Nyungwe Forest
on Geri Skeen (Rwanda), 25/Sep/2011 11:11, 34 days ago
Everyone’s heard of Rwanda’s mountain gorillas, but Nyungwe Forest is a well-kept secret. It is the largest remaining medium altitude forest in Africa and has massive bio-diversity including 12 species of monkey and 400 chimpanzees.I had never set foot in rain forest before this holiday and, after the gorillas, our walk in Nyungwe was the high point of my week with Gillie and Kevin.As we drove to the start point for guided walks (you are not allowed to walk in Nyungwe unaccompanied), we passed the Nile-Congo divide. A rain drop on one side ends up in the Mediterranean and a rain drop on the other...etc etc. We stopped to watch a family of baboons:Gillie took the best shot of a mountain monkey:Our guided walk took us past towering mahogany trees: Here’s our guide showing us a mahogany seed:Here’s a tree with buttress roots. Our guide said chimpanzees drum on the buttresses to communicate across distances:Now for some of my attempted arty shots. First a view up into the canopy:And here are...some trees:You can see the rain threatening in that last picture. Two minutes after we finished our walk, the heavens opened. The guides said it rains every day here except for July and August when it only rains some days.