Kigali to Nyungwe and the Chimpanzees, December 22-23, 2023
This is coming to you later than intended, and the main reason is that I could not write out what we had done after these 2 days. This one will be a hefty story, probably the longest blog post in this blog’s history, so buckle up. By the way, I feel like I need to acknowledge before I write this that Rwanda is a wonderful, exciting country with lovely people; however, it is a nation with the majority of its population living in extreme poverty. By understanding this, hopefully, you will better understand that some of my comments are not necessarily negative or critical in nature. Instead, they are direct observations of the country we are in and the situations in which the people who live here are forced to put themselves in.
With that, we start our story on December 22nd, waking up in Kigali, the nation’s capital and a truly modern city in Africa’s context. We began by walking around the well-kept town. I want to emphasize that it is well-kept, and there are many street cleaners who keep all the roads, sidewalks, and plants well-maintained. We stopped by the place where the Belgian peacekeepers during the genocide were killed and saw many of the government buildings. Jimmy picked us up that morning and started the long drive across the country of a thousand hills. Driving in this country is quite crazy in that there are so many people who use the main road as a sidewalk and that there are so many ups, downs, twists and turns. There are literally no straightaways anywhere in the country, roads are always winding, and people are always out on the roads going about their days. Most of the villages are built pretty high up on the hills, and it is quite remarkable that nearly every house is built at some kind of angle. We stopped at the one along our drive to see the old king of Rwanda’s palace. They gave us some history of the country and showed us the traditional tent houses that royals would use and their special long-horn cows. I tried some local food, which is basically a beef stew and a big ball of hot flour that you rip into little pieces and work into a ball, which you use to scoop up the meat and stew. Afterwards, I found out that Jimmy was texting my dad from the other side of the table in the middle of lunch: “How are you doing?” Jimmy is a funny man.
Next, we were off to our eco-lodge, but we had to pass through the Nyungwe Forest National Park, the craziest part of the drive up to this point. The entire park is big uphills and downhills with sharp corners everywhere. Not to mention the massive trucks flying down the hills and taking tight turns. There were a couple close calls that had me wondering if bushes could stop a car from sliding down off a cliff, but for the most part, Jimmy is a confident driver. After driving through the forest for about an hour, we were ready to get to our hotel for the night. We came around a corner and drove directly into what must have been a 4-foot-deep pothole. We were all sent head-first into the ceiling of the car. The brakes were no longer working, and it appeared that the line had been severed. Jimmy jumped out of the car and flagged down a passing truck from which he bought a bottle of brake fluid, which he poured right into the car. For the rest of the drive, he had to gear up and down as well as use the hand brake to slow us down. We eventually arrived in town and were greeted with dinner and good beds.
We were off early the next morning to see the Chimpanzees in the national forest. Jimmy, fresh off of working on the car for most of the night, assured us that everything would be just fine. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into our drive, the car died on an uphill. It turns out that the fuel pump was also not working, and not much gas was getting into the engine. He continuously started the car whenever it would die until we reached the dirt road portion of the drive to the park. He left us at the mouth as he wanted to take the car to the closest town to have it worked on. We hitched a ride with another tourist going to see the chimpanzees, Viv, an older British woman with a walking disability. She was travelling by herself with her guide and had an entire Land Rover, basically just to herself. She was more than happy for some company for the drive up the dirt road through big tea plantations and some of the craziest living conditions we had seen on the trip. Most of the people who lived up there mainly picked tea leaves and sold them at the end of the day for a couple dollars. When we arrived at the trailhead, we were greeted by nearly 15 people in park outfits staring at us. They were the porters that would come along in case we needed anything to be carried. Now, Viv could not walk on flat ground, so there was no way that she could hike down a muddy, steep trail to find chimps. Luckily, the porters had seen this situation before pulling out what was literally a liftable bed with two big sticks and a woven bottom that she could lie in while they hiked her down. The hike was interesting, and the forest was beautiful; getting down to them was tough, but we got to see them from a spot right under their tree. It was awesome to see them out in their natural habitat and to see the intricacies of their lifestyle. We hiked back up the hill, Viv being carried up the entire way; she had fallen asleep in her basket. The guys were just that good at their job. We got back to the entrance, and Viv was nice enough to let us hitch a ride all the way back to our hotel. When Jimmy arrived, he said that the car was still not in operational shape and that we would need to wait in the hotel lobby until he had come up with a plan. We sat in the lobby for about 4 hours before he told us that it was all right to book some rooms. We were the only ones in the hotel both nights. However, the food was very good, and everyone was friendly. The next day would hold what was most likely the most insane travel of my life and probably for the rest of it. Until then….
King's Palace and Special Bulls
Viv being carried in her bed
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