Jonathan Proud

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Campsite near Kigali	Village house
Mon 13th: Arrived in Kigali around noon and went to a restaurant for a drink. The climate was very pleasant and not too hot. There were lots of banana plants and yuccas growing around the town. I bought postcards at the tourist office. Our tour leader changed some money for me. We camped in scrub near Kigali. Dinner was rabbit and spaghetti. I did not sleep well as we only have karrimats and the ground was very hard (I had to get used to this!) Tue 14th: It was the leader's birthday and the truck was decorated with balloons when we	New technology in Zaire
New technology in Zaire	got up. A crowd of children soon gathered around and we gave them the balloons when we left. They were very excited. We went into the town and Pete and I walked around the town for a while before going to an hotel for a drink at the poolside. In the afternoon we set off towards the Zaire border and after driving through hills covered in banana plants we arrived at a disused quarry where we camped. I was on kitchen duty and helped prepare the salad for dinner. I slept on the truck, which was surprisingly comfortable, although I did not sleep well.
Wed 15th: Got up at 5am to assist with breakfast preparation, although I was fairly useless. We drove on to Gisengi on the border with Zaire and I tried to photograph the people at the roadside on the way. At Gisengi we looked round a souvenir shop and walked down to the shore of Lake Kivu, before crossing the border. Exit from Rwanda took about an hour, but there were no problems. Getting into Zaire was more difficult as we had to complete forms and pay 100 francs. We waited a couple of hours before they decided to let us all through except one American whose visa was invalid. We were taken to an	Nyiragongo Volcano
Lava flow across fields	hotel in Goma where we had drinks and went to a black-market money changer. Mike gathered the money together for changing and then disappeared with the proprietor to do the deal. While we waited, Liz (the cook) appeared with an empty shopping bag. Pete, Frank and I accompanied her to an amazing market with numerous exotic fruits, vegetables, fly covered meat, dried fish etc, all laid out on wooden tables, with the owners, dressed in colourful costumes, urging us to buy their goods. We ended up with a basket so full we could hardly lift it and the four of us carried it back through the streets on our shoulders, to the amusement of the locals.
We got back to the hotel dripping with sweat, covered in dust and too late to get a shower in the hotel before setting off for the campsite. The road took us out of the town centre, through a very poor shanty town and out on to lava floes, which had poured through the banana plantations. We camped on a flat area which looked like another disused quarry, but the ground was not as stony as the previous camp. Thu 16th: After breakfast we went in the truck to the base camp for the climb up Nyiragongo volcano. The walk took five and a half hours and gradually got steeper as we ascended through the tropical rain forest. I planned to return the same day but others had opted to stay the night at the summit. Karen borrowed my rucksack and it was carried up by a porter. I got to the huts near the summit totally	Porters climbing Nyiragongo
Smoke from a hole in the ground	exhausted, but was short of time if I was to return by 5pm as planned. Stephen accompanied me to the summit where the view into the crater was magnificent. We photographed each other on the crater rim before returning to the huts. On our return, others had arrived with news that Kate was seriously ill and had been carried down by the porters. As the truck would be taking her to hospital, it would not be there to meet me, so I had to stay at the top overnight. I was too exhausted to go down anyway. We had sardine sandwiches for supper and I borrowed blankets and extra clothing which kept me
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