Although Rwanda isn’t in the itinerary of our tour we were so close to the border that we couldn’t resist taking a trip there, also we had planned to stay for 4 nights in Jinja, Uganda which is an adventure sport place so we figured we could skip that bit and go to Rwanda instead. A decision I am so happy we made.
African Trials had organised mini buses to the capital for a day trip but Alice and I decided we a) wanted to do the trip on our own b)wanted to go for longer than a day and c) thought it would be much cheaper to get local transport.
We got a taxi from Kable to the border and then crossed the border which was easy and completely hassle free. Straight over the border we hopped on a local bus and enjoyed the beautiful scenery during the 2 hour drive. We arrived in Kigali late afternoon and had the largest beer I’ve ever seen (720ml is the standard size in Rwanda) before finding a hotel (thanks Lonely Planet for sending us all over town!), having dinner and then heading early to bed.
The next morning we took moto taxis to the Genocide Museum which was horrific but very well done. It’s amazing to think that it was only 16 years ago, and within my lifetime, that it all happened. They have so many bodies buried there in mass graves and apparently they are still finding people all over. It was weird as well afterwards as we were walking round the capital knowing that everyone over the age of 15 has either killed someone, watched someone be killed or been affected in some other way by the genocide. I don’t’ know how a country recovers from something like that but I guess you just have to look forward and educate people so that it never ever happens again.
In the afternoon we went south to a church where one of the massacres took place. Apparently lots of people hid out at churches to avoid getting killed but that just meant that the people went to the churches and killed everyone there at once. The government decided that they would keep it how it was so that people remember what happened and to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again. They have put all the clothes of the people inside the church which was so weird and the memorial contains loads of bones and skulls from the victims. There was a lady at the church who was one of the only 6 people who survived there and she had to watch her whole family be massacred. She now just stays there every day now just because she doesn’t know what else to do…so sad.
That evening we met up with two other girls on our truck who had decided to stay longer than just the day and went for an awesome Chinese meal which was good and we got motos back which was pretty exciting driving through the city so fast late at night.
The next day we took a matatu (a local mini bus) to Ginsenyi which is a town on Lake Kivu in the North West of the country. The bus ride was entertaining as they basically just squash as many people as possible on board. Also, the locals were amazed that us mzengus (white people) were getting on a local bus and they just stared at us the whole 4 hours, one woman was even stroking Claire’s leg, I guess she wanted to see what white skin felt like. We spent the afternoon and next day lazing on the beach next to the beautiful lake (which was so big it looked like the sea), and eating some awesome food. We were running out of time so that night we took a night bus back to Kampala, Uganda. For some reason the bus went via Kigali (seriously look at a map, it was about a 6 hour detour) but this is Africa and when we asked why the driver just said ‘why not?’ The border was quick and easy although Alice and I had a crazy lady who had been sitting next to us on the bus who kept pushing us out the way and stepping on our feet which was quite random. We arrived in Kampala early in the morning (far too early…like 4am), the bus was actually not too bad and I think I managed to get a few hours of sleep even though I couldn’t reach the floor so I had nowhere to put my feet. We weren’t sure what to do as it was so early but we found out that we got breakfast included in our tickets so we headed to the office to get that and found loads of locals sleeping on a mat on the floor…if you can’t beat them, join them! I think I slept better on the hard floor than some nights in the tent and I only woke up when this old lady decided she wanted to share my bag to use as a pillow and proceeded to lay down next to me and cover me with her scarf.
After a breakfast of cakes (we found a good bakery!), we hopped on a matatu heading north as we were spending our last night away fom the truck in a rhino sanctuary run by some awesome South Africans. The place was really luxurious and we had a three course dinner (with steak!) and sat round the fire with some beers before heading to bed. The next morning we set out on foot with our guide to go and find some rhinos. It was great because it only took about 20 minutes of walking before the guide pointed out a huge rhino that was just eating some grass next to us. I couldn’t believe how big it was, it’s back was probably at least 6 foot and its arse was huge. There were 3 rhinos in the family we saw (mum, dad and baby) and we just sat and watched them for an hour (they were stood about 2m away from us) or so before we had to return. That afternoon we took another matatu back to Kampala, this one was probably the most entertaining one we had taken yet – when we got on there was a chicken just running around the floor (pretty standard) but half way back we had to stop for petrol, the chicken obviously knew its fate and pegged it straight out the door, we then had a good giggle watching the driver running around the petrol station trying to catch the bloody chicken, eventually he did though and he tied its legs together and shoved it under my seat. I spent the rest of the journey trying to avoid it pecking my foot and me stamping on its head which was difficult as we were so cramped. When we got to Kampala finally as well, the man pulled out the chicken from under the seat and it had laid an egg on the journey…only in Africa.
We walked across town to go to a bagel place at the flash mall which was awesome and then took our last matatu (which was probably the most squashed one yet) back to Jinja to rejoin the truck.
Today we are in Nakuru National Park, almost all the truck have gone on a game drive today but I’m giving this one a miss so we’ve just been sunbathing, eating and doing laundry. We are heading to the Masai Mara in a few days though so I don’t think I’m missing out too much as I’ll see my fair share of animals there.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment