Akegera boat trip, self-drive safari and road back to Kigali - 10th June

 Akagera Boat Trip





After waking up from beautiful Ruzizi, we drove down to the boat trip launch place, and climbed aboard! A very stern captain's introduction telling us to keep tight hold of all of our valubles (and hats) as the boat went quite fast - it was clear they were accepting no responsibility for lost items! 

We set off on our speedy journey across the lake and the captain pointed out many birds! Weaver bird nests hung in the trees and reeds around the edges of the lake, and herons, sea eagles and cormorants were very common, but it was lovely to see them in such great numbers. 





We saw a croc having a sunbathe - it was very hot on the morning we were there - and a fair few hippos having a relax or a graze on the banks that no cars could get to. 

The captain tried hard to see if he could spot the elephants having a drink for us, but still, no elephants. 






On our return to the dock, we got out, and as the french lady who we were sharing the trip with got out, her phone dropped between the boat and the dock into the water. I'm sorry to her for the loss of her phone but I would have been more sorry had she not proceeded to have a tantrum like a child, screaming and stamping her feet, and bursting into tears - Ben and I quickly walked away to stop us from laughing. Oops!








My turn to drive!



My first drive on the wrong side of the car... it felt fairly natural and wasn't particularly scary - not much traffic in a national park! We had a couple of hours left to have a drive around so we decided to drie north for an hour then turn around and come back - it was a bit warm so we weren't expecting anything special but worth a go for a last look!


We turned into the first bit by the lake, where we had seen the giraffes before, but there was nothing obviously there. I went to the bottom to turn around, and then we saw them. Two beautiful elephants, wading into the water, having a drink and spraying themselves with water. We watched them wade deeper until they were swimming, and then they swam off and around to a place that cars couldn't get to. We were so lucky - our last sighting and now we had seen 4 of the big 5 on our first ever safari! Just beautiful.




Back to Kigali

The drive back to Kigali was just over 2 hours, we stopped at a random petrol station to fill up and for a car wash as the car was covered in red dust (£3.50 and done fully by hand with buckets). We found our hotel and collapsed by the pool. We weren't feeling 100% but put it down to tiredness. So we slept and hoped we'd feel better in the morning!

The next day we still felt unwell and determined we had a bit of food poisoning, so we didn't go to the women's centre like originally planned. a lazy day by the pool was in order.

The hotel did give us a 20 minute free massage each - be warned they are very hard! I think we were both a little bruised! 

I didn't feel great but I was ok, Ben on the other hand, seemed to be going down hill. We left that night for our flight home - sadly it was packed, unlike the flight out, and a very ill Ben flew home having no space to lie out.

The aftermath

3 days of being home, after me having to drive back from the airport, Ben was still not any better and I was having to force him to drink - we called 111. Apparently if you mention Africa it's like a trigger word and tests and antibiotics are immediate... 2 weeks later, a diagnosis of Campylobacter, and 2 sets of antibiotics, Ben is feeling a lot better! Thank goodness it wasn't both of us, but I'm sorry he had to end the holiday badly. 


Would I recommend Rwanda?

Yes! If you're adventurous and want to go on safari, its a great starter country! It's safe, clean and you can drive everywhere yourself. Go and see the beautiful hills and forests - and all of the animals! 



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proposed Itinerary - Follow our journey!

Image
Journey around Rwanda Trying to finalise a 10 day trip around a country the size of Wales is no mean feat, especially when booking a rental car is more challenging than the Mensa IQ test (another post on that later).  Here I will put a vague itinerary of what we are planning, and as I write them, link to each of the daily blogs. Each daily blog will include a review of activities and prices, plus a review of the accommodation.  I have added a little bit below about what would could have done (and chose not to) too!  When you do book things, generally the National Parks and bigger hotels are very helpful with answering questions, and Akagera even gave us this helpful list of recommended companies (that aren't likely to rip you off!) -  Member List | RTTA Proposed Itinerary We are flying with BA, from Heathrow to Kigali. The time difference is only 1 hour as it is almost directly below the UK, so the flights are both night time flights so that you can (hopefully) sleep...
Read more

Journey to Gisakura and Kings Palace - 4th June

Image
Driving in Rwanda  Firstly, they drive on the right, so make sure you’ve thought about that! Rules of the road are generally the same, traffic lights, stop signs etc.  Make sure you are looking in your mirrors A LOT. There are so many of the little scooters and they are a bit like a swarm of flies you are trying not to squash. In the city this was hard, but they got fewer as we drove further out.  There are police stationed regularly around the city, and there are a lot of speed cameras (photo to come). Everyone is fairly relaxed though and there’s no beeping other that to let someone know you’re there in case they haven’t seen you trying to overtake.  You will need to have your driving license and an international drivers permit. We were informed by Kingfisher that the police WILL pull us over at some point. Give them all the documents and answer any questions they have politely. They may check the car and your luggage. Be polite and they will be polite back. We are...
Read more

Akegera National Park Safari - 9th June

Image
 Picking up our guide We picked up our guide, Felix, from reception at 6:30am - and he was keen to get going straight away. He hopped in the back seat and we set off into the park. Just to now be aware, that it gets a bit picture heavy from here on in... The map was huge (right) but we mainly made our way up and down the right hand side, dipping in and out of the loops by the lakes, and then to the plains, Mohana and Kilala. Animals, animals, everywhere... It's almost easier just to list what we saw and when (because I took a list) but I'll tell you about the best bits, and then put all the rest of the pictures at the end. One of the first animals we saw was an adult male water buffalo, who was injured, potentially by a lion. We reversed to see it closer but Felix was fairly insistent we put the car back into drive in case we needed a quick get away!  We then made our first turn towards the lake to see if anything was having an early morning drink and were met by five beautifu...
Read more