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Sacred and Cursed Tree
📁 BantuThe tree called ekiko among the Bakiga is usually known as flame tree but also red-hot poker tree or lucky bean tree in English. Its Latin name is Erythrina abyssinica. This tree is indigenous to the Gorilla Highlands region and found in various other parts of the world, up to 2,000 m/ 6,500 ft above sea level. It grows to 12 m/ 40 ft, with…
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A Night Out with My Wife … or $100 Spent Changing a Life?
The wind and wonder of discovery engulfed me as I held on to my motorcycle taxi driver, Kacumbe, the consensus king of boda boda drivers in the Kabale square where I had travelled in southwestern Uganda. We were on our way to Lake Bunyonyi, a mystical highland lake that would capture a decade of my life with its people…
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From Haggling at West African Markets to Global Food Innovations
Dear members, you haven’t heard from me for some time — and that was because I was absent and overwhelmed! I did not expect to be going to West Africa abruptly, but that is what happened! When I presented my life story to you, I noted my stint at the Sheraton Hotel in Conakry, Guinea.…
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The Charm
200mm, f/2,8, 1/400s, ISO1600Though gorillas and chimpanzees understandably receive most of the spotlight, the Virungas have some other interesting primate inhabitants too. Among these is the golden monkey (Cercopithecus kandti), found in all three countries. They are endemic to the Gorilla Highlands region, living in the bamboo forests found along the mountains. Because of habitat…
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1,000 More
After two weeks of rest and reflection we are returning to our good old publishing rhythm! The Daily Dose will be with you from Monday to Friday, but that is just a fraction of what we are up to for the rest of 2021! Allow me to pull you into the second chapter of Gorilla…
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GH Mega Trek Details: by Car, by Foot, by Bike
📁 HikingUPDATE, NOVEMBER 2021: The new GH Mega Trek time is May 2022. The details to follow.Hi again! It’s your GH Mega Trek organiser, happy to share with you the detailed program of the grand adventure we first announced in February. Your options and prices are now all included — get that backpack or suitcase out…
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Rough and Tough People of the Hills
📁 BantuThe Gorilla Highlands Initiative was born 10 years ago in the land of the Bakiga (pronunciation: “Bachiga”; singular: Mukiga; language: Rukiga), the tribe from southwestern Uganda. This is a little peek into their history …The term Bakiga was first used by the British authorities in the 20th century to refer to independent clans who had never…
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Tracking Time
38mm, 1/250s, f/5,6, ISO400 The Batwa are in many ways the Gorilla Highlands region’s forgotten people. The original inhabitants of this part of Africa, the Batwa are — or at least were — traditional hunter-gatherers, living in and off what used to be extensive forests. Marginalised by later arrivals, they were ousted from their final…
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Slapped by a Gorilla: 30 Ultimate Hiking Images
We are back into lockdowns and travel restrictions throughout the Gorilla Highlands region, so we remember last month especially fondly.May 2021 was the go-time for nine eager Dutch boys to fy into Uganda, tired of the one-year wait for their Ultimate Hike — a combination of Volcano Quest and Parks Reunited — to finally take…
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Dracaena, a Shrub That Watches over Boundaries
📁 BantuThe plant known as omugorora among my people, the Bakiga, is called dracaena in English. The name comes from an Ancient Greek word “drakaina” or “female dragon”. It is a genus of about 120 species of trees and shrubs, mainly growing in Africa, with a few species in Asia and central America. A famous member of this genus is dragon…
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“No Persons of Sufficient Intelligence”
📁 Bantu“One has to admire the English: they managed to run almost half a billion people and control a quarter of the world’s land — all that from a relatively insignificant island somewhere between Europe and America. Extreme self-confidence — if only Africa had more of that!” I once read in one of the Gorilla Highlands…
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Misty Mornings
63mm, 1/160s, f/8, ISO400 What Rwanda lacks in size, it makes up for in variety. Of the country’s three main national parks — there are actually four, but not even the Wikipedia entry for Rwanda’s national parks remembers the existence of Gishwati Mukura National Park — Nyungwe Forest was the last I would visit, in 2019.…
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Last Survivor of Lake Bunyonyi’s Punishment Island
The ancient people of the Gorillas Highlands region came up with several horrible ways to discourage girls from getting pregnant prematurely. On Uganda’s Lake Bunyonyi, this role was played by Akampene or Punishment Island. Maudah Kyitaragabiirwe, 86, is the last person saved from this tiny island.What was the purpose of Punishment Island?If you were a girl and you…
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Two Brothers, One Gorgeous Congolese City
Bukavu is a city of fabled beauty, spread around finger-like peninsulas on the southern shores of Lake Kivu. Luckily for all of us, two brothers duly record the special moments in time of this marvel of eastern DR Congo …Bukavu Explorer is what Francis Mweze, 28, calls the innovative project that his younger sibling Fabien…
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The Godfather and the Controversial Martyr of Mountain Gorilla Research
The first scientist to study mountain gorillas full time in the wild was George Schaller. When he reviewed the literature he could find few verifiable facts, largely due to the secretive lifestyle of the gorilla in dense forest and bush. In 1959 he chose a research area in Kabara (DR Congo) because of its more open habitat,…
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Four-Legged Guardians
31mm, 1/250s, f/8, ISO250My conservation and travel photography don’t always mix quite so readily as at Akagera National Park. Miha had asked me to spend some time here when the Gorilla Highlands region expanded to include all of Rwanda, and African Parks — the NGO in charge of the park — wondered if I could…
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Anything Still There in the Nyiragongo Crater?
Don’t miss: a photo gallery in the Guardian and a video on Africanews bring a welcome visual update from the top of Nyiragongo. Last month’s eruption has emptied the lava lake (the left side of the featured image) but some red-hot residue remains at the bottom of the crater.The days of Nyiragongo as a tourism…
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Tale of Kachima Reviewed by Mom and Daughter
The Tale of Kachima: Saving the Golden Monkeys with Sandra Gray is a fun, adventurous, wildly artistic book that allows the imagination of a child to explore and create possibilities. The book takes us on a journey of a conservationist as she learns the secrets of Mother Nature and its inhabitants, especially the endangered golden monkeys.The book…
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