Our hot ride for the week. The final destination of choice was Nyungwe park, about a 5 - 6 hour ride south then west of Kigali. We chose to stop off halfway in Butare. Butare is a lovely city in the heart of Rwanda. Both the National Museum and University are located here. I had been to Butare several times for work. I don't have many photos of Butare, but I can tell you it has the best coffee shop/ shop in all of Rwanda. It also just happens to be owned by the same Lebanese that own the shop near our home in Kigali.
This is a photo of our hotel for the night. Really a lovely way to start the day, too bad the "eggs" were bight yellow and as leathery as a duck's backside. Coffeed up it time to hit the road for day two.
From Butare it was a 4 hour drive into the mountains. Windy roads too us from village to village. We stopped every now and again for a butt rest and a delicious warm coke. Our conversations with the locals was limited to the few words of Kinyarwanda we have picked up over the past 6 months. Usually, someone would come out of the eucalyptus speaking fantastic English and delighted to try it on us. It is really humbling to meet someone who comes from such a remote area and has taken it upon themselves to learn you language.
Upon reaching the edge of the rain forest a tea plantation acts as a buffer between the old Rwanda and the new. It is hard to believe that not so long ago Rwanda was not rolling hills of eucalyptus, pine and banana trees. This development is reality new to Rwanda and the result of Western influence and colonialism. The pros and cons of which are a whole other topic.
As we drove into the park the pine, tea and eucalyptus was replaced with dence vegetation of a closed canopy rain forest. Bird and monkey sightings grew more and more frequent. We drove for about an hour and reached the center of the park. The road that runs through the park is still the main road to Cyangugu, which is on the southern tip of Lake Kivu boarding the Congo. This means all traveling between Kigali and Cyangugu travel this road. Once in the park, the police no longer have jurisdiction, which means the speeds increase as do the number of cars and trucks on their sides.
The park does not receive a large number of tourists. Which is great as a visitor, but makes it difficult for the park to sustain itself. There were over a dozen rental houses and we were the only guests.
The next morning we were up early and ready for a hike in the forest. We had hoped to track the chimpanzees, but unfortunately they were too far away. We settled on a 10km hike to a look out point. Nyungwe is one of the largest mountain forests in Africa. The flora and fauna are particularly unique and important, as due to it's location and altitude within the Albertine Rift it was largely unaffected by the last ice age. The park is host to almost 300 birds, 200 types of trees, countless flowers and an exciting 13 species of primate. (http://www.rwandatourism.com/parks.htm)
The hike took about 4 hours. We were fortunate that the hike passed throughout a variety if terrain, which allowed us to enjoy a wide variety plants. The final vista gave us a 360 view of the park. To the south was Burundi, the west was the DRC and to the north the Volcanoes of Rwanda.
