Last day in Rwanda

There is no way that we can say that our itinerary left the best until last. 
We had a good night in the Mille Collines, quite a swish abode for us and a far cry from a canvas walled mansion in the Botswana desert.

Theogene our guide picked us up and took us to an artisan market. Here we had to bargain for goods which is never pleasant...we find ourselves aggressively trying to save 50 cents on a $2.00 sale item. They had a heap of carved animals in ebony wood and other material which will no doubt cause eyebrows to raise when we hit NZ Biosecurity.

 Following shopping we had a quick lunch in a very nice restaurant, as clean and well managed as most kiwi premises. Then we were off to the Genocide Museum which has to be one of the most appalling history stops we have had. Nazi Germany and the concentration camps were never a thrill but this place is even more uncomfortable. For 100 days in 1994 the "Hutus" planned and killed 6 people per minute, every hour, every day.........for the entire 100 days. They killed the rival minority tribe of "Tutsi's". Men, women and children were massacred often with a machete and not just by army and militia but by civilians and neighbours. There are reports that some victims were given the option of paying for a bullet if they wanted a quick death. The Museum holds the mass graves of 250,000 of the dead and relatives are often visiting to remember lost family members. 

Over 125,000 people were accused after a new government took control. This was taking ages in the Court system. The National Courts still dealt with those who planned or raped but they decided to return to 'grassroots' justice systems. "The Gacaca trials served to promote reconciliation by providing a means for victims to learn the truth about the death of their family members and relatives. They also gave perpetrators the opportunity to confess their crimes, show remorse and ask for forgiveness in front of their community." 

The convicted included two Catholic priests who encouraged people into their church, then allowed Hutu renegades in to murder them. 

After our visit our guide told us his father and brother were genocide victims while he was at school. His mother is Hutu and was spared though her own brother said she should die for marrying a Tutsi.

 

Rwandans move forward to the future all equal it appears now but they still have a memorial day in every village in April. 

How the country has got itself back on track, is peaceful and safe and where there is no corruption, all in a very short time is quite amazing. Unfortunately the scars will remain for many decades but it appears that their government is doing their very best to put the atrocities behind them. We can hope for the best and encourage anyone who enjoys travelling in the third world to visit and contribute to their economy. The people were extremely friendly and very respectful. The country is very clean (plastic bags are banned), the food very good, the climate as close to perfect as it could be and the National Parks are all different with amazing highlights. Rwanda deserves more travellers...we had a wonderful time and were quite sad to leave.

It is now time to fasten our seatbelts, stow our tray table away and prepare for the journey home with short stops in Johannesburg and Perth, and even shorter stop in Auckland and if all goes to plan we will be back in Blenheim by noon on Thursday this week. Hope you enjoyed your virtual trip with us.

Akagera National Park

After a long drive on one of the better roads in Rwanda, through the capital Kigali, we arrived at the Akagera National Park gates at 7.00pm. Unfortunately, due to new rules (that had not been explained to the guides or notified to the company), we were an hour late and entry had to be denied! Our guide, Theogene was very embarrassed. He rang his boss while the gate guard rang his...they spoke then swapped their phones. They finished on their phones and continued discussion for 15 minutes. Then we were let in......an inconvenience we didn't really need in the middle of Africa, at night after a 5.30am start and 6 hours of driving. But...we are here for different experiences.

Our Akagera Lodge on the edge of Lake Ihema was really nice. Food was fantastic, a bit of Africa mixed with pasta...and other recognisable stuff. Our room was along a board walk just high enough to ensure hippos wouldn't cause interference. The restaurant second to none that we have stayed at with three courses by lamplight in the evenings and our lodgings in the tented bedroom were very comfortable.

 Up early and away into the park looking for wildlife. This park is fenced with solar electric down one side with a river and Tanzania border the east side. There are full time Rangers and fence maintenance teams along the boundary and they proudly released a pride of 7 lion last year and now have 14, of which we saw 3. Later this year they are hopeful of getting 5 rhino from South Africa and that will add to the attraction. Our guide did a great job of finding animals and we couldn't be happier with the safari in Rwanda. It seems rude to be driving past Impala, water buck and zebra in the hope of seeing a lion or an elephant. 

 

The good times have to end and after a short morning run through a small part of the park we lunched and headed back to the capital, Kigali. About 40kms of dusty road made sure that anything that was dirty is worse, and anything that was clean...isn't. We had two short stops on our 120km, 3 hour journey back into the big smoke. First to give a group of boys a soccer ball from NZ.....it was a thrill to see the smiles on their faces. They had been kicking a flax type covered roundish thing prior to our stopping....you might have thought they had just won the World Cup.....a small step closer maybe. Our second stop was to visit our guides 75 year old mother...very humbling. She lost her husband in the 1994 genocide, murdered in front of her! There is free medical care for her now but no social security or pension payment.Theogene supports her financially and his sister lives with her.

Water is a big problem in Rwanda....well getting it is. A few houses have reticulated supply but mostly the people trek to a communal well with yellow jerry cans. That could be several kms away. Bikes are used. It seemed to us that carts, donkeys or sack barrows would be a giant leap forward. Even digging more wells would surely mean way less car versus cycle accidents. I struggle keeping myself balanced on a bike...add 100 litres of water would be suicide for sure. Most of the children will carry 2 x 2litres before and after primary school and a 20 litre on their head once reaching high school status. In fact nearly every item can be balanced on a head in Rwanda.

Our last night back in Des Mille Collines Hotel, leaving tomorrow night for Johannesburg.  Tomorrow we will do a city tour, visit the genocide museum and an artisan market.

 

King Kong's homeland

We left Kamembe in the south west corner of Rwanda for a two day drive north to Kinigi, the base for gorilla tracking. The main roads are fairly impressive and the country is getting to work in developing a main arterial system within. The driving is diabolical. Mostly no white line in the centre which seems to mean you take the shortest path. Fortunately there aren't too many cars and obtaining a license is quite difficult. Having the money to buy a car is probably even more difficult.

We passed through dozens of little villages and enjoyed stopping off in one to give some local lads a football and a pump that we had bought with us from NZ. What started as 3 boys ended up with about 20 in 2 minutes. They were very excited and very polite....it was a nice experience to see them all so happy.

We did have a stop over on our way north. Distances are not great but roads are very windy and hilly so we rarely get into top gear.

Our stop over in Kibuye along the eastern edge of Lake Kivu was at a resort type place which was very relaxing spot. We had a quaint little cottage on sticks and a beautiful sunset...with a glass of rum or two. Fishing boats head out in the evenings, a sort of catamaran affair and they use nets to catch a little fish like a sardine. The fishermen sing to welcome fishes and keep their spirits up...voices carry clearly to the visitors along the edge. Local beer with dinner is a good end to the day.

We had a long drive to Kinigi but a very comfortable resort full of other white skins, mostly Americans it appears. An early start was required for our gorilla trek. About 8 groups of 8 people plus a guide need to be organised prior to departure. Groups are sorted by fitness level which was guessed at by our guide. We headed off with 6 Americans in pleasant conditions. The morning got warmer and the hill a little steeper, it took us two hours to reach our family of 15 which included the oldest silver back in Rwanda....he didn't show any excitement in seeing us! We had an hour with the gorillas, so close that two people were touched by them. Most of the time we were less than 5 metres away, just sitting, trying not to stare directly into their eyes but it was very difficult to refrain from saying "...so how's  your day been?...". 

The two hour walk in required a two hour walk out and a young American couple who had staggered a bit getting in were having difficulty getting out. They appeared to have had an overdose of calories to an extent that they now couldn't summon enough energy to burn off latent calories and they were in a continuing to grow phase. I mentioned the rescue helicopter and was astounded when the guy began considering it seriously. No one else in the group broke into a sweat ....but then we were "resting" every 30 metres! I'm sure their holiday was ruined when they discovered that there are no fast food joints in Rwanda. It is pleasing to drive through a city without seeing the big red M or old Colonel Sanders smiling at us, however the ubiquitous Coca-Cola sign is seen from time to time.

 

The following morning we visited golden monkeys which was a lot of fun. They are completely unphased about visits from humans and we could get as close as we liked. They wouldn't touch us but just carried on their chores as though we weren't there at all.     

From the monkeys we raced back to our lodge, showered, lunched and set off on a 6 hour journey to a lodge in Akagera National Park. Never a dull moment.

Touchdown in Rwanda

An early start in Johannesburg and we managed a free shuttle and a train ride to the airport, quarter of the time and price of a taxi...winner! We arrived in Kigali, capital of Rwanda 5 hours later after a short stop in Nairobi. Rwanda is 1 degree south of the equator and I expected to be in a muck sweat by the time I got down the aeroplane steps but the temperature here is most pleasant. Even a bit cool in the evening. We had a smiling Jeremiah holding up a "Lawrence X 2" sign and were quickly whisked away to our lodging at Mille Collins.......the hotel made famous in the movie "Hotel Rwanda".

 

This fellow knocked up a tasty omelet in quick time for breakfast.

 

 

 

 Our first day was an 8 hour drive in a Landcruiser on tarseal road, to the south west. We found out that 65% of the sitting politicians are females, there is free education and health service, no corruption, and the country is surprisingly clean because every 4th Saturday is a clean up day and the people are all expected to do some public tidying. It is an extremely hilly country with lots of red soil and terrace farming. In the two dry seasons all the valleys are allowed to be used by anybody who applies for a plot. With all manual labour they plant vegetables and sell some at the market. One huge river valley was planted with rice and sorghum. All the guys working those fields were wearing orange outfits - no not the work safe type  - they were prisoners and not a guard in sight. 10% of the production will go to their families. Some would be some of the 100,000 convicted genocide perpetrators who are kept separate. It is all part of the reconciliation that has taken place. I'm sure there will be more about this later on our trip.

 

 

On our way south we stopped off at the "Kings Palace" and had a close encounter with some of his cattle. This is surprisingly called a Longhorn cow and seemed tame enough. We sampled some milk which is taken a bit like the ritual of drinking kava in Fiji. There is no King in Rwanda now....he lives in exile in the States and has been invited back but says he will only come back if he is still the king. Nobody expects to see him here again.

Diana sampling warm freshly squeezed milk....the after shot wasn't quite so elegant so has been left out.

 

 

 It was a long drive to Kamembe on the southern shores of Lake Kivu. This is a stones throw from Congo, not a destination we have in mind. 

 

 

 

 

This morning we had a 5.00am start and headed 90 minutes into the jungle looking for chimpanzees. We heard them well before seeing them making all those wonderful barking and "oo..ooing and ah..ahing noises we all know! We saw mostly rear ends of bundles of black fur high in the canopy but it was an interesting experience. Chimps are quite shy....nothing like the chimpanzee tea party characters that were an attraction at the Wellington Zoo a few years ago.....about 50 I think! 

Tomorrow we are heading north with Jeremiah towards the gorillas......that should be exciting.

These are a mountain monkey, a chimpanzee and our National Park Guide

 

Johannesburg by day

Back in the civilised city of Johannesburg we were looking to catch up on washing (to be honest I wasn't looking too hard in that direction), sort some emails, pay some bills and generally see how the World was surviving without our daily input.

Johannesburg by day...as you sure as hell wouldn't go out at night! I would like to say that this is just another big city like any other in the World....but unfortunately that isn't so. Clearly, after driving in from the airport it quickly becomes evident that they are pursuing the same line of development as Len Brown, with regard to traffic management. Diabolical would be praising it too much. Cars, roads, over-bridges, under-bridges, ignored traffic lights and no bicycles, although I did see one cyclist on the dual carriage way and he must have had a good insurer, I doubt he will see the week out.

Our visit to Soweto was a saddening event. A picture here of a shanty with a new outside toilet will house at least two adults and 2 children but possibly twice that many. It looks less than 4 m X 4m, no inside water, no power, no carpet and not weather proof. It will be a long time, many decades, before these people have 3 bedrooms and two cars in the garage.

Unemployment runs at 60% in Soweto and 50% of the population are under 16. It is little wonder that these people are somewhat irritated by and angry with the government. I'm sure Nelson Mendala promised and intended better than this. The present Prime Mininster is putting the finishing touches to his 200 million rand house. With general elections only months away he may be looking to have something comfortable to live out his days. Ten rand is about one NZ dollar.

Yesterday we took a walking tour of the city centre. Quite proud of ourselves that we caught a train into town....seemed quite safe really but there were dozens of people in high vis with Security written across their back. We walked for  couple of hours with a young Indian girl who was 4th generation South African and very proud to be. But the warnings were clear, as they were from everyone, be careful at all times. We looked at high rise buildings, empty and abandoned, locked up so people could not get in. Some had squatters and others were office buildings and tenanted where rents are so high that they cram 2 families into one room, use a communal toilet on the floor and get water from the same place. 

We went right through town, saw some reasonably swish parts but also areas where dozens of people are sleeping rough. I "accidentally" nudged into one of the locals on a narrow street and turned to apologise. He turned back to shake my hand and explain that you don't need to apologise on the street. While we are doing the fingers/wrists handshake is left hand is groping my pockets. I quickly withdrew my hand to clasp a small camera in my pocket and grabbed my money belt as I felt his fingers rake downward in an effort to break the strap. Our wee Indian lady spoke to him tersely and they butted knuckles in some sort of gesture...I thought it was a friendly gesture and did likewise with the unsuccessful pick pocket. We both parted with our dignity intact and after a quick inventory intact I confirmed that it would be another sucker today if he were get his intended rewards.  Very unnerving though.

Above: a fruit seller market, an empty apartment house and a shop with animal parts for making traditional medicine.

Today we visited the Apartheid Museum which again was somewhat sobering. The people, all the people, except the whites have suffered. And suffered seriously at some amazingly arrogant and callous treatment. While Aparthied is now abolished many of the black and coloured people are still suffering and will for a long time into the future. The museum was well set out and had dozens of live action footage on TVs, press photos and names of those who died for and during the struggle. I got a feeling that the price was high and so far not everyone has reaped any reward. I was not totally shocked by what was on display and I guess I have John Minto to thank for that. It seemed fitting I should get a photo of myself with Nelson Mandela...such a big man with such a big heart. He is on display in Mandela Square, not far from our hotel in Sandton.

Enclave Safari

Our little plane was a four seater very similar to the plane I learned to fly 30 years ago and although I sat in the copilot seat I didn't wish to inform Mark that I could take over if he wanted a break. Upside down in the sand below we would surely be tucker for the lion.

Safari at the Enclave is different to our first 6 days. Here, we start in a dugout canoe, freeboard is about 2 inches and is ok as long

as we don't encounter a hippo on our path. We did last night and our guide turned us around and we abandoned that safari and went for a tour in another part of the delta. We have been 3 times across the delta through reeds and a bit of hippo poo, across a river to a small island where we land the makoro (dugout) and then walk....a walking safari. The first two were of little event. An elephant at 400 metres, 3 giraffe at 800 metres and numerous impala don't really get the blood pumping now....spoilt we know. 

Yesterday we were away as usual just on sunrise, into the makoro, through the reeds, watch out for hippo, quickly across the river and onto dry land again...takes about 10 minutes....the water only 40cms deep except for the river which is 3-4 metres deep and flowing quite well. With resident hippo and crocodile....always exciting.

Once on land we are off walking......for about 3 hours, cool to start but by 9.00am we are stripped down to shirts. We see plenty of small game including little fellows like this ugly warthog.

This morning a herd of impala were snorting...a sort of sneezing noise and the baboon were sounding an alarm. Reps, our local tracker/guide pointed to big pussy cat prints an excitedly said "....lion..six..". We increased our speed, jogging at times...Diana thinking we were heading away from the pride and was shocked to see a lioness about 60 metres in front of us. A quick discussion ensued regarding health and safety and hazard identification and off we went again. We saw two lionesses, Reps saw the others including two males and our wee hearts were beating as fast as a cicada chirps.   It seemed strange to be tracking such a large cat on foot in their domain with nary a tree within 100 metres. I think that if the lion had turned Usain Bolts 100 metre record would have been broken! We are 8 hours later and still buzzing about that. Tomorrow is our last morning safari.......not sure we will better this morning.

Into Africa .. ..

Our flight from Johannesburg went without incident and we arrived in Maun, on the south eastern edge of the inland delta in central Botswana, mid afternoon, overnighted there and were picked up at 9.00am by our guide and a cook to take us into Moremi Game Reserve for the next 6 nights. Botswana is the same size as Texas with only 2 million people and 300,000 elephant among other game. We drove 4 hours from Maun, northeasterly, with Diana and I sitting in open air at the back of our Toyota Landcruiser safari vehicle. 

We were a little anxious setting up camp in the amongst trees in the open where we seemed to be on the menu for any hungry predator...lion, leopard, hyena...etc or if we happened to be in the way of an elephant...then we would just get stomped on! Our guide, Joseph, top man, had no rifle but assured us that he was reasonably sure that we would be unharmed. How reasonable that was we were being left to find out. Once we had pitched tents, got the fire going and had a cuppa we headed out on our first safari drive. Within minutes we were seeing impala, zebra, wart hogs, and all manner of antelope. The country seems to be all sand and pretty much flat. Quite a lot of trees and tonnes of grass....but the elephant eats 250kgs of that per day. 

"The first night in a tent under the African skies was amazing. First there was the unmistaken crashing and breaking of branches as the elephant dined, quite a constant bellowing of hippo in the river, male lions roaring to each other from different directions and then the birds calling as the sun started to rise. Rob is a very sound sleeper and without his 'aids' I was not sure how much he was hearing. At 6am a little bird whistled and whistled higher and higher until he could go no higher - pretty much like an alarm ring tone of a mobile phone! It made me laugh and then a voice from the other stretcher "It's like sleeping in a zoo"!!!!"

 

We stayed at 3rd Bridge Camp for three days, getting up at 6.30am for a 5-6 hour drive before heading back to camp for lunch, a quick nap (for one of us), then out again at 3.30pm for another 3 hours looking for game. We never ventured from our Toyota but we could drive very close to animals without them seeming to care at all of our presence. We saw numerous species.....I think Diana gave up counting after 20. It was great to always return to see the smiling face of our cook Tjitjo who could cook up amazing meals over the camp fire. Beef is extremely cheap in Botswana - $25 for a whole eye fillet over 30cms long! 

 

 We couldn't get much stretching of the legs. On the first day we jokingly suggested that we go for a walk and Joseph worriedly said NO! We had to assure him that there was no way we were going anywhere without him more than an arms length away. After 3 days we broke camp, packed up and headed 4 hours northeast to Khwai River camp.....more of the same except the animals seemed to be braver and this was matched by our increasing timidness. Trying to get to sleep while you can clearly hear lions roaring or hyena sniffing, sniffing....through the canvas! From marks in the sand in the morning it would appear that at some stage the nose of the hyena was about 6 inches from my nose separated by a microscopically thin piece of canvas that was struggling to keep a gnat out! But we slept on...tuckered out after a lot of driving and looking for animals. Our guide Joseph worked tirelessly trying to find every animal he could with the prize being lion and possibly a leopard and if extremely fortunate...a cheetah. We were lucky but not extremely fortunate. 

 After 6 days with our guide and cook it was sad to wave goodbye from our little 4 seater aeroplane as we flew south to "The Enclave" on the edge of the Okavango Delta. Here we have waiters, cooks, house maids, guides and whatever else we wish for. Unbelievably they have an open bar where you can help yourself freely to all brands of beer, wine and spirits. If only I had the same staying power as I did 40 years ago! and in saying that it reminds me that 38 years ago today Diana and I were married on a chilly Canterbury day in a small church at Fernside......time flies when you're enjoying yourself!..........and each other.