us to take our hiking shoes, gaiters & rain coats again!!!!) & then immediately headed back out.  We stopped for a few souvenirs at a local gift shop.  Isaac was looking for something to wrap my birthday present for shipment in my checked luggage & others just wanted to buy a few knick knacks.  It was successful!!!

We continued on to the Will Barnhill School of Hope, but had a bit of a complicated trip as we found the roads to the school had been totally torn up & blocked!  Isaac persisted & we wandered around the neighborhood.  We were with Bachu & just followed.  It was a mess.  Glad we were in the Land Rovers!!!  

But we arrived & after a short welcome by Simon, the over all manager, we were introduced to Jackie & she started our tour.  As we walked through the compound, she first told us that she had designed & made her outfit!  We were totally impressed already!  First stop was where they took the originally sheared wool & cleaned & dyed it.  They actually raise their own sheep, grow the plants & make their own dyes and do all the intermediary processing before actually weaving & matting all manner of clothes, blankets, & stuffed animals.  It's incredible.  This first stop showed us the cleaning & dying.

We moved through the grounds to another classroom where they continued the processing & winding the wool to make the small stuffed animals.  The animals are all made without any seams, using felting.  It's amazing.

We continued the tour to see some of the final piecing & a little shipping area where they finalize the stuffed animals for shipment to department stores & gift shops throughout the world.  They make some precious little designs.

The final classroom we visited had spinning wheels for the processing of the yarn into skeins.  This was a more familiar step for us!  Looked like what we've seen in the US at Mountain Home & in other museums.  Everything looked clean & well maintained.

Our final part of the tour was to see where they raise Angora rabbits.  They shear them every 3 months for the furr.  They make little wool vests for them to wear after shearing to keep them warm & protected.  They let us feed them.  They looked very happy & well taken care of!  Great fun!  And brilliant to add that step of full self support.

Olive Bellied Sunbird - my picture

Olive Bellied Sunbird - picture complement of ebird.com

Olive Bellied Sunbird - picture complement of ebird.com

The icing on the cake for me was finding a sunbird in the flowering bushes beside the rabbits. Couldn't identify while we were there, but after we got back to the US, I processed my pictures & did a comparison and finally determined that this was an Olive Bellied Sunbird. Including a couple of pictures that I downloaded from ebird to show it full body.

Our final stop was to purchase our own gorillas to take home!  I also took a picture of the explanation of how to donate.  This is definitely a worthy cause!  We waved goodbye to Simon & headed back to our lodge.    Handspun Hope Website  Here's a link to a full explanation of their school & project.

We got back to the lodge & found a group of dancers waiting for us.  They immediately started dancing & singing as we grabbed chairs & settled in for a show!  They were a bit younger than the previous group & just as enthusiastic!  We couldn't wait to join in!

They even let us play the drums!  It was a fun group for sure!  We had wanted to show them one of our dances too, but decided it would be too difficult in the grass outdoors.  Just enjoyed our time with them!

George & Pamela with Bachu!

Our final night in Rwanda was a glorious Goodbye celebration.  They had transformed the bar into an indoor barbeque and served us Banana Beer (ick) and wine.  We said our goodbyes to Bachu & to Pat & Rick.  The only worrisome thing was a call saying that our flight out of Kigali was delayed.  Good part is that we can sleep in a couple of hours!  Bad part is that we might miss our connection in Uganda.  Humm?  We gave tips to a couple of the special staff & I still had a few blinkies to hand out.  Gave our tips to Isaac & Bachu also.  Our Fire place guy followed us home & relit the fireplace to let us spend a last cozy night at the lodge!!!  Tomorrow it's on to Tanzania!!!