Planes, Trains and Automobiles, or in Rwanda: Vans, Trucks and Public Buses, December 24, 2023

 December 24th, yay, it's my birthday. What a time to celebrate by engaging in one of the most insane days of travel you can do! The fact that we made it to the game lodge that night was a miracle. It doesn't even make sense how we did, but it was done. We started off the morning at our eco-lodge in Nyungwe, where we stayed a night too long. Now, we were supposed to transfer to Kigali the night previously to make the drive into Akagera game park a bit easier, but due to car trouble, we were staying on the literal opposite side of the country a bit too long. Even if things went exactly according to plan on this day, we still would have been driving 8 hours from border to border (Congo to Tanzania) across a third-world country trying to arrive at the game park ahead of 6 pm when it closed. Driving across the entirety of Rwanda is not exactly conducive to arriving at the expected time. Jimmy pulled up at the hotel with the van that refused to operate and told us that somebody was coming from the tour company the other way to pick us up in case it all went wrong.  

The first 20 minutes of the drive, we had no issues; the van was running smoothly, and it seemed that we might make it to at least Kigali, where we could get another van. Unfortunately, it did not last; the new fuel pump that was installed the night before was not holding up, and the van continued to die as we drove through the park. Nyungwe Park is about 150 kilometres of straight jungle. It is not very busy other than truckers, and there are lots of armed military that patrol the park as they are worried about militia groups getting in from either Burundi or the Congo. After restarting and driving about 50 meters at a time, the car finally would not start, and we were officially without a car, only about 1/4 of the way into the park. There was no cell service when we broke down, so Jimmy insisted that we start walking up to the park's head office, which was about 3-6 km up the road. So we left the big bags in the car and started walking up, thinking that work would be worse. We will get picked up by the driver coming from Kigali to meet us along the way. It turns out that whatever was going on in the hundreds of phone calls Jimmy made with the company and the other drivers, a car was not coming anytime soon. We later found out that a van had been sent early, but Jimmy told them to turn around because it had a similar history of breaking down during the tours. He wanted a better vehicle, which, it turns out, had not even left Kigali to start the 4-hour journey to the park. At the time, we did not know, and Jimmy did a good job of withholding some of the information that was better if we didn't know. On the walk up to the ranger station, Jimmy flagged down a massive truck with a park ranger inside. He negotiated with the truck driver to let him take us as far as the ranger station where we could rest. The driver reluctantly agreed, and we walked back down the hill to grab all of our stuff out of the broken-down van. We all smooshed into the truck, and as soon as the wheels started turning, Jimmy negotiated with him to get us to the closest town outside of the park, where he could at least hire us a car. He agreed to do so. A very nice man from Kenya named Kip was very interested as to why a large white family was hanging out on the side of the road in the middle of the national forest.  

Kip drove a large Mercedes-Benz truck en route back to Kenya; he dropped us in the first town outside of the park, where we were greeted by a large group of children also curious about why we were hanging out on the side of the road. Jimmy ran into the bus station and returned 5 minutes later on a public bus with 5 seats available and lots of Rwandans trying to get to their family for Christmas. We rode on the public bus for a couple hours with the goal of reaching Kigali. Everyone was once again very curious as to why this large white family was riding the public bus on Christmas Eve. We exchanged lots of laughs as people tried to figure out what was going on, and we played around with the many young kids. We arrived in a small town, and Jimmy bolted out of the bus. He came back 10 minutes later and told us to get out. We have a car that will drive us the rest of the way to Kigali. We grabbed all our stuff and jumped into a tiny '90s Toyota without indicators for fuel temp, rpms and, yeah, Kilometres per hour; the guy never knew how fast he was going. At this point, Jimmy had been on the phone for what felt like 3 hours straight, in the truck, on the bus and now in the car. It turned out another vehicle was coming in the other direction after all. About an hour into the drive, Jimmy got a call from the driver asking where we were, and then we drove right past him. He turned around, and we got in. It turns out Jimmy got his hands on a Land Rover. 

It was already 1pm, and we still had 2 hours to Kigali and several hours after that to Akagera game park, whose gates closed at 6 pm. Jimmy booked it, and we drove very quickly, stopping once for a quick bite and then pulling over to the side of the road in Kigali to let the other drive out. The drive from Kigali was intense. We were racing, and as we got off the main highway, we were driving extremely quickly down the main roads of small towns filled with people for Christmas Eve. Jimmy would honk at people to move out of the road, and they would take one step to their right or left. There were some close calls on the drive, but we had to make it to the park before 6 pm, or we were most likely going back to Kigali. We literally arrived at the park gates at 5:59; the park ranger was amazed that someone had made it just in time to get in. We made it after a 12-hour travel day that consisted of a broken van, a Kenyan truck, a public bus, a tiny hired car and finally, a Land Rover. Getting in that night was a relief, and I slept well. It worked out in the end, and the trip was back on track. That was the craziest travel day of my life.  

The Broken van in Nyungwe Park / Jimmy working the phone

Walking up to the ranger station

Kip's Trucks and Lachlan Pushups 

Tight squeeze in Kip's Truck

The public bus with people going to see family for Christmas

Arriving at Akagera Game Park lodge