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Published: February 14th 2010
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what a funny day! after a hoohar about when and where to collect people in the morning we eventually got on the road to akegara national park in the east of Rwanda. the park headquarters is 40mins down an unsealed road, past a milk collection center, so there were lots of people cycling with milk churns on the back of their bikes, which made a change from the bananas or firewood most commonly seen in rwamagana. we first went in search of hippos and although we didn't see any hippos we did see some monkeys and baboons (ugly things), warthog which just keep running, they never stand still, and some darn ugly adam apple type birds.....otherwxise known as Marabou storks!!! In typical rwandan style we could only go to the headquarters to get our entry pass for the park, but the animals were all at completely the other end of the park!!! so we headed back along the way we came and another 2hours towards the ugandan border to access the park at a different point.
the south of the park was dense savannah forest, very different from how you normally imagine a safari and presumably one reason why the
animals weren't there; the north was mixed, with a large savannah plain, a range of hills down the middle and a series of lakes and swamps to the east. It was BEAUTIFUL. out in the open savannah we saw impala by the hundreds, water buck, zebra, a lone giraffe, torpi, really coourful birds, buffalo and the inevitable eegrit (is that what they're called). having ticked them off we went in hunt of hippos.
the park is made up of a network of single file tracks, ranging from good unpotholed routes, to steep riverbed style paths....at which point i was SOOOOOOO grateful for not driving, especially with my track record when borrowing other peoples cars!
so we needed three people minimum to go on this safari so i managed to find another girl from kigali to join me and a friend. now, correct me if i'm wrong or totally disillusioned but don't you go on a safari to see the wildlife......???? well much to our amusement this 3rd girl clearly didn't..... we chatted all the way to the park at which point she fell asleep, and despite me waking her up everytime we saw an animal, she proceded to
fall back asleep or just read her 2004 edition of marie claire!!!!! needless to say i was in fits everytime i looked down into the vehicle!!!!
one of the advantages of akegara, apart from its diverse habitat, is the few other vehicles..... i think we saw only 2 all day and to be fair would only have seen one had we not come across a minibus vehicle with a puncture (unsurprising for a vehicle like that given the terrain, to be fair). they were in the process of going to get help by foot, surely not wise in a national park even if there is only supposedly one lion....but still the guides are not allowed to carry guns or knives so headng off on foot would have been interesting! basically they had 2 spare tyres but they were both flat (didn't you think to check them before leaving), and the guide had forgotten his radio and the driver lost his phone - all in all a good team! there was a german guy on board who funnily enough had been questioning the leader what would happen if they had an emergency (!) - they didn't know! we got chatting
to him (while the drivers used one of our spare tyres to get them back to civilsation even if it didn't really fit), and i shouldn't laugh but the company was called 'jeep safari' - only in a german accent that made 'cheap safari - far more fitting especially since they weren't even in a jeep!!!
once on our way again we were fortunate enough to see 4 hippos walk past us - they are huge.... wouldn't want to get in their way! as demanding tourists we asked to see them in the water too so drove off to a nearby lake in search of them..... and there they were, with their eyes just above the water (we can seeeee youuuu), and surrounding them a fair few crocodiles. they have an easy life to find food.....just keeping their mouth open and only closing it when flies fall in (why doesn't that happen with me and iced buns!!).
it was alreay time to head home as unbeknown to us it was going to take some 4hours! getting home however involved driving over the range of hills in the midle of the park on really poor roads (if you can
call them that). i'd say the hills were like the Lake District, to give you some idea. we eventually got right onto the ridge about 1800m and the views were amazing......and spotted a couple of giraffe just meandering around. it was a long way down and there was rain in the distance but down we had to go, so the driver negociated the path which he'd never taken before with great skill if i may say so, i couldn't tell on many occasions whether we should be going left or right but we made it to the road (still unsealed but resembling a road at least) at the bottom and the driver put his foot down. it had rained a lot but that didnt seem to prevent him from zooming through puddles past pedestrians and slamming on his brakes when a herd of cattle were crossing.
nearly home we dropped the guide and gave him money to get a taxi home but he claimed he didn't have enough money despite being the amount he had quoted at the beginning of the day. he had suddenly realised it was dark (surely that happens every day at this time?) and raining
and so a taxi moto wouldn't take him home cos they don't like travelling at night in case of roaming animals.....this will probably have been true but he could have mentioned this earlier and i am fed up with people just asking asking asking white people for money that i refused (sorry if i sound very stingy and mean but the number of peope who have asked me to find them a sponsor for their education or to get them this or that, it's driven me up the wall).
once home we handed over the money to pay and apparently that wasn't enough, and we should be paying more despite having discussed at great length this issue with the tour company before and at the start of the day. i half get the impression that often when they try that people will just pay and so that encourages them to try it on everyone. anyway the driver phoned his boss, who i'd been emailing and fortunately he said we were right, but then he claimed that one of the dollar notes was not valid, cos it was too old..... give me strength!!!!!!! the sleepy girl works in a bank
and managed to convince him that it was fine or else come and change it at bank next week. shame that put a downer on the day but fortunately it's the good memories that ovreride everytime and what a good day - still it was the 13th so that might explain it.
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katy
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Jess, I love your adventures...especially the way you tell them. Can't wait to see all the photos!