More holidays than blog posts

So I lied. 'Normal Ramallah-related service' (see my post from 10th May) will have to wait a little longer. A serious confidence and spare-time drought has reduced my ramblings from a slow trickle to barely a dribble. As a result I've actually been on holiday again since I last posted so I'm going to ease myself back in by posting a few photos with oh-so-witty captions. This is the ultimate exercise in lazy blogging, I know, but it shouldn't be too demanding of you either.

At the end of July I skipped town and flew to Kigali in Rwanda, via layovers in Amman, Cairo and Addis. Any thoughts of complaining about airport rash were banished by the prospect of seeing Chloe again after four long months. (She is currently working for Merlin in neighbouring Congo and putting me to shame with her terrific blog: crazylikebananas.blogspot.com.) 

We had an excellent couple of weeks seeing a little of Rwanda and Burundi.

Here are some highlights:

1) The deserted streets of the centre of Kigali on "Cleaning Day', the last Saturday of every month when the whole city stops to clear up after itself. Rwanda also has a total ban on plastic bags. Of course this didn't stop a certain reprobate I know (whose name actually sounds a little like Cleaning Day) from smuggling them in. Tut tut.

 

2) Car bites man

 

3) Sadly no visit to Kigali is complete without a visit to the Genocide Memorial. It is an extraordinarily moving place which pays testament not only to the exploitation and barbarity that almost destroyed this country but also to the heroism and resilience on which its survival is founded. This is one of the many mass graves on the site. After 17 years, bodies are still being found on an all too regular basis.

 

4) The Ken Dodd of honeyeaters

 

5) Gorillas Volcanoes in the mist. This is the Volcanoes National Park which straddles the borders of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda. It is also where the Silverbacks live. Unfortunately when we arrived they only had one remaining permit to see the gorillas. We had to settle for the charming golden monkeys.

 

6) Golden monkey Ewok

 

7) Aha. Golden monkey. Lovely chap.

Credit: Chloe Day, 2011

8) After almost a week in Rwanda we took the bus south from Kigali to Bujumbura in Burundi. We passed vast swathes of fertile countryside with this little patch possibly the only spot bare of banana plantations for 300km.

Credit: Chloe Day, 2011

9) Although neither of us are particularly beach types, preferring the peat bogs and sheep shit of the Yorkshire Dales; this little place, an hour's drive south of Bujumbura next to Lake Tanganiyka, definitely hit the spot.

10) Stunning. And the sunset ain't bad either.

Between the monkeys, the beach and the safe, clean cities we had a cracking holiday in this little corner of East Africa. Anyone daunted by travel in Africa could do worse then giving Rwanda and Burundi a go. The food's not a patch on Palestine but the people are just as friendly and I've had more hassle on a night out in Weymouth.

That should be about it for holiday related posts for the time being. Upcoming topics include the wonders of vinyl, Google Earth and if you are very, very lucky a self-indulgent diatribe on the fluid relationship between professionalism and activism. Now that's something to forward to at least.

(Click on the photos for full size version. All of these photos and more are available here and here.)