A Rwandan Safari

Sing it with me now:

Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! Sithi uhhmm ingonyama!

Lion King? Circle of Life? Elton John? Anyone?

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First of all, thank you for reading through my last post. Unlike many of my other updates, it included a hefty amount of facts. The Kigali Memorial Centre filled my head with numbers and images and history, all of which I felt compelled to expound upon you. Your patience is appreciated.

In lighter news, I went on a ridiculous safari yesterday. Absolutely ridiculous. I’ll start from the beginning.

I rolled out of bed at 5:45am and picked up a few sandwiches and fruit that I asked the hotel cafe to prepare the night before. My colleague, Joe, and I met our driver, Ernest, and we began the 2 hr trip to Akagera National Park, a 2500km² expanse of land in northeast Rwanda, cornered against the Tanzania border. Animals roam freely back and forth between both Rwanda and Tanzania, migrating wherever the water attracts them. Luckily, lots of precipitation had graced the Rwandan side of the park over the last month.

When we arrived at the park, our resident guide explained that we had three safari options – a 3 hour loop, a 5 hour loop, and an 8 hour loop. After asking questions and weighing or options, we opted for the 5 hour loop. We hopped into the vehicle – myself, Joe, our driver Ernest, and our trusty guide – and began the safari, following dusty, rock-laden tracks into the bush. I jotted a list of animals that we saw:

Several Cape Buffalo, Topis, Burchell’s Zebra, Elephants, Oribi, Reedbuck, a pod of Hippopatomi, and Vervet Monkeys, as well as one Masai Giraffe, one the legs of a Warthog, one pair of Crocodile eyes, and an Olive Baboon that tried to climb into our jeep.

It was wild. For roughly $150, the trip was more than worth it.

Alright, it’s almost 1am 1:30am and I leave in an hour 30 minutes for the airport. Kigali has been fantastic. Today’s itinerary:

Take off from Kigali at 4am – land in Nairobi at 6am

(layover in Nairobi – do some exploring if I can stay awake)

Leave Nairobi at 1:30pm, stop in Cotonou, stop in Abidjan, land in Lagos at 9:30pm.

Fingers crossed that all flights go according to plan. Talk to you from Lagos.