Rwanda Travelogue

Day 12 - July 21, 2022

It was golden monkeys today. Another early start and of to the HQ for assigning to our group. After the experience with the gorillas (where there is a maximum group size of 8) it was a surprise to find out that there were only two groups trekking to the monkeys, each group having 20-25 people. We drove off to the start point - basically a street in a small village where it looked as if there was a military exercise in progress. In fact it was all the porters waiting to be assigned to guests. Tito pointed out that with a group this large, it was worth trying to keep at the front of the group, which is what we did. We walked through the cultivated fields again, but before we reached the forest we found ourselves surrounded by golden monkeys, eating the remnants of the potatoes left after harvest. They were all ages and sizes, including very young ones carried upside-down on mothers' chests. They soon headed for the forest and we followed, to watch them jumping around in the trees. Once again, we had about an hour with them before retracing our route back to the truck.

Back at the lodge, the manager asked if we'd like a tour of the gardens or a birding walk that afternoon. Mavis keenly accepted the garden tour and I the birding.

The grounds of the lodge were delightful and full of birds. I got decent photos of around 15 different species, many of them firsts for me - including a turtle dove. These doves can be seen in the UK but are very rare and have declined over 90% since the 1970s, so it was a joy to see one for the first time. Mavis had a great time inspecting the gardens, which produce much of the produce used in the restaurant.

Back to our room to pack for departure next day, having agreed an earlier than necessary start with Tito - I felt it was better to get going than hang around at the lodge.

Day 13