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Day 9 – Kampala, Uganda to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
I’m sad to say this is the last day of the Schaffer family 3-country trek through Central Africa. We had a great time and, more importantly, nobody fought, nobody got sick, and everybody survived. In fact, we may even do it again soon (Spain!?).
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Day 8 – Queen Elizabeth National Park to Kampala, Uganda
Today was another big driving day, as it took 7 hours to get from Kisase to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. We got started at 0930 and didn’t arrive at our hotel, the Emin Pasha Hotel, until 1700. We stopped for lunch for about 45 minutes at an orphanage in a small village, and…
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Day 7 – Animal Safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park (Kasese)
We woke up early and a cup of coffee fueled us for the morning safari drive, where we opened up our Land Cruiser top and to spot animals. Our drive started at 0630 and we returned around 1000. We actually ended up seeing more variety the night before, but here’s what we found that morning:
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Day 6 – Gisenyi to Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
Today was a driving day since we had to get from Gisenyi, Rwanda, to Lake Albert in Uganda, where we’d be spending two nights at the Mweya Safari Lodge. The drive took 10 hours and ate up the entire day, not including an hour stop for lunch and the border crossing (45 minutes).
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Day 5 – Ruhengeri to Gisenyi
Day 5 started when we drove from the Mountain Gorilla View Lodge to the lake resort town of Gisenyi – right on the Rwanda-Congo border.
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Day 4 – Visiting the Gorillas
Today was a big day. We got up at 0600 for a quick breakfast and then a drive to the Gorilla meeting place to receive a briefing and get paired off with other travelers for the trek. Robert explained to us that typically there is a slow, medium, and fast group – we urged him…
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Day 3 – Butare to Kigali to Rehengeri
We started out on the road early, around 0800 since we had a big driving day ahead of us (about 5 hours) to transit the entire South-North expanse of Rwanda, through winding, mountain roads, not to mention several stops along the way. Today was the big day to really explore Rwanda’s history – from pre-colonial,…
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Day 2 in Africa – Bujumbura to Butare
On our second full day, we spent most of the time in the car on winding mountain roads, crossing from Bujumbura (Buja), Burundi into Butare, Rwanda. The road was very good, but we didn’t top 35 mph because of the steepness and the switchbacks. We also got a later start than we wanted, leaving Buja…
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Day 1 in Bujumbura
The day started over a nice breakfast on the beach. My favorite food items was sliced up avocado with stringy onions and carrots in lemon juice. I also enjoyed a bowl of granola with dried bananas and fresh yogurt atop. True to the Schaffer way (Schaffer is my mom’s side of the family’s last name,…
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Arriving in Bujumbura
It was a 30 hour journey from LAX to BJM (Bujumbura, Burundi) that started at 2230 Dec 26 and ended at 1500 Dec 28. Somehow we lost a day in there due to the time change and the 13 hour flight from IAD – ADD (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). All told we have 4 flights: LAX…