Travels in Africa 

During the summer in 2014 we contucted a nearly one month long journey through Rwanda and Uganda. The journey ended on Zanzibar off the coust of Tanzania. The journey was carried out by friends of ours, Per Lindh and Emmanuel Singirankabo Nduwayo from Bushmaster safaris in Uganda. (Now the company´s name is Mart and Emma Tours & Travels. See their website www.martemma.com) It was an unforgettable journey of over 1000 km with car through the countries, and visits in five national parks. The pictures that I show are from Volcanoes National park in Rwanda, Bwindi Impenetrable National park, Queen Elizabeth National park, Kibale National park and Murchison Falls National park in Uganda. We also visit Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Uganda where Rhinos live under very tight surveillance by park rangers to prevent poaching. Rhinos from Ziwa Sanctuary will be moved out to the larger parks in the country after they have increased in numbers. Under the transports between the parks we had serveral nice moments and pictures from some of these moments I show in the gallery called Uganda.  

Rwanda

Rwanda in east Africa is the continent´s smallest country, with about 11 million inhabitants. (2013) The capital city is Kigali. The country is situated at about 1600 meters altitude with a pleasant climate and an annual temperature of 18-30 degrees Celcius. The highest mountain Karisimbi, measures a height of 4519 meters above sea level, is located in the Virunga Mountains on the border with Congo. Rwanda is a stunningly beautiful and fertile country where the vast majority of the population lives on agriculture. The country´s main exports are coffee and tea.

I visited Rwanda for the first time in 2012. Since then there have been a number of visits to the country. The pictures I show in the gallery Rwanda are from meetings with people during these visits. Despite the country's terrible history with the 1994 genocide in which an estimated numbers of 800,000 people were killed during three months, there is a joy of life, far away from our materialistic world. The Rwandan people stood up after the genocide to continue to live. The people I met in Rwanda has affected me a lot and I try to show that with my pictures.

Rwanda is known for its mountain gorillas, living in the mountains on the border to Congo and Uganda. At the border with Tanzania in the east, the Akagera National Park is located witch I am showing pictures from in its own gallery. 

Volcanoes National Park - Rwanda

The national park is located in the Virunga Mountains in northern Rwanda at the border of Congo and Uganda. The park offers six volcanoes and five mountains called Karisimbi, Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura. 125 km2 of mountain forest in the national park are home to Golden Monkeys, Mountain Gorillas and lots of other species. Dian Fossey was the felt ethologist and primatologist who studied mountain gorillas up close in the 1980s. Fossey was murdered December 26, 1985 close to her research station that was located in Karisoke. She was buried at her research center alongside the mountain gorillas to which she dedicated her life. 

On our journey 2014 we visit the Golden Monkeys in the national park. On February 8, 2015 I went back to Volcanoes NP and this time because of the gorillas. Our guide Fidel could tell us that the number of mountain gorillas at last count approximately to 900 individuals distributed in the national parks Volcanoes (Rwanda), Bwindi and Mgahinga (Uganda) and Virunga (Congo) This encouraging is an increase after the previous inventory! We visited the Kwitonda group consisting of 22 gorillas, including  a 11 months kid. A gorilla female suckles her baby for 4 years and during that period she will not be pregnant. It became a real contact with parts of the group and a gorilla stroked by my leg! We sat on the ground about 4 meters from the silver back of the group who calmly watched us busy eating. Can you be closer to nature? 

I can recommend to stay at hotel Muhabura in Musanze, or Ruhenheri who was the name of the town before. From Musanze there is only 12 km:s drive with car up to Kinigi, where the Volcanoes NP headquater is located. Hotel Muhabura is famous for it´s guest Dian Fossy who spent many nights in room nr 12 at the hotel. Outside the door to the room there is a showcase with information of her life and her important work with the gorillas.      

Bwindi impenenetrable National Park - Uganda

The National Park really feels impenetrable with its rain forest and hilly terrain. The park is 327 km2 and home to, almost 400 mountain gorillas. The park was initially gazetted as a forest reserve in 1942 before being upgraded to national park in 1992. It was listed as a world heritage site in 1994 in recognition of its biodiversity. The silverback in the pictures in gallery Bwindi is Rwigyi. He belongs to the Kahungye group.

Queen Elizabeth National Park - Uganda

The park is located in the western parts of the country at the border with Congo, and got its current name in 1954 when the Queen of England visited the park. The area includes Lake Edward and Lake George joined by the Kazinga Channel. The canal is a major habitat for wildlife seeking coolness and water to drink on hot days. Kazinga was the first name of the national park before it got its current name. Today the 1978 km2 Queen Elizabeth National park adjoins several other protected areas, including the Kyambura and Kigeza wildlife reserves and Kibale National park. It also borders the Congo´s vast Virunga National park wich is itself connected to several more parks and reserves. The result is a 12.000 km2 area of protected land for wildlife and contain a fabulous biodiversity including 1060 birds species and 402 mammals. We came to the Ishasha entrance in the south of the park and drived in to the wilderness. Queen Elizabeth is famous for its tree climbing lions and we had a fabulous luck and came very close to one of these beautiful lions. This happened on my birthday and it really felt like Africa gave me a great gift! 

Kibale National Park - Uganda

The 795 km2 Kibale National park contains one of the loveliest and most varied tracts of tropical forest in Uganda. The park is home to a host of forest wildlife, most famously 13 species of primate including chimpanzee. Southern Kibale adjoins Queen Elizabeth National Park and together these protected areas maintain a 180 km long migration corridor for wildlife. The tall trees in the part of the park that we visited formed a huge roof over us. During our visit in Kibale, we lived at Lake Nkuruba were Vervet and Colubus monkeys were very funny to study. The kitchen staff sometimes had trouble to pacify the food from some monkeys who had developed a great skill to grab the goodies!

Murchison Falls National Park - Uganda

The park size is 3893 km2 and together with the nearby reserve areas Bugungu and Karuma formed a wilderness area of 5072 km2. The river Nile floats through the park in the name of Victoria Nile. Almost in the middle of the park lies Murchison Falls which is a fantastic waterfall with a drop of 40 meters and a width of 7 meters at the narrowest spot with huge amounts of water from Victoria Nile pass every second. In 1961 a footbridge was built across the waterfall, but the bridge was swallowed of the river in 1962 by very heavy rain. Now there is only a concrete pillar left on the south side of the river. West of the national park lies Lake Albert which forms the border with Congo. Murchison Falls conservation area and the Budongo Forests Reserve contain 76 species of mammal as well as Uganda´s largest population of Nile crocodile. 450 bird species are present in water, grassland, and forest habitats. During our visit in "The Falls" we stayed at Red Chilli camp in the park where Warthogs walked between the tents and the houses. One evening we bumped into a hippo that friendly grazed grass!  

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Ziwa is a 7000 hectare park, were the Rhino Fund Uganda (RFU) are working to readjust Rhinos to the major national parks in Uganda. The land is privately owned but used by the RFU which was formed in 1997. The first six rhinos were released in the park in 2005/2006. They have now (2014) increased to fifteen and they are under constant surveillance by armed park rangers to prevent poaching. The land consists of savannah and forests and you can visit the park by foot with guides. To meet these amazing animals by foot was very exciting and of course an unforgettable experience.     

Zanzibar

The final destination on our journey to Africa in 2014 was Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is an archipelago of the islands Zanzibar, Pemba and some smaller islands. Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous territory belonging to Tanzania. The islands are called "Islands of the spices" and seasonings were a large commodity when Zanzibar was a major trading nation. Zanzibar was also the key area for the slavetrade in the 1800s. Slaves were taken from Central and East Africa and were shipped to Zanzibar, where they were sold at a slave market who was the world's last open slave market until the slave trade ceased in Zanzibar in 1873. Where the slave market once was located in the city of Stone Town, a Christian church was built in 1874. The town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

The water in the Indian Ocean hold about 27 degrees year round. One morning we saw a lonely little turtle who struggled through the sand down toward the waiting sea! After a long eventful journey through both Rwanda and Uganda, it was nice to be in the sun on the beach like a ordinary turist instead! 

Lake Hornborgasjön

Hornborgasjön is a nature reserve in Västra Götaland between the swedish towns Skara, Falköping and Skövde. 50 different waterland bird species hedges in the area, but the lake is most known for its cranes that usually appear in March. Large flocks of cranes arrive to the lake in a few weeks on its journey from Spain and France. They stay a couple of weeks before they fly further north in Sweden. The cranes are best seen at Trandansen located at the southern end of the lake where thousands of cranes rest here along with geese, swans and ducks.

Höga kusten and Skuleskogens nationalpark

Höga kusten (or: the High Coast) is located in Västernorrland in Sweden, including Skuleberget and Skuleskogens national park, established in 1984 as Sweden's 19th national park. Nowhere else the Baltic sea is so deep and the islands so high as they are in Höga kusten. In the national park you find Slåttdalsskrevan which is about 200 meters long, 30 meters deep and 7 meters wide which cuts the plain rock in two. The pictures from Höga kusten are taken in the national park, on Skuleberget and on the island Trysunda outside the village Köpmanholmen.