I then sat and waited in the open area between the bar and the small enclosed eating bays at the Home Land Motel. I Double checked with the staff and no kitchen staff had arrived as they don’t serve breakfast until 6 at the earliest.
Eventually, at about 5 past six I went outside and waited by the side of the road ready to be picked up. The town was beginning to move now as it was now light.
The 4x4 arrived soon afterwards and picked me up. Apparently, they had left home at about 4.30 so they were already well into their day! We travelled into the centre of the town to the main roundabout. To my surprise we turned North and headed in the direction of Lake Muhazi and onwards towards Kabarore. The driver explained that with the dry season the animals had mainly migrated North and there would be little point in going into the park by the South gate. So I could have stayed in Kabarore and been picked up there! Still it was worth staying somewhere else to get a feel for a different area and the fish brochettes were very good.
Having passed Kabarore we eventually turned off the metalled road onto dirt roads and made our way towards the North Gate. Even before we entered the park we came across zebra.
We parked up at the entry lodge and paid our entry fee to the park. I paid mine with a mixture of dollars and Rwandan francs. I had given Darryl most of my remaining dollars for the fee for today’s driver and guide, plus some for the 4x4 when we went to see the gorillas as he had no change at that point. The driver put the roof up whilst we were paying.
I was far too tempted to try to zoom in on the animals and consequently a good number of my pictures are too grainy. As we drove the guide we had been recommended and requested called James clearly demonstrated his considerable knowledge especially of bird species. The park is a real draw for twitchers as there are hundreds of different species.
We saw bush buck, impala with young and then a group of bachelor male impala as we gradually made our way out towards the plain where giraffe could be seen in the distance. Though James had excellent eyesight and it was several minutes before I could make out what he was describing! We stopped by a solitary giraffe and had breakfast whilst it moved around close to us.
Having eaten we then headed off to where James thought he could see a solitary buffalo. He explained that once they had lost control of a herd they wandered outside a herd. As we approached we saw the buffalo had two other old males with him and they were wallowing in the mud.
Once we had disturbed the buffalos rest, they did seem grumpy and obviously wanted to get back into the mud, we made our way across the plain to where there was a family group of giraffe. We followed them around the trees as they were meandering and eating.
Next we headed towards the lake where we would have lunch. On route James called for a sudden halt as he had seen a hippo resting in the grass. It looked like a large plastic bag to us! However, once we headed off the track towards it, it then moved off and made its way towards the water.
When we reached the lake we saw quite a large group of hippos near to the water’s edge. However, not much in the way of pictures were possible as they stayed in the water and did not yawn!
At our lunch stop we saw some pretty insects, like dragon flies which had wings that were partly transparent and partly black.
We had an excellent lunch by the lake seeing a few crocs though only in the distance I am gald to say and so it was just their eyes and ripples they caused that were visible.
After lunch we found a followed a large herd of buffalo, before heading back towards the north gate. Again we saw many impala, kopi, bush buck, water buck, a small monkey and a troop of baboons. Many near enough to see well, but sadly too far off for good pictures.
We saw so many termite mounds some of quite a size up to about 8 feet tall.
We made it back to the north gate where we dropped off our guide James. His final observation was to point out the weaver bird nests.
I kept reminding the DEO about Ruth's visit, pointing out she wanted to avoid arriving to find no one there, as has happened to her in the past. At the last minute he realises that the run up to the performance contract review will need him to cancel and re-arrange. This he does. Ruth is to visit next Thursday which will be my last day in Kabarore & at the District Office.
Everything is "hotting-up" with the build up to Mineloc's inspectors visit. We make the final edits, change some text from English to Kinyarwanda to make the title pages one language consistently throughout the documents. We then head off to the only section with a decent colour printer and print all the pages that contain colour. We then spend a lot of time re-editing and adding the odd image to be followed by printing. Fortunately I manage to install the printer driver on my laptop and that saves having to move the files on a USB flash drive.
I set to and finalise my analysis of the Advanced GCSE (their equivalent to A level) in which there are only certain subject combinations. No free choice as in UK, and some students are directed towards certain lines of study regardless of their career wishes.
I also begin a template for the analysis of the vocational courses run as part of the Professional / Technical Certificate. I also help with the run through of the Performance Contract Review presentation adding suggestions to improve the English.
It is the end of the month so I pay both my home help and guard.
I go into work on the Friday a.m. despite it being a public holiday (independence day) to ensure the Presentation goes smoothly. The DEO thanks me and says I can head off in the afternoon.
I then set off to Butare (Huye) for Christine's farewell, via Kigali where I leave an expenses claim for me to collect next week. I am trying to run my funds down without taking out to much from the UK account.
Christine describes herself as a FrAussie. She was brought up in UK until she was 12 then moved to France for all her education before emigrating to Australia.
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