Carefully placing each hand and foot, I moved slowly but deliberately up the handmade ladders nailed into the 60-degree mountain slope. On both sides, the ridge fell off into a white void. As if clawing my way to heaven, I followed the knife-edge path onward and upward through a sea of swirling white clouds to […]
Volcanoes Safaris
Water: The Solvent of Life
Have you ever had to plan your water consumption? Most people who are able to read this will never experience what that entails. ‘Water is the solvent of life’ is the saying in biology but most people in developed countries will take this for granted. They’ll turn on a faucet today and like every day […]
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee
Celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee is something that comes naturally to many people around the Commonwealth country of Uganda as over the years they have developed a strong relationship with the Queen, who has visited the country more than once! Her first visit to the Pearl of Africa came in 1954 as she toured the […]
Saying Goodbye to the Gorillas
The day had finally arrived—my last gorilla trek, at least for the foreseeable future. After three-and-a-half years working in Central Africa, I’m moving on to a new job based in Washington, D.C. I decided to make my final trek in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with Dr. Fred Nizeyimana, the head Ugandan veterinarian of the […]
Virunga’s Other Endangered Primates
With my muscles still aching from the steep climb to reach the Susa gorilla family two days earlier, I walked into the Volcanoes National Park headquarters in Kinigi, Rwanda, to sign in for another trek. I had been so nervous before that first gorilla trek wondering how I would handle the high-altitude climb and if […]
