ROAD TRIP TO NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK
25-29 May
post by scott
Nyungwe national park is in the south of Rwanda and home to chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, hornbills and the bizarre looking turaco (a colourful bird with huge crest). Although it is the "other" major tourist attraction in Rwanda it is notoriously difficult to reach and get around. There is no reliable public transport, so our only option was to rent a car
+/- driver. I never thought I would be driving in Africa but the added cost of hiring someone was too much to bear so we decided to have a crack ourselves. At least we knew what we were in for after seeing the roads on the way to the gorillas - potholed or dirt roads, buses whizzing by at crazy speeds and throngs of people constantly walking or pushing bicycles along the side. In short it is not as bad as India but still pretty bloody bad! We set out on mototaxis (guys on motorbikes are everywhere and will give you a dirt cheap lift - they even have a spare helmet!) with the aim of finding the "Europcar" rentals. First stop was the address they had listed (logically right?) - not there. Redirection by a local back to near where we had started and we got dropped off at what looked to be the office, but on closer inspection it was closed permanently, with a piece of paper saying it had moved to a new address. Finally, at the new address noone seemed to have any idea! So we gave up on them. |
Thankfully our friend John new a guy - Didier. Didier had a banged up Suzuki Vitara that he was willing to rent for about $70 per day, which sounded pretty good. He insisted that it had third party insurance as indicated by a small piece of paper with some french words on it. We were also reassured that the "Needs engine service soon" light had been malfunctioning since the cars arrival in Rwanda due to difference in humidity! When I asked about the broken fuel cap John laughed and said people in Rwanda are too decent to siphon off your fuel, so that was good to know.
We found ourselves asking WWMD - what would Mal, the voice of reason and common sense, do in this situation? The answer seemed to be overwhelmingly not to take the dodgy, inadequately insured car from some random guy. But we had limited options, so after drawing up the worlds most sketchy "contract" and getting him to take the car for a service, we had ourselves a set of wheels and were ready to go the next day! Didier gave us his phone number in case of breakdown..
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we're off!
Thankfully the Suzuki was automatic, so I just had to get used to driving on the right side of the road from the left side of the car, and not worry about a stick. We went straight to the servo and almost immediately had a catastrophe - the bowser was unlabelled and the attendent only spoke french. We kept saying petrol! petrol! not diesel! but her vacant smile and nod indicated that she didn't really know what we wanted so she just filled her up. Thankfully the car started and continued to run so I can only assume it was petrol after all.
Driving took immense concentration. You have to take the fine line between avoiding people walking on the side of the road and also avoiding the buses which cut the corners coming the other way and inevitably end up heading straight at you. I soon learned that the liberal use of horn is crucial. We passed through fields of corn, irish potatoes, perethrum and watched with amazement as people carried anything and everything on their head, from bundles of sticks to piles of bricks. Arriving in the national park diminished the threat of hitting a pedestrian, but it provided a new hazard - broken down trucks everywhere, as indicated by a branch on the road ten metres beforehand. On the drive home we even saw the charred remains of a truck which had burst into flames the previous night (apparently the driver managed to get out).
Driving took immense concentration. You have to take the fine line between avoiding people walking on the side of the road and also avoiding the buses which cut the corners coming the other way and inevitably end up heading straight at you. I soon learned that the liberal use of horn is crucial. We passed through fields of corn, irish potatoes, perethrum and watched with amazement as people carried anything and everything on their head, from bundles of sticks to piles of bricks. Arriving in the national park diminished the threat of hitting a pedestrian, but it provided a new hazard - broken down trucks everywhere, as indicated by a branch on the road ten metres beforehand. On the drive home we even saw the charred remains of a truck which had burst into flames the previous night (apparently the driver managed to get out).
We arrived at the guesthouse just after dusk, and were shown in to our shoebox of a room by the tall, slow-talking Samuel. Incenced by the hefty price (resulting from a lack of competition nearby) we dumped our things and went out to find dinner in the nearby village and hopefully watch the Champions League final which was one between Bayern Munich and Borissia Dortmund. It had started raining so we drove in the dark down to a nearby village which seemed to be asleep already. Noone was around so we followed a rickety sign pointing up the hill to the "Top View" hotel where the lights were still on, just visible through the rain. Four wheel drive was required to crawl up a seldom used dirt road eaten out by torrents of water, leading past the village and into the bush. At the end of the road stood a huge, apparently empty double story building with a large open lobby in the middle of the nowhere. We couldn't enjoy the top view because it was dark so we stepped inside, not knowing whether we would be welcomed or murdered. The silence was made all the more eerie by the futuristic decorations inside, but to our relief (and surprise) a man in a suit stepped out from some crevasse and welcomed us in for dinner, reassuring us that it is normal in the low season to have no guests. Thankfully we made it through the creepy dinner service without encountering any ax-weilding maniacs or evil twin sisters.
Nyungwe national park
Enjoying a national park comes at a price in Rwanda. For us that price was an insane $320 for 3 days of walks. Everyone must be accompanied by a guide (who will also expect a tip) plus when you drive yourselves and guide to the starting point it is expected to pay a local $10 to watch your car while your away! Our initial enthusiasm for supporting Rwandan tourism was dwindling as fast as our cash supply, making us miss good ol' Australia where you can walk around national parks to your hearts content for free or a nominal sum.
Whinging aside, the park was fantastic. Most of it was dense primary rainforest complete with towering 150 year old mahogany trees. We saw L'Hoest monkeys with their irridescent blue balls and hornbills beating the air with huge wings that sound like an industrial fan. Sadly the elephants that once lived here had been poached heavily and the few remaining ones had succumbed to a local swamp which had swallowed them alive. Our guide also showed us shome traditional medicinal plants like the begonia leaf for diarrhoea or the bark of a certain tree for amoebiasis.
Whinging aside, the park was fantastic. Most of it was dense primary rainforest complete with towering 150 year old mahogany trees. We saw L'Hoest monkeys with their irridescent blue balls and hornbills beating the air with huge wings that sound like an industrial fan. Sadly the elephants that once lived here had been poached heavily and the few remaining ones had succumbed to a local swamp which had swallowed them alive. Our guide also showed us shome traditional medicinal plants like the begonia leaf for diarrhoea or the bark of a certain tree for amoebiasis.
CHIMPANZEE TRACKING
Chimp tracking is the main event at Nyungwe NP and there are two options to choose from. 1) Track in the main park which is huge and they don't know where the chimps are, or 2) Drive 45 minutes to another small section which has become separated by human encroachment and is now a 6km2 island of habitat in which a group of chimps are essentially trapped. We were encouraged to take option 2, so we got up at 5am with the aim of arriving just as the chimps are waking up. Thankfully Allana had warned me that this would not be the same close up encounter as with the gorillas! After walking for 15 minutes we could hear them whooping and screaming so we stopped on the track and watched as they ran across one by one, appearing for a half a second before vanishing again in the thick undergrowth. We followed their noise to a high fruit bearing tree where they had all ascended and were sitting comfortably in the upper branches having breakfast. Against the overcast sky it was honestly difficult to make out much detail apart from their dark outlines, even with the zoom lens. However we saw babies hugging and playing, older brothers coming over to beat up the babies and mum watching on seemingly disinterested. Despite the distance it was great just to stand and watch the humanlike behaviours and interactions of our closest cousins.
Banana BeerThis stuff is for some reason super popular around East Africa. I guess it's cheap and easy to make, and even in Africa people enjoy getting pissed. The process is as follows - anyone can do it: (1) Throw a heap of green bananas in a dirt pit. (2) Leave them there for ages. (3) Take out bananas and mash them with a bit of water. (4) Add some ash from a burnt fern. (5) Stir vigorously. One night we walked down to the local village to try the stuff. An old man pointed us to the right house where a woman behind the bar scooped out a bottle full of brown, muddy looking liquid from a 44 gallon drum and sold it to us for 400 francs. It tasted like vinegar and banana and dirt. There was no effervenscence. Nevertheless, I have had worse home brewed beer (Connellys famous "vegemite brew") and if in a pinch I guess could get used to it. However this time we only managed a few gulps and had to tip out most of the stuff before returning the bottle.
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Back to kigali :(
On the way home we stopped for a night in Huye which is the intellectual capital of Rwanda and home to their university. At the national museum we were guided around by Angel, the most softly spoken person I have ever met, and learnt some interesting facts with which I have peppered throughout this post! There is also another genocide museum here but we didn't have the stomach for it as it houses the preserved remains of children and babies hacked to death with machetes.
The only other excitement of the drive came from assault rife weilding traffic cops who stopped us to look at our documents. Luckily we had anticipated this so had the bundle of papers ready - registration certificate, insurance "document" and certificate of currency (not sure what the hell this was). Passport and drivers licence were also required and there was a moment of anxiety handing over the cheaply laminated QLD drivers licence but it seemed to meet his approval - No bribes needed!
I must admit I breathed a huge sigh of relief as we pulled back in to the Step Town hotel in Kigali with the car and ourselves fully intact.
The only other excitement of the drive came from assault rife weilding traffic cops who stopped us to look at our documents. Luckily we had anticipated this so had the bundle of papers ready - registration certificate, insurance "document" and certificate of currency (not sure what the hell this was). Passport and drivers licence were also required and there was a moment of anxiety handing over the cheaply laminated QLD drivers licence but it seemed to meet his approval - No bribes needed!
I must admit I breathed a huge sigh of relief as we pulled back in to the Step Town hotel in Kigali with the car and ourselves fully intact.