A Sunday Drive

On Sunday we visited the Akagera Game Reserve which is located to the East of Kigali on the Tanzanian border.

Our driver, Isaac arrived at 0530. The sun was just rising over Kigali. As we drove north on the Nyamirambo road it was much quieter than the night before when we had walked home. Even the soldiers had gone home. With the street less busy, we noticed a lot of people out jogging up the moderate hill towards where we live. While there was very little car traffic, there were a lot of people out jogging on the sidewalks.

After a few minutes we had left the quiet streets of Kigali and were heading east. Isaac informed us that he had checked and that there were very few animals in the southern part of the park and that therefore we would be going to the northern entrance. As we continued into the farmland which surround Kigali, we saw more and more people on the side of the road. Some people were jogging alone or in groups. Many of the people we saw were bringing goods to the local market. Some carried them in their arms or on their heads and some carried them on bicycles. We saw a lot of people hauling water from lakes or communal taps. This seemed to be a family affair with small children carrying small jerry cans and adults or older children carrying full size jerry cans. It was not unusual to see three jerry cans strapped to a bicycle. Other people carried firewood or long grass for their cows. So densely populated is Rwanda that it was rare to see a stretch of road without at least one person in view.

The area to the east of Kigali is hilly and the farm land is terraced up the side of the hill. We saw a lot of small banana plantations and other crops. As we neared the game reserve, the land became less hilly and more rolling. We turned off the paved road onto a dirt road which we followed for about 20 km. We saw a lot more cows with peculiar long horns.

After about 3 mostly interesting hours, we reached the game reserve. It cost $30 US each plus $15 for our driver, but this included a guide who road in the truck with us. After a bathroom break, we took off along a bumpy dirt road. It did not take us long before we started seeing animals, first some antelopes, then several Zebras. We were of course thrilled with this and stopped to shoot multiple pictures out the car window, not knowing of course what we would see in the next while.

After 20 minutes of driving we arrived into a long grassy valley which was crawling with wildlife. In addition to zebras, and several species of antelope, we counted 17 giraffe. The animals were relatively tame and it was possible to get reasonably close shots with a telephoto lens. We lingered for about 30 minutes before going onto get as close as we safely could to a large group of water buffalo. Then it was onward through a swampy area. A group of 4 warthogs scampered along the road in front of us disappearing into the grass. Some large monkeys ran across the road and we were able to get a look at one their group up in a tree. Suddenly our guide said, “there is a hippopotamus!” Over in the grass about 15 metres from our truck was a hippopotamus barely visible in the grass. We waited for it to get up for a better picture but it was not obliging. We continued on to another grassland were there were larger antelopes to see.

From akagera

From akagera

From akagera

From akagera

On the road back we were lucky to get a better view of the hippo and got some reasonable shots.

From akagera

We continued along back the bumpy road after some time arriving back at the entrance where our guide left us. We gave one of her colleagues a ride back to his town.

The roads back to Kigali were much busier than when we came out with more cars, minivan taxis and motorcycles. We continued to see families collecting water and the overloaded bicycles. People in their Sunday best walked along the road. After our trip out in the lush countryside, Kigali seemed a hot and sterile place as we arrived back around 1500.

We walked back up the busy Nyambirambo road to the Serena Hotel for a swim and hot shower before heading back home for dinner. On the way back we stopped at a second story bar and sat on the "terrace" watching street life, sipping a beer. It was a pretty good day.