safari!
Okay, one life goal complete: African safari is off the list! Next up is total world domination. The day began with Matt and I being picked up by our driver, David. Unlike the roads going north, the road to eastern Rwanda was relatively straight and had no pot holes. I failed to mention in my last post how horrible the roads to the north are. The potholes are so huge that cars have to swerve into the opposing lane in order to avoid them. This makes for some scary close calls. The roads outside of Kigali are virtually empty of vehicle traffic except for buses and a few cars. The reality of Rwanda is outside of the city. People walk or take bicycles to their destinations. They care huge loads of bananas, wood, and other items on top of their heads or strapped to their bikes. It is amazing how these people manage to carry the most awkward objects; we saw a man riding a bicycle with a huge metal gate strapped to the frame of the bike!
We continued east toward Akagera National Park. This park is the eastern most park in Rwanda, about two hours out of Kigali, and is home to big game. As we neared the park I got more and more excited. We went off the paved road and traveled 25 kilometers on a dirt road past small villages until we reached the gate of the park. The surroundings were green but the huge hills that make up most of Rwanda’s landscape disappeared and made way to low hills and valleys.
We pulled up to the visitors’ center and were greeted by a guide and led inside the building. We started to freak out because we forgot to bring money with us (we had $60 and the fee was $80). But our driver, David, totally helped us out and spotted us the rest of the money, which happened to be everything he had in his wallet. We are eternally grateful for his generosity.
After paying and signing our receipt we were assigned a guide who explained to us where we would go. Since we had a commitment later in the afternoon, we had to settle for the shorter (4 hour) safari. The guide’s name was Tito; he was about five-foot-nothing, spoke great English, and was very enthusiastic about the animals. Tito was up front with David in the 4Runner and Matt and I were in the back, armed with our cameras.
We took off down the well maintained dirt road and drove off the road onto a rough dirt road that took us to the heart of the park. This road was extremely rough; a 4X4 was the only kind of vehicle capable of traversing the road. The bush around the road got thicker as we went further into the park, but all of the sudden the view opened up and we came head to head with a family of zebras. I was looking at freaking zebras in freaking Africa! Matt and I started taking pictures like we were paparazzi snapping photos of Pierce Brosnan outside of Coogie’s. The zebras didn’t mind and they didn’t try to hide from us.
We continued down the dirt path and came across a few impalas. The guide told us that one male would head a herd of thirty females. Matt and I joked that situation was either the best thing or the worst thing in the world. We ran into (not literally) another herd of zebras and then more impalas. We caught a glimpse of a giraffe but it was totally being a Loch Ness Monster and not letting us get a good look. I ended up with a blurry but legitimate picture of him, or her, whatever, it was an awesome giraffe.
We continued through the Savannah-like terrain and saw a few baboons. These guys scattered as we neared; we only got shots of their weird-looking butts. We kept driving deeper into the park and spotted a solitary buffalo. It saw us and booked it into the bush. We were tracking it but the huge beast somehow pulled a Slimer and disappeared into the thick woods. We couldn’t leave the vehicle because if the buffalo was near, it would charge us. We finally tracked him down and even found his herd. But they were 100 yards from us and behind trees too thick to drive through. We were satisfied with seeing a glimpse of the herd, so we continued on the trip.
The whole time we were in the car, dozens of large flies were coming in and out of the open windows. These guys were biting us. Hard. They had no fear either. Or any honor; they went for the face! We made our way to a clearing where we saw a huge group of dozens of baboons drinking from a pond. This was quite a site to see! Our SUV crawled slowly passed the baboons as they began to scatter. We saw mothers with their babies riding on their backs and other baboons were playing on the trees. They made their high pitched screaming noises as we moved passed them.
We finished with the first leg of the safari and began to climb up a mountain. David expertly, and quite quickly, navigated up the difficult terrain. We made it to the top where there was a campsite. For $20 a night, you could camp out in the park; renting the tent costs about $4. We took a few photos of the view and drank water. Then we were off to the last part of the safari.
We made it down the hill and continued toward a huge lake. We were told a boat ride costs $20 and that we can see alligators and hippos there. On the way down we saw a huge stork and an eagle. There was a fishing village at the shore of the lake where more baboons hung out. There was also a giant, child-sized bird giving us a dirty look as we exited our vehicle near the shore. We got out and started taking pictures. That’s when we heard weird snorting noises coming from the water. We looked and saw the heads of hippos poking out and going back under. Freaking hippos! We took pictures and looked around one last time. It was getting late and we had to go to a meeting. We drove back up to the visitors’ center, thanked our guide and headed back for Kigali.
The road back was silent but joyful. Grandpa (aka Matt) slept the whole way. Big surprise. We got back home and met with Maurice, who also went on a little road trip up north with a minister. We had a great week and we are ready to chill at home for a few days.
Check out my Flickr for pictures.
