Akigara Game Drive and Trip to Volcanoes National Park, December 25-26, 2023

We started our day on Christmas morning, having a relaxing breakfast and going for a game drive around Akagera National Park.  With Jimmy under centre and one of his many friends, we saw baboons, zebras and elephants off the bat.  The park was beautiful, with lots of game areas, but distinctively, it had lots of rolling hills and a beautiful view of Lake Ihema from the hotel.  We could see warthogs, impalas, and giraffes as we drove further into the park.  We headed back for lunch and then went back out for a boat cruise on the lake.  We were able to get up close to hippos, some elephants on the shoreline, and African buffaloes.  We also got to see the great diversity of birds who build their nests along the side of the lake.  As we were driving back up to the hotel after the boat cruise out, park guide Eric spotted a cat in the park.  We stopped immediately and looked out to see a leopard lying on the ground a couple feet away from the car.  He was hiding behind some branches and then booked it behind some trees.  Dinner at the hotel was delicious, the full buffet experience.  The hotel was beautiful and was filled with many Rwandan tourists for Christmas.  An all-around fun Christmas Day and a nice change of pace from our previous travelling.  

The 26th started late with a 10am departure towards Volcanoes National Park via Kigali.  The drive ended up being much more relaxing when you’re not flying around trying to make it across the country with a strict arrival time.  As soon as we left the park, we started noticing some people on bikes with numbers on their backs flying up and down the hills.  About 30 minutes into our drive leaving the game park, we were stopped by some officials in military uniform.  They told Jimmy that a bike race was in progress and directed us into a little parking lot on the side of the road.  We stood at the side of the road, watching the bike race for a while.  It turns out there were two in progress: a local one with people coming from the game park and also a professional one for people coming from Kigali on their fancy road bikes.  After standing up in the crowd and watching the race for a little while, Jimmy got back on the phone.  Next thing we knew, he was having an in-depth conversation with one of the race officials.  He ran back to the car, and the official approached us, asking what time our flight was to leave; unsure of what he was talking about, we all said nothing, with Jimmy jumping back into the conversation and responding, “Very soon.” The next thing I knew, he was pulling the car out of the parking lot and yelling, “Get in.” The race official moved the entire group of people watching out of the way so that we could move past.  Jimmy explained that we would have been there all day because the official told him another group of bikes was arriving in 20 minutes and never came.  Thinking we’d be stuck there, he told the guy the tourists had a flight, and we were off again.  It was a pretty funny sequence. 

We stopped quickly for coffee in Kigali, where Jimmy was working some of his magic negotiating skills to get us a new case of water for the car.  He was working the phone for an extended period of time to find the hook-up who showed up; Jimmy apparently was not satisfied with the price he gave when he showed up, so he turned down his water connection for someone selling water in the parking lot.  Jimmy is a man of constant negotiations.  We arrived at our place in Volcanoes National Park later that night.  This area is at a high elevation with lots of rain, making it very green and extremely fertile with volcanic soil.  We were getting prepared to go on our hike to see the gorillas the next day.  

    Animals at Akigara Game Park

Us with Jimmy

Watching the bike race that delayed the drive to Volcanoes National Park