Rwanda and Uganda. Akagera national park, a genocide museum and world's coolest whitewater rafting.

Part 10 of "From Cape Town to Nairobi in a Land Rover"

We arrived to Rusumo border crossing on the 20^th of February. We knew that Rwanda allows no plastic bags – yet we had various things in the car packed in plastic bags, plus a number of plastic bags that were intended to be used as bin bags. So – before starting to drive over to Rwanda, we had hidden them as well as we could, in the different lockers at the back of the car. We were wondering if they will also want to go through our luggage, like they do at the Rwandan and Congolese border in Goma/Gisenyi.

No. They did not. The man who checked our stamped passport looked at us very confused (all other cars at the border crossing were wither trucks, minibuses or locals), handed them back and did not even ask us to open the back door. We also think his English was not very good. He asked Claudio to “show me your paper for the car” – so Claudio showed him the carnet that the customs office had just stamped. We had no idea what “paper” he meant but we were counting not hat he did not know, either. That was a good guess. We got across to Rwanda and smuggled all of our plastic bags in the country (and later out of it).

Rice fields soon after border crossing.

Landy at the rice fields.

Getting towed up a very long hill. Not safe - but saves you
the hard work of pedaling uphill for a kilometer.

 We were contemplating on whether to go first to Kigali, or whether to make a stop in the small Akagera National park. We decided for staying two nights in Akagera. On the first night we camped at a lakeside with some hippos (we couldn’t actually see them as it was almost dark when we arrived but we could hear them). The second night we camped at a bigger campsite on top of a hill and had quite some company of the Kigali international community who seemed to come to Akagera now and then for a weekend. A brilliant idea, considering Akagera is less than two hours drive from Kigali.  Akagera is a beautiful park despite its rather small size. It has lakes, hills and plenty of greenery. It had recently been burnt in a bushfire, though, particularly the North side of the park. The rainy season had started but the fires had probably taken place the week before, before the rains arrived. It was actually so wet in some parts of the park that we could not access all of the roads (including the area where the elephant s are usually spotted. We didn’t need to get bogged into more elephant prints). In our two days in the park we saw antelopes, bush bucks, zebras, impalas, dik-diks, tsessebes (they call them topis in Rwanda), buffalos and giraffes. Still no leopards – but we met someone who had seen one – they do exist. Not bad at all, I would recommend a visit if you are in Kigali and have the time to spend a night or two in Akagera. It is very much possible to do it as a weekend trip, even leaving Kigali on a Saturday morning and returning on Sunday night although spending an extra night makes the trip more worthwhile.

 

Map of Northern part of Akagera national park.

View of the lake in Akagera.

Antelopes hiding behind the burned bushes.

Buffalos on the road!

A beautiful Landy in a beautiful landscape.

 We then continued our visit in Rwanda in Kigali. I did a quick visit to the genocide museum. Claudio did no come and waited for me in the car – he has already been there twice when he was living in Goma in Congo. I therefore only went to the first floor, which holds the exhibition of the Rwanda genocide (second floor is  other genocides). I didn’t want to keep Claudio waiting for too long. I managed to get through the museum in about 50 minutes.

After the museum we tried to find one of the two campsites that were marked on the Tracks4Africa map on the GPS. We drove around in the area but could not find either of them. After a couple of stops of looking for a place we ended up at Mamba club hostel in Kimihurara. (Based ona  recommendation from Tripadvisor) It was actually a club but they also had a hostel on second floor. A nice place! We stayed in a big bedroom with an ensuite bathroom, but they also had clean looking 4-bed dorms (I was of course being my curious self and peeked in a couple of the dorms. They were empty). The Mamba Club also had a bowling alley, a volleyball court and a small restaurant downstairs. We had dinner at Papyrus Italian restaurant with Tim and Lynn whom we met in Akagera National Park.

Next day we drove off to Gisenyi on the Congolese border (Congo DRC). We took a “scenic” route option that went right up the mountains. The roads undulated up and down mountain slopes. I have to confess I was feeling a little sick. Claudio had lunch, I did not. The views on the road were well worth taking he longer route – including seeing the volcano on Congolese side.

The Nyiragongo volcano.

 

Amazing views over the rice fields on the hills. This was on the part
of the road that made me feel sick. The road went up-down-and-around.

How to transport a mattress to the next village.

Unfortunately none of Claudio’s friends from Goma were around, so we could not meet any of them for drinks on the Rwandan side. We could not cross the border, as we had thought of going over to Congo so late that we could not have got our visas processed on time (even the national park visit related visa takes about two weeks to process) We found a lovely campsite and hotel called Discover Rwanda Gisenyi Beach. They were located near Serena Lake Kivu hotel and had only finished building in October 2014 – just before Claudio left Goma.  The proceeds from the hotel go towards maintaining the genocide museum in Kigali. Discover Rwanda was indeed a lovely place. It was an old colonial building with a nice garden, and a nice decoration. Another place I would warmly recommend. It was cheap, good and clean and their food was good, too. If you are driving yourself you can camp at the backyard – enough space for either ground tents or a car with a rooftop tent.

Me and the lizard having a drink at Discover Rwanda.

After Gisenyi we were headed for Uganda on the 24^th of February. First we sorted out some practical issues (such as exchanging money at the border, paying road taxes and topping up Claudio’s Ugandan SIM card,). I have to say the Ugandan customs were probably the friendliest we encountered. The customs officer did not only give us some advise on road conditions but he even  helped us find a reliable money changer when we had to pay the road taxes I local Ugandan money instead of US dollars. What a service!

We stopped for food in a town that looked far bigger on the map than in reality. (It was probably in Kabale – I can’t remember!). On the 25^th of February we continued towards Jinja where we wanted to go for the famous whitewater rafting on the Nile. We drove close to Kampala, missed the road that would have taken us around the city and ended up inside it. Mistaaaaakeee! We got completely stuck in the lunch time traffic. In the end one of the cars next to us made a u-turn and drove off. That left enough space for us to turn the Landy around and follow suit. We drove back to the main road and passed Kampala from a distance.  Not going back there any time soon,. That was some of the worst traffic I have seen in a long time.

We had lunch in this little town.

Landy - as seen from the balcony of the restaurant.

Another EU funded road. No potholes.

Landy at the Equator.

Stuck in traffic in Kampala. Not moving an inch!

We eventually arrived in Jinja and went to sign up for our whitewater rafting at the Nalubale office. We were in luck, they had a group going out the next day that we could join. They also gave us directions how to get to a campsite (Nile River camp).  Before going to the campsite we visited the starting point of the Nile River (there is a small entrance fee).  Nothing much to see but at least I can now say I have seen where the White Nile starts from.  We then drove off to our campsite. Nile River camp was another pleasant surprise. It was well maintained and clean, had a nice bar area with a splendid view over the river. The campsite also came with a free cat. It seemed the owners cat was very fond of the Land Rover. It climbed all over the car, settled in on the roof, later on moved on the spare wheel attached to the rear door. It did not refuse the small piece of meat that Claudio offered it, either. Whenever the campsite dogs came around the cat also quickly climbed to the safety of the Landy. Watching the cat was very entertaining.

Starting point of the White Nile.

The Cat.

The Cat goes exploring.

The Cat spots a dog.

THe Cat likes it inside the car.

The Cat has moved in.

26^th of  February was a full day of whitewater rafting. We got picked up from our campsite at 7.30am and had a small breakfast at the Nalubale rafting office. We had actually already had breakfast at the campsite already, as we are always up early. We met our two team members (two American ladies , Hannah and Maddie, who were doing training courses on how to run your own business for locals), got our helmets and life vests, jumped on the back of the truck and drove out to the river. We were also introduced to our three safety kayakers and the safety raft crew. They would be picking us up if we fall off and helping us out if we wnd up in any trouble after falling out. We left our change of clothes, towels and shoes in the car in dry bags and then walked down to the river. We were first given a briefing on paddling and safety procedures by our team captain Brian - including practicing falling off the raft and flipping the raft. At the latter exercise I let go of the rope and ended up under the raft – oops… The first rapid was a grade 5 – and we made it through without flipping! Apparently it was only the third time that our guide had made it through that one without flipping the raft. We are awesome.  The day continued with going in and out of rapids – we were always given the options of taking the safe route (I contemplated on this one once), flipping the raft intentionally (I was not keen on this one at all)  or seeing how it goes. We always opted for the last one – if it flips it flips and we swim. It was an awesome day. I was both excited and a bit scared.  The rapids were huge (particularly the grade 5 ones) and when I saw us going straight at the wave, I almost without exception found myself squatting at the bottom of the boat instead of sitting on the side. I however still continued paddling as I knew that was the only thing that would stop the raft from flipping upside down. We got soaked – and it felt good. We also had a chance to surf a wave – something I’ve only done with a kayak before and on much smaller waves. We nearly flipped the raft three times while surfing and Claudio and one of the American girls fell out whilst me, our boat captain and the other American girl stayed in. Eventually the flow of the river allowed Brian to steer the raft off the wave and we picked up the other two from the safety raft that had picked them up. The day include in total 8 awesome rapids and a stop for lunch half way through the day. It was great – go try it out! Scary and fun at the same time :)

Straight into the waves!

It looks like we might flip - but we survived this one.

Ready for our lunch break!

"Heeeeelp! I'm going to drooooown" is probably
what I am thinking at the time of taking this photo.

Ooops! This time we did flip, on the last wave of the final rapids.

After we were done with the rafting we contemplated on whether to go to Murchison Falls national park, or perhaps drive to that direction to do a boat trip towards the falls, or just go to Kenya. We checked out the entry fees and confirmed that the car entry fee to the park was USD 150. Although it was a one-off fee, not a daily fee, we didn’t think it was worth it as we would have only had a couple of days there. The park was also about 600km away from where we were, which was an additional factor in our decision to drive straight to Kenya instead. Murchison Falls can wait until our next visit.

Sunset at Nile River camp on our last evening.

So, on Friday 27^th February we crossed border at Busia border crossing to Kenya,  and started a long drive towards Nairobi. We overnighted on our first night at Tea House hotel and campsite. In the morning there was a man on our campsite selling souvenirs – although I had decided not to buy anything from him I ended up changing my mind when he gave me such a good price for a few decorated ceramic plates that I thought could make a good present for my friend in Dubai. We had now arrive to the last country of our trip – but we still had more than a week of time to spend there.