Reading this week:

• The Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ross E. Dunn
• The Travels of Ibn Battutah, abridged, annotated, and with a forward by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
• Sierra Leonean Heroes

A little bit ago I once again found myself in Kinshasa, and this time the big adventure was going to Lola ya Bonobo! It was a lot of fun. Lola ya Bonobo is a sanctuary for orphaned bonobos. The name in Lingala means “Paradise for Bonobos” which seems fairly accurate. It’s on the outskirts of Kinshasa, which as the crow flies is not so far, but we are not crows, we are people, and we have to drive, and that means traffic, and so it is quite the journey out there. But pretty! The city center turns into suburbs over hills and valleys with pretty little gardens along the way and eventually becomes forest and you find yourself on the side of a small river in a copse of bamboo being offered drinks while you wait for the next tour time.

Lola ya Bonobo is the only sanctuary in the world for orphaned bonobos. I think this is because there aren’t really a lot of other great spots to put an orphaned bonobo sanctuary, what with the range of bonobos being relatively small and circumscribed by the Congo river and its tributaries, as our very nice tour guide explained via a diagram he drew. I think this is what he was explaining anyway; the tour was in French, which I really need to get around to learning. The bonobos wind up orphaned both through habitat destruction and their parents being hunted for meat. The babies are often sold on the black market, and it is from there that Lola ya Bonobo rescues them and helps to raise them. After all of this was explained to us, we set off on the tour. The whole place is extremely gorgeous, as it is set within the forest, so you have paths set within the trees and facilities where they take care of the bonobos.

The first enclosure was the cutest because the first enclosure was for the baby bonobos. It was insanely cute. The babies are taken care of by “surrogate mothers,” i.e. some Congolese women who are looking after them. So we approach this enclosure which had a zoo-like glass front and there are just three women in there with baby bonobos clinging to them and then running around and playing and stuff. I imagine these women spend all day taking care of toddler bonobos and then go home and take care of toddler humans and man that must make for a full day. The babies had playground equipment including a trampoline and a swing but the best toy of course was the leaves on the side of the paths which the babies would push onto the paths and then the women would grab a broom and sweep them up. It was just like absolutely the cutest.

From there we went down to a series of different enclosures with mostly older bonobos, though I didn’t really understand the difference between the enclosures. The first enclosure had several families it seems and we watched them rub their rather pronounced butts together. The tour guide tossed them some bananas to give us a better look and being no bonobo expert I am sure this is okay. The bonobos were kind enough to show off for us.

The next enclosure bordered a small dammed lake which made the whole setting extra pretty on top of the regular gorgeousness of the other bits. We watched a couple sanctuary employees row across the dam in a boat and then toss a family of bonobos a bunch of papayas, and wow that’s a dream job.

The final enclosure we visited seemed to be for the rowdier bonobos. They were tricky these bonobos. One mom in this enclosure had a super cute baby she would use to bait people who wanted to take pictures, and then when you approached would toss sand at you. One bonobo had a water bottle he had gotten from somewhere and the tour guide warned that if you get too close to the enclosure they’ll tear at your shirt or rip your purse off, so that’s fun. Can’t blame ‘em, frankly, the bonobos here are in the right. Still pretty neat!

Finally from there we exited via the gift shop. I got a pretty sweet “Amis des Bonobos” t-shirt and a carved wooden spoon with a little bonobo on top. Always happy to support a good cause, and these people do seem pretty great. They do some great education and are helping out an animal unique to the DRC. If you ever find yourself in Kinshasa, it is well worth the trip.

Because I was very lucky I was able to go to the Musée National de la République Démocratique du Congo! The lucky part was that I was in Kinshasa and therefore able to go. Getting to Kinshasa is the hard part. If you’re already in Kinshasa it is pretty easy and you should definitely go, it is great.

Although the institution is older the physical museum itself is pretty new, having opened only in 2019. It’s a really nice location, with a brick fronting and an open and airy interior. It is such a nice location that when I arrived I originally thought it might be closed for an event as there was a wedding (I think) going on out front. But it was very much open, and despite it being a Saturday is was rather packed with school groups, which is just awesome. It is those kids that this museum should really exist for and by golly it was existing for them. Though I suppose it is a pretty alright wedding venue as well.

I took a taxi to the museum and he was nice enough to wait for me in the parking lot, which itself was pretty neat because it had shade structures built of solar panels and a cool display showing you how much power the solar panels were generating. Paying for admission was a bit confusing though, because from the parking lot I actually had to go back out the gate to find a guy who took down my info and who handed me a slip of paper. This slip of paper I handed to lady in a booth across from info guy, along with the entry fee. This lady gave me a receipt. I then walked in past the wedding to the front desk, who took my receipt and at that point handed me a ticket, at which point I was I guess fully in the museum.

The museum is not terribly large but packs in a good chunk of stuff. There are several permanent and a couple temporary exhibits, arranged on two floors. Since the museum is new the displays are very well done with explanations mostly in both French and English. One thing that confused me is I couldn’t tell at first if different exhibit halls were open, as they are behind rather large sliding doors/walls. The exhibits are in fact open, it’s just that the exhibit rooms are air conditioned while the hallways are not, so they doors are keeping in the cold air. A lot of the items on display were familiar to me, what with having gone to the Royal Museum for Central Africa. One object that it took me a moment to realize was familiar was a Kakuungu mask, pictured below:

What was significant about this mask is that the Royal Museum had made a bit of hay about having returned it to the DRC, with President Tshisekedi himself having participated in a ceremony. So I recognized it from the Royal Museum and now here I was seeing it in the flesh, pretty cool. The mask isn’t officially owned by the National Museum, as Belgium doesn’t have the laws on the books to officially return it, so when you go to Kinshasa to see this mask it is merely “on loan.” As I discussed in my post on the Royal Museum this is a bit of a thin excuse but I guess possession is nine tenths of the law and right now the mask is in possession of the DRC so that’s something I guess.

Despite my familiarity with a good chunk of the objects on display, a good many were new to me. We are interested in witchcraft and divination on this blog, so seeing the divination basket was pretty cool. I was also entranced by the collar in the below gallery. That sucker must have been really heavy to wear but I suppose that is the burden of status. And when I first looked at the Monzombo backrest, I thought it was trying to be a chair of some sort (it was next to some other chairs), but I thought surely it must be something more utilitarian like a sword stand or something. But I guess it is the sort of chair you give to dignitaries. But maybe it was for dignitaries you don’t like? Or maybe it is more comfortable than it looks? And then finally in addition to being fans of witchcraft on this blog we are also fans of palm wine, and now I need a palm wine cup and a palm wine cork or else my kitchenware collection will never be complete.

In addition to the household objects it is was the mellurgy and blacksmithing displays that I was particularly interested in. They had a whole recreated forge set up with hammers and anvils and bellows and everything so that was very neat to see. Then on the wall next to it they had the blacksmiths’ products on display. The utilitarian objects that the blacksmiths produce, like hoes and other farm equipment, are impressive in their own right, but the arts pieces are really what blow me away. I saw more decorative and ceremonial knives and objects like the bells shown below are really what give you an insight into the mastery of craft that these guys had achieved.

Alas I am sad to say that I didn’t spend way too long in the museum. Like I said it is not particularly large anyways but the masses of schoolkids moving through the place made it feel pretty hectic. I am super glad to have seen those kids in the museum though; me visiting all by myself would have been rather sad. The museum isn’t really meant for me and I have access to places such as the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium that these kids might not be able to see. But here they were very, very excitedly going around the museum entranced by the tour guides telling them about their own history and culture and that was really great. After kind of zooming through I instead found refuge in the gift shop, where the very kind sales lady showed me the different crafts and postcards and souvenirs. I eventually bought a ceremonial stole covered in cowrie shells that was really beautiful before heading back out into Kinshasa. The National Museum of the DRC is really really great and really well done and is existing to serve the people of the DRC and Kinshasa and if you are in town you should visit too to see all the cool culture they have on display and to support their mission. And maybe get married, who knows?

Goma and Lake Kivu from the top of Mt. Nyiragongo.

In our last installment, I had climbed a volcano only to look at fog.

But then! We were sitting in the kitchen and I was looking out the window when suddenly I got a glimpse of Lake Kivu! It was clearing up! So we rushed out and the other two guys got their gear ready to take some pictures. It was so stunning to see the whole vista of Lake Kivu from thousands of meters up, and to see the city of Goma spread out along its shores with its million inhabitants. But by the time we could get a really good view the fog came again. But then the crater was clearing up! We could see the lava! So we ran over to get a better view of the lava but then it got foggy again. But then the lake cleared up again! It switched back and forth a few times and we kept bouncing back and forth before the fog really socked in again.

By that point we settled into dinner. Dinner was phenomenal. The chef announced each course which I thought was downright grand for being on top of a volcano. It started with soup they had hauled all the way from the bottom and heated, and dinner was rice, vegetables, and a delicious grilled porkchop. Highly recommend hiring a chef. Also thankfully after dinner the fog cleared again for a bit giving us a good long look at Lake Kivu. After hanging out for a bit we all went to bed exhausted.

I noted on Facebook it was “like a lamp I used to have,” but then my mom helpfully pointed out we still had my lava lamp.

Around midnight they woke us up to get a view of the lava lake. The fog had cleared enough to give us a really good view. Right as we got up there to the crater I bothered to look up and you could also see the stars. Because of the other clouds though it was like we were alone in the world except for the stars and the volcano. It was a really powerful sight. I took some pictures and video but mostly I just stood there staring at the lava. You could hear it, even all the way up on the rim, and it’s amazing to watch it bubble and smoke and steam. I thought it was kinda like a pot on a brazier where the heat isn’t totally even and so the pot doesn’t all boil in the same spot. It’s so amazing.

The next morning started pretty early. When I first woke up it was entirely quiet and calm, and I just sat in my sleeping bag for a while listening to the volcano and the wind. I got up, packed, and then stepped out of my hut. Right when I stepped out of my hut it was phenomenal. At that moment the clouds at my level cleared and I could look out over the landscape and a layer of relatively low, patchy clouds added depth to the whole vista. Breakfast was an amazing omelet (I asked, jokingly, if when they needed to start the fire they just dashed down to the lava lake to grab some lava, but our chef just said “no, it would be too hard.”).

We stepped off at 0700 and again the fog was dense, which again I was in favor of because the first part of the hike, all steep rock face, had me scared shitless. The nice part about the descent is that it gets easier as you go along, and the day kept getting nicer as we lost altitude. The way down was relatively uneventful, as we passed the rest points quickly and when we finally dropped below the cloud layer the sun came out and it was a very pleasant hike. We made it down in a tad over 3 hours. We checked back in, loaded up the land cruiser, and head for the border. The border crossing went fairly smooth, though paying for another Rwanda visa is more complicated than I thought it should be. I took a bus back to Kigali despite the taxi driver that took me to the bus stop offering to drive me to Kigali for $100, then $80, and then $50. The bus is only $4 though and it leaves on a schedule, which utterly amazed me.

When I sat down to write my journal for the day I was in a rather nice hotel in Kigali and I could barely believe I had woken up on a volcano that morning. Soon though all my muscles were desperately sore and I passed out almost directly after I had some dinner. Seeing the volcano and getting to experience the beauty of the DRC and Virunga National Park had never really been on my list until I just happened to see it in an Instagram post (on National Geographic’s feed) so it was so serendipitous that I got to do it. I’m going to be looking for any excuse to go back.

The crew (minus my French friend who was taking the photo).

There’s lava down there, purportedly.

Reading this week:

• True at First Light by Ernest Hemingway

It was time to climb Mt. Nyiragongo. This was the other highlight of my COS trip. Nyiragongo is an active volcano in the south of Virunga National Park just over the border from Rwanda in the DRC. People climb the volcano every day and it is a two day event, climbing up one day, staying at a camp at the summit, and then climbing down the next. After another luxurious night at Kibumba Camp I woke up early for breakfast and was driven over to the volcano.

When I arrived at the start of the trailhead there was a pretty big crowd and I was kinda disappointed, but it turned out most had just come down from the summit and I would be climbing up the volcano with just two other guys, Jeremy and YP. They were French and Swiss, and worked for Olam. Jeremy was actually familiar with the Isanya Coffee Plantation near Mbala which was pretty neat. But since the guides spoke French, and these two guys spoke French, I was the only Philistine around that didn’t speak French. They held all the briefings in English for my benefit and man I should have studied my French harder.

I had opted for the full package, so at the trailhead they had a backpack waiting for me with most of the necessary supplies. It included a sleeping bag, a fleece sleeping bag liner, a fleece sweater, a parka, and a rain poncho. I packed a change of clothes, extra socks, a notebook, and my little camera. I should have brought a flashlight but didn’t even think of it. I also should have brought toilet paper, because there isn’t any at the top, but, uh, this didn’t come up. I was actually woefully under-prepared for this whole event, because I only had kinda crappy tennis shoes instead of hiking books, just regular clothes, and my little point and shoot camera felt massively under-powered compared to my Francophone friends’ massive rig. Hiring a porter was an option, but being a manly man of manliness I opted out. Food was taken care of by our amazing chef Honoré and a porter hired to haul food for the whole party.

At one point it rained on us.

I suppose I’m not exactly a mountaineer but this hike is tough. The trailhead is at about 2000m and the summit is at 3470m, and the trail is 8km long. I guess on average that’s a 9% grade, but it gets steeper and steeper as you go along. We wound up doing it in about 5 hours which is pretty much dead average. The guides will do the trip 2-3 times a week. The first part was a fairly pleasant hike through the jungle. There are a four pre-planned stops along the way and you eat lunch as you ascend (they had given us sandwiches and fruit at the trailhead).

About halfway up you pass by the vent that was the source of Nyrigongo’s 2002 eruption. The trail until that point is on a stretch of lava from the eruption, and the vent is still visibly off-gassing a bit. Besides that though, you couldn’t tell the area had been a lava-strewn hellscape only 17 years before. The lava from Nyrigongo flows extremely quickly, and given the steep sides of the volcano it moves fast. So we are told. The other interesting fact about the vent is that it is at the same height (again so they told us) as the lava lake inside the crater, and there was a lot of mountain left to climb.

Last rest stop before the final rock scramble.

After ascending into the cloud line it is very cold. On the way up though I was just in a long-sleeve t-shirt and was still sweating. Don’t try this climb without a change of clothes. Depending on the time of year apparently it may or may not be cloudy at the top, but for us it was walking through pea soup. Not having ever seen the Alps, between the wind and the fog it felt very alpine, which was amazing considering we were hiking through steamy (not that steamy) jungle just that morning. Frankly I was glad the fog was there. The last chunk of the mountain is a steep rock scramble with a big heavy backpack and I was glad I couldn’t see how far I had to fall. Until we were back down it the next day I was scared of the descent the whole time I was up there.

Finally though the small “cabins” of the summit camp came out through the fog and we were at the top! I was a bit ahead of the other guys and one of the guides pointed out the smell, and initially I thought he was talking about the toilet. It was of course the sulfer smell of an active volcano. Besides our immense joy at having finished the hike, exhausted as we were, the top was a bit anti-climactic for us because it was solid fog. I had convinced myself that the heat of the volcano would keep the crater clear but this was not the case. It was pretty amazing to hear the lava boiling some 700m below us. After settling in and changing clothes we mostly hung out lamenting the lack of view for all that hiking. We took some pictures of us with fog and then hung out in the kitchen hut because there was a big warm brazier there. They gave us some tea and hot chocolate and it was a lovely time.

Chillin’ in the kitchen hut.

After two weeks of blog posts about traveling somewhere, finally we’re on some content – gorillas! My first major event at Virunga National Park was going to go see some gorillas in their natural habitat. As explained to us the previous night in a brief by a ranger, we were off to see a family of 27 gorillas that had been habituated to human contact and were constantly tracked by park rangers. I woke up pretty early and enjoyed watching the sunrise over the park and watching the mountains come out of the mist. There was drumming in the distance that started up around 0500 and kept going for an hour. In the morning I also saw some very large hummingbirds getting some breakfast at the flowers around the camp.

We set off probably around 0730 and after another quick briefing we were off to see the gorillas. They were fairly close, but we had to hike for about an hour and a half up a very muddy trail in the quickly warming jungle. Before we set out they had given us face masks to protect the gorillas. The gorillas can contract human diseases and so we had to stay far enough away and wear these masks to prevent germs. Eventually we got to where the other rangers had been tracking the gorillas and were told to don our masks. We stepped off the trail and looked for gorillas.

Me with the gorillas.

After stepping off the trail, we turned a corner and BAM, gorillas. That was stunning to turn the corner and then just be meters away from four gorillas just chilling on top of a little hill grooming each other. Then I looked around and there were quite a number more in the surrounding area. Experiences like these make me think that bigfoot or the yeti could be real, because despite weighing 500 pounds the gorillas could easily hide in the dense brush and if they didn’t want to be seen you would be hard pressed to spot them.

Ranger helping Peter get that shot.

We had an hour allotted with the gorillas. The rangers try to get you to the gorillas around the time they take their mid-morning nap and therefore aren’t moving much, but we showed up a bit early and wound up slowly following the gorillas as they moved through the underbrush eating leaves. We saw all sorts of fun family scenes. I remember seeing a mom holding a baby and a small juvenile hanging out in a little pocket of green and eventually a silverback came over to hang out. I really enjoyed watching the little baby gorillas, especially the ones that were climbing trees and hanging out up there. They were super cute. What else? A couple of times we got really good looks at a silverback just sitting down eating and then maybe moving away. We saw some larger gorillas climb up trees. I guess they’re not supposed to be all that arboreal but they’re pretty good at it despite that.

Gorilla in a tree.

At one point a silverback got kinda mad at us I guess and came at us. I dropped into a crouch (per our briefing – you’re not supposed to run) but the guides said don’t be scared. He backed off eventually. There was one what I assume was a female that would keep watching us pretty close as she ate. I scared a baby that was staring at me; I waved my fingers and then it looked surprised and ducked down behind some bushes.

Eventually our hour was up and we head back down the trail. The rest of the afternoon was spent just hanging out at Kibumba camp, staring at Nyirogongo and imagining what it was going to be like to climb it the next day. Seeing the gorillas was really cool, and it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat. I was especially pleased that we had a small group; it was just Peter and I and the rangers and the gorillas. If you want to see gorillas I highly recommend coming over to the DRC; this was according to the biased rangers, but not only is seeing gorillas in Rwanda $1400 as opposed to $400 in the DRC, but the rangers say often they don’t even see gorillas. Plus Kibumba Camp at Virunga is gorgeous and just being in the area was phenomenal.

The baby kept trying to run off and the juvenile kept dragging him back. Babysitting, you know?

Mt Nyirogongo, viewed from Kibumba Camp bar.

Reading this week:

• The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

After an evening in Rubavu, the next day it was time to cross over into the DRC to visit Virunga National Park. I was supposed to be at the border at noon, so in the morning I went for a walk. As I was walking around, there were a lot of other people carrying large carafes like the kind you keep hot water or coffee in. I also spotted two people carrying large pots on their heads, and in Rubavu and on the way there from Kigali I spotted a large number of little old women sweeping up sidewalks or weeding hedges. I was impressed. Eventually I took a taxi to the border, though I was delayed again by the president giving a speech or something preventing the taxis from getting to the border.

The border crossing went largely smoothly, though it was a bit confusing. First you have to check out of Rwanda, but there weren’t any signs or anything being like “check out of Rwanda here.” But I figured it out and then just waltzed across the border to the DRC. I had to wash my hands and had my temperature checked twice I think as a precaution against ebola. On the DRC side I had to go through immigration of course.

In the DRC they speak French and I had meant to brush up on my French, but then got lazy and figured my high school French would see me through. I really should have brushed up on my French. At DRC immigration I got in a line and went up to a counter with a sign that said “Rwanda -> RDC.” I figured that was for me but when I got there the dude behind the glass immediately yelled at me “ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE YOU GO. ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE.” I stood there bewildered and eventually he explained slightly better that I should go to window number five. I went to Window #5, got my stamp, got my yellow card checked, and went to the Virunga office which is right at immigration. Waiting for our ride to the park to arrive, I met Peter from Belgium. He has spent most of his career though working around Nigeria. He’s a pretty interesting dude and liked to talk.

Goma street scene.

Eventually our driver showed up and took us to the park. The thing about the DRC of course is that if you are a consumer of US you only ever hear bad things about the DRC if you hear about it at all, so I didn’t know what to expect. To get to the park we had to drive through Goma, the border town and home apparently of 1 million people. I don’t know what I was expecting but Goma isn’t it. A lot of it was really nice though as you got to the outskirts it looked more familiar to my Zambia experience. I was struck by the stylishly dressed people. I guess I shouldn’t have been but I was. Outside of Goma we went through a checkpoint where we met the park rangers. That checkpoint was kinda wild. There were tons of motorcycles going through, dudes with guns (the rangers), run down buildings and volcanic stone, and it was sorta gloomy and the whole thing had a Mad Max vibe to it.

The rangers showed up and we got back in the Land Rover and drove the rest of the way to the camp. We drove through a few villages. The kids yelled Muzungu at us. The villages had goats and lots of sheep and a few cows, and the trees were these trees that look to me like bamboo but are regular trees, and the views got more and more gorgeous. Eventually we got to the camp and had a welcome passion fruit juice. Almost immediately there was a delicious lunch and then we got shown our glamping tents.

Glamping.

The tents at Kibumba Camp in Virunga National Park have hot showers and running toilets and hot water for coffee in the room. It’s lux. They have a bar and patio with a fireplace (it was pretty chilly that high up) with stunning views looking right a Nyirogongo. I don’t have the words to describe this part of the country. The volcano was covered with mist most of the day but it rained eventually and cleared up and it was stunning. Off to the right is another volcano, also stunning. At night you can see the glow of the caldera on the clouds. In the evening one of the rangers came by and told us all about gorillas and about our trek the next day. After that I had a beer with Peter the Belgian and a German guy, and then a delicious dinner, and then returned to the tent to find a hot water bottle heating up the bed for me. The DRC is nice!