Africa's Heart of Darkness (Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Uganda)

12.02.2009 - 19.02.2009

One of the most beautiful landscapes in the world,but also the recent showplace of humanity's most terrible atrocities.

Drove from Kampala via Kisoro / Cyanika border to Kigali. Site of the worst genocide in recent history.

Into the DR Congo (Zaire) at Goma for a day, just after the ceasefire with General Nkunda's rebel troops.

Goma - reputedly the most dangerous town in the world: civil war, gas bubbles from Lake Kivu, volcano eruptions!

Private chauffeur drive kindly provided by the Congolese border chief. Thank you!

Then drove further south to Bujumbura. Camouflaged soldiers on 50km stretch lining the street before the capital.

All visas available at border.

Best hotel in Kampala: Serena *****, Alternative: Emin Pasha ****

Best Hotel in Gorilla area (Ruhengeri ): Mountain Gorilla Lodge ****

Best Hotel in Kigali: Serena *****

Best Hotel in Gisenyi: Serena ****

Best Hotel in Goma: Ihusi ****

Best Hotel in Bujumbura: Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika ****

Hotel des Mille Collines, Kigali**** (ex-Sabena) is the real-life location of the terrible historic events depicted in the movie "Hotel Rwanda"
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Hotel des Mille Collines

Mountain Gorilla Monument, Kigali, Rwanda

Kivu, Rwanda

Video: Rebel forces advance on Goma (Source: euronews on youtube)
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Goma, Congo, End of Dangerous Zone

Uganda Equator Crossing

Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika, Bujumbura, Burundi

Video: Burundi still struggling to overcome civil war (Source: Al Jazeera on youtube)

"A Bend in the River" (Congo, Kisangani that is) by V.S. Naipaul, the second-most famous African-Indian Nobel Prize Winner (after Gandhi) remembers his youth in Africa, as part of their successful minority - not always in a "politically correct" way.

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