Visa: free
Car: free
The Rwandan border was the easiest one yet. We were able to sift through the schemers and cons with relative ease as we were now trained in the art of spotting them. All you have to do is smile and ignore them. Sometimes you have to mutter a polite no thank you to the really insistent ones. The usual task of passport and carnet stamp and then we were on our way. The roads are splendidly smooth, which we dealt with later. It was late so we headed for a roadside hotel, where the manager on duty was ever obliging. We were able to park our car in the courtyard. We had electricity and a clean room for only $10. There wasn’t any hot water, but that was soon remedied when the manager herself brought us two 20 litre tanks of scolding hot water. An hour later we were bathed and ready for supper. The restaurant did a quaint meal of meat and bread, but they didn’t serve alcohol. Fine by us, we needed to detox anyway. A little work on the laptop and then to sleep. We slept so well.
In the morning we packed our goodies and went for breakfast. Did I mention that the staff at the hotel hardly spoke a word of English? It was so funny watching Neil explaining that he wanted scrambled eggs and not an omelette. Now Rwandans understand French, so I simply mentioned omelette and they lady understood me. One thing is for sure and that’s, I don’t know how to describe scrambled eggs in French. So the more Neil tried to explain that he didn’t want an omelette the more the lady just nodded and laughed. He never got anything. Yup, my breakfast came and went, so eventually Neil went to the chef and asked for the omelette, which he understood and 10 mins later Neil had his omelette. I eventually had to break it to Neil that he would have to simplify his requests for the sake of his sanity. This was Rwanda and not Switzerland where they understand about a half dozen languages. Where were the Staub’s when you needed them? It dawned on us that we were really on our own now and so we headed for another adventure down the nearest dirt road. We drove the whole day across Rwanda along the dirt road. Through villages and farmland only to see nothing but villages and farmland. Now I was really excited to get to Rwanda, but what I had seen so far really depressed me. There were no forests whatsoever to speak of. All the natural forest had been farmed out. We decided that we would head for Ruhengeru. This is near the reserve for the Volcanoes NP where the Gorilla trekking takes place. We tried to find some cheap camping, but ended up camping outside a hotel for top dollar. They served a buffet that evening to which Neil and I just could not say no. It’s a good thing we were inside as the rain came down in buckets during dinner.
The next day turned out to be one of the greatest disappointments of the trip. We didn’t have enough for the Gorilla trekking, but we wanted to see the birds of the forest. After waiting for 2 hours a poor excuse for a bird guide takes us to a botanical garden some way off. I might add that we paid $45 each for this pleasure. Neil was livid and the more I tried to calm him the more he took it out on the guide. Eventually I just went and sat in the car and Neil had it out with the guide. Needless to say the guide didn’t want to get back in the car, so we left him there. Apparently there were other people due to arrive who had also paid $45 each to take an hour long walk in a botanical garden. I didn’t think so, but then again, like us, they most probably didn’t know it was just a botanical garden and note the forest itself. If anyone wants to see Gorilla’s I would recommend you go to Uganda, absolutely no doubt about it. The roads aren’t great, but it’s the African experience. Uganda has more Gorillas and more impenetrable forest. We are definitely fans of Uganda. Anyway after that disappointment we headed south the Lake District where Nyungwe NP was located. It mentioned in the guide book and on the GPS that the Nyungwe forest was extremely depleted and believe us it was. Just like the rest of Rwanda there were farms as far as the eye could see. We managed to find a walking trail on the GPS that seemed to go down into a 1km square patch of dense forest. We managed to find 3 lifer birds for our list. Imagine how great Rwanda could be if it just took better care of its fauna and flora. I suppose priorities are with the people though. The story of the genocide in 1994 was bone chilling and with that bit of knowledge and understanding one can understand the culture. People just want to live and at least they are making good use of the previously forested areas. Did you know that Rwanda is only 150km2, that’s just less than 100 square miles with a population of about 10 million people of which I’d say 90% are rural. Once again disappointed by the forest we headed even further South in search of a place to camp. This road we were on was really bad so the going was slow. We ended up at Lake Kivu, but boy was it expensive, especially only for camping. We went in search of another campsite which turned out was non existent. We were able to drive right down to the water where some locals were swimming. Neil was in the water before you could say the word ‘hat’. On the other hand I was not about to undress and parade in front of about 10 other men. So I stayed in the car. By now I had had enough, so like I do I threw a right strop like the spoilt child that I’ve become. Well Neil was having it and drove straight for the border that very evening. So toys out the cot and feeling terribly tired we drove into Kigali at about 10pm. Once again prices were over the top, but we did manage to get a basic BnB for $40. It was so good to be clean and have a proper bed. I slept like a baby.
We had breakfast and headed out early the next morning. We were pleasantly surprised when we found our car all clean and ready for the days drive. We tipped the grounds keeper and headed for the Tanzanian Border. The drive to the border was much of the same. The border is defined by a bridge over the Kagera River. It was kind of wild water so Neil got out to take pics. I did notice that there seemed to be quite a few people standing on the end of the bridge, but this being Africa you get accustomed to people just standing around in random places. Well it turns out that there was a body in the water and nobody had removed it yet. The reason being that not one of the countries wanted to take responsibility and it didn’t help that the body was at the bottom of a torrential waterfall so even if they wanted to they couldn’t get to the body. Sounds crazy doesn’t it, only in Africa I say.
