Wandering the World

It had been a near sleepless night once again when the lights came on at 05:00 for the breakfast service. I wasn’t quite as tired as I’d expected, after having managed to get around four hours spread out across the night. Hopefully it would be enough for the drive home later. The aircraft landed at Heathrow at 06:50 in the morning, and it took me very little time to get to the baggage collectio …

June 5, 2025

I woke up at 04:00, probably after having had so much practice at it recently. I did however get back to sleep until around 06:00 when I heard noise from the neighbours, and then the sound of rain outside. Eventually I decided it was time to go for breakfast. What there was to choose from was not worth the 15 USD I paid. I would have been better off going to Simba cafe or Bourbon cafe to get more …

June 4, 2025

An 04:30 start is never nice, but after the last few days of early starts, late finishes, and plenty of activity, it wasn’t great. I was ready, checked in for tomorrow’s flight, and checked out of Grazia Apartments Hotel thirty minutes later, with the driver arriving to take me to Nyungwe shortly after. The streets of Kigali are dead at this time of the morning, so getting out of there was quick. …

June 3, 2025

When people talk of the big five, they are referring to the animals that hunters used to find challenging or dangerous to hunt on foot. They are the African lion, rhinoceros, elephant, cheetah, and buffalo. Thankfully people only seek them now for the sake of seeing them, or photographing them. For the most part. In Rwanda the place to see the Big Five is just one location: Akagera National Park. …

June 2, 2025

This was the sort of trip where it was pretty much all ‘go’, all the time. There’d been some long days over the last week, and yesterday having run a marathon was no exception. I’d been lucky I hadn’t had any further cramp in my calves, but I’d had restless legs which resulted in very little sleep. My watch told me it was 3.5 hours spread across the night, so an 05:20 breakfast was not easy. At 0 …

June 1, 2025

We had the option to run again today at 08:00, but I felt I’d done enough now and wanted to rest my legs a little before race day. The plan for today was to be ready in reception by 09:15, to be on the road fifteen minutes later. I was awake early, and without really thinking about it, I got myself ready for a run. I must have been crazy - I didn’t need to run today! I went for breakfast around 07 …

May 30, 2025

I’d not planned on running this morning, and even though I woke before 06:00, and found my phone hadn’t charged overnight, I thought my decision was definitely made. I plugged my phone into my emergency power bank, and somehow found myself getting ready to run anyway. Whilst pottering around, I’d somehow convinced myself that missing out on exploring the local area would be a missed opportunity. …

May 29, 2025

Every project we'd visit today would be in some way related to the Rwandan Wildlife Conservation Association.

May 28, 2025

I was awake earlier than expected, long before the 07:00 breakfast. I’d got an hour to eat, and then get ready to check out. I knew my bag wasn’t packed as well as it had been, so this was a challenge. Our first stop today was the Genocide Memorial, not that far from the hotel as the crow flies. No photographs are allowed indoors but we could take as many as we wanted outside. In the museum part …

May 27, 2025

Today I'd begin the journey to Rwanda, for another action-packed adventure.

May 25, 2025