Rwanda - OUR journey continues

 A country known to many for different reasons, and sadly not all good!

First sightings of Rwanda

We discovered its nickname ‘the land of a thousand hills, is exactly right, although in truth, we didn’t count them as we trudged up and down narrow hillside roads with barely enough room for a car to overtake before the drop off, often a severe drop off in some cases - which kept us solely focussed on the road ahead!

An interesting small African country, the smallest we visited on this trip, but not our first landlocked one as we enter via the Rusumo border from Tanzania.  Keen and helpful, this is one of our more pleasant and timely border crossings.  That said the customs officials were super efficient at helping us empty a large part of the back of the landrover, open up the tent and make sure we were not bringing in anything ‘naughty’  Getting the necessary insurance documents to travel on the roads was a little more lengthy but only costs around £30 for the month, so worth spending time on this.

We enter Rwanda and find a camp site within the Urgo Women’s Opportunity centre.  A nice campsite, with sadly basic and in our opinion unclean facilities, we were allowed to use one of the lodge facilities instead.  A variety of women attend the centre each day to learn how to sew and to make things that get sold in the on-site shop, are buoyant and friendly.  At USD15 per person per night including breakfast, its one of the more expensive campsite, but in truth, its also a charity and these women do not have much, so we were happy to pay.  Of course once we’d peruse the gift shop, we, again happy to contribute, we bought some nice things from homemade yogurt to hand fans which are perfect for the hot weather. The break down in communication was such that we had thought we were buying yogurt and milk, but it seems we bought two bottles of yogurt; not great when we were making a cup of tea, but raised a smile nonetheless!

On leaving, the real Rwanda starts to unravel with a small boy, in his pigeon English saying ‘want dollars’  he wasn’t alone in his begging, but despite the persistence, there was no aggression, and you have to bear in mind, the begging is done due to a basic need; food.

We begin to appreciate the beauty of this country, similar in some ways to Switzerland, with its rolling hills and narrow roads- but thankfully without the snow!  Roadside children enthusiastically waving and grinning from ear to ear as we trundle by, and noticeably the older generations, more subdued and less enthusiastic.

Vast oasis of green dominate the scene with paddy fields in the lower ground working the land efficiently higher up to other crops neatly laid out in small squares proudly owned and managed by local people who traverse the slopes with ease brandishing their hoes, picks and forks working their small space of self sufficiency.

Down a horrible road with rain falls evident from the state of the road to a really nice campsite.  Umukoa Lodge overlooking Lake Muhazi, the same price at USD15 per person, this wasn’t a charity and it didn’t offer breakfast, but it did offer one clean ablution block which was rather weirdly placed right next to the kitchen with us needing to walk through the outside in various states of dress through the restaurant verandah.

Whether it was that road, or whether it was a final, ‘I give up plea’ from Andi the Landy, we noticed a drop of oil on the grass.  OK it is a land rover and therefore not unusual to see small drops of oil, but this was more of an avalanche.  And we were worried!

The kindly staff called a mechanic.  Sadly after a few hows pushing and tugging the one man band armed with only a few spanners couldn’t help and we ended up calling a recovery vehicle to Kigali.  By now all the oil was on the grass and not in the engine!

Andi was unceremoniously hauled upon to the flatbed tow truck, and taken away with

Poor Andi

us following in a taxi behind.  When you’re driving the roads yourself you expect movements to affect the ride, but when you’re watching from behind as your lovely land rover, your home, lurches from side to side as the tow truck hits another bad part of the road, or when you see the passenger of the towing truck climb onto the flatbed bringing a stick with him, you’re not really sure what’s going to happen next - this is Africa after all!

That stick was used to hold the overhead power cables aloft so the tow truck and the landrover can squeeze under - no regard for Health and Safely here!

Eventually we arrive at the Land Rover garage in Kigali.  As most of Rwanda seems to be, the garage is on a hill! The car park is busy with other cars parked up awaiting repairs.  The driver pulls to the side and starts to unhinge Andi with a deafening screech from the winch and clashes of chains the flat bed slowly climbs high from the cab tilting Andi to facing downhill, backwards - the tow truck was tipping Andi off the back.  Loud bangs, chains straining and I can barely look as a fancy parked up newer land rover looms large!  Andi slowly emerges off the now 45 degree tilted flatbed.  Eventually they move the two new land rovers aside and after lots of groaning, winch Andi into his resting place amidst huge sighs of relief from us.

Like an elephant graveyard, this landrover ‘graveyard’ of multiple landrovers in varying states of repair, that’s where we leave Andi - but not without insisting he gets chocked up first!   It’s Rwanda, there are hills, lots of hills.  

After a fairly stressful day and evening we check in late into the B Hotel as scheduled.

Breakfast balcony

A decent hotel overlooking the golf course which is set within two hills as we look down the valley the next morning.  The hotel is what we would call African standard, decent enough but not quite finished off somehow.  That said it served its purpose very well for us and our short stay.  Besides it was good to get a decent shower without parading ourselves to all and sundry!

After a fit full sleep with Andi on our minds, morning arrives quite early.

We jump into a taxi and check in at the garage who seems to have it all in order before we head off to play Kigali Golf Resort and Villas and golf course #68 of our Africa 100 challenge, and as it turns out our only golf course in Rwanda!

It’s not the only golf course in Rwanda, we did call off at another on route, Falcon.  After a long and arduous road heading towards the lake the golf course appears in all its glory, except it wasn’t so much glory, more long grass up to your knees and no-one around to help us.  We turned around and tackle that same road back onto the main road - maybe its that road which broke Andi??  Who knows, but we didn’t play it so sadly we couldn’t include it in our Arica 100 challenge.

Kigali on the other hand is a totally different proposition. Recent changes to the golf course layout and a few upgrades have left it in somewhat disarray on the day we visited, but in truth, the course played well.  Once the new signs are up, the new layout does make sense bearing in mind the impressive and overpowering building accompanying the course as the clubhouse - a clubhouse on steroids!

Caddies Jimmy and Patrick are scratch golfers and play for the Rwanda A team, pleasant but initially lacking the often forgotten human trait of humour, they did warm up eventually and revelled in our good play and empathised in the bad.  With 6 holes on one side of the road and 12 on the other, the only tunnel in Rwanda is on this course and links the two sides of the course. 

Some of the sapling trees just need time and this course will be up there with the best.  Already the larger trees on holes 5, 6 and 7 come into play, as does the water!

The 11th brings a 90 degree dog leg left with water on the inside of the dog leg, the caddies persuaded us to take less club to avoid the water, which was sound advise, these guys know their golf!  With the greens being cut fairly short, they did roll well and probably slightly faster than we were used to, but remained true to the roll with not too many subtle undulations.

Unusually the Rwanda government have a majority shareholding in the golf club and its impressive, still being built (when we visited) building,  doubles up as a super clubhouse and government offices.  

Talking to the caddies, (who seem to have warmed up a bit more now), the course plays easier than it used to, this was corroborated by the members we spoke to who said that some of the big trees had been taken out as they were in play, which is always a shame.  Today we are playing a fairly young course with scope.

It was great to see the birds of prey swooping down, their dark mass lending temporary light exclusion as their huge wings flap on the upward climb.  Even in the middle of the busy capital city, birds of prey are left to enjoy the open green space of the golf course, an oasis within the city.  And despite the city of Kigali having hills overlooking from most vistas, the golf course seems to sit within a bowl of contentment, where a chip and run is a good skill to embrace.

Atheistically, the eye has been considered and the water edges are fringed with rocks and softened with planting.  The course is manicured and it does sit well in its space, a space which will dominate in time, for now, its just biding its time and happily living in harmony with the bustling city with the forward tees having a huge advantage over the back tees!

Clubhouse food

The cafe clubhouse is a nice place to sit and enjoy the good food plus watch the players come in from the course - and revel in the win for Sarah.  Having played 68 African courses, the score is a friendly 34 each!

So with only one golf course we played, what else can we share about Rwanda?

One of the most heart rendering things we’ve done whilst travelling around Africa, is visiting the Genocide Memorial in Kigali.  It’s free to enter, but its good to give a decent donation.  Walking around the peaceful gardens its hard to comprehend the suffering this nation, this nation of beautiful soles has suffered.  In truth the country is still in the process of healing from the 1994 Genocide and visiting the memorial in Kigali is a moving experience, reading the accounts of the survivors and how families were torn apart, with only one or two survivors from large knit Tutsi families bought tears to my eyes.

Out of respect, we did not take too many pictures

Rwanda has, according the the 2023 stats around 46% are male and 54% women.  The modern day Tutsi’s we met still speak reasonably openly about the Genocide but covering their mouths, as if the subject is taboo.  But the overriding gist of the conversations we had with various people is positive.  With many citing with pride, their new families, their babies who will grow strong and build that family community back up.  It's a harrowing story of old, which in reality isn’t that old.

My Mum asked, if it affected me so badly, why did I visit? And I’m not too sure I can answer that, maybe morbid curiosity, but more likely the lack of understanding after hearing snippets on the news in the 90’s, as we are safely protected in the UK.  I don’t have the answers to many things, but I do know how I felt in the wake of those stories, and that is one of sorrow for their loss and two in awe for their tenacity and resilience to make a brighter and better future as one nation - the Rwandan people.

On a less harrowing note, we spent some time wandering around the market in Kigali.  Being tourists, we were pounced upon and we were grabbed to stalls we didn’t want to go to, but when we explained, actually all they were doing is driving us away which meant we’d buy nothing, they need to give us some space and time to browse - and we did buy some things from them.

Its not just in Rwanda, its common place in a lot of African countries for us to be seen as having plenty of money, and I guess in comparison we have, but coping with the constant hassle literally turns us away!

A few days wandering around exploring and we get the call - Andi is ready, so off we trot to collect our newly fixed, revitalised in life 30 year old landrover complete with new engine seals.

Sadly that night, we sprung a leak from the radiator, and a mechanic was sent out with a radiator fix the following morning- which by now means we’re really ready to get going again!

Leaving Kigali was genuinely a bitter sweet moment.  In some ways we couldn’t wait to get away from a big city and all that brings, and in others, we didn’t want to sever ties with the landrover garage that helped us so much knowing the further we went away the more difficult it would be to get Andi fixed again.

But the latter thought clearly didn’t make much difference as we head towards Lake Kivu.

There are tons of stunning lakes in Rwanda, hills and lakes and finding a nice pitch at one of the lake side hotels was good for us.  We were joined one of the nights by a couple of German guys in a short wheel base landrover, and of course the usual landrover discussions ensued.

We also jumped on a boat to explore Lake Kiva with Captain Julius.  Lake Kivu is one of the African Great lakes and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.  A peaceful serene looking lake with sinister undertones.  With its large reserves of natural methane gas stored beneath the tranquil waters.  Dotted with hotels and resorts, Lake Kivu is also home to the swimming cows.  The cows swim from one island to the next, in pursuit of greener pastures.  An ungainly sight, the cows don’t actually look that comfortable swimming but they do willingly go for a swim with the lure of fresh green grass too much to resist - well that and a slight prod from the herdsmen who we paid a small fee to watch the cows swim!

Fruit bats

Captain Julius is friendly and he spends time with us showing us the fruit bats on one of the lsland’s too.  You can actually swim in the lake with no crocodiles or hippos - in fact you can swim with the cows, but watching their legs splaying in an unruly way, I’m not sure a little unintended kick would be so little!

A pretty spot which hopefully won’t have a limbic disaster, but predictions aren’t great for this not happening!

We continue our journey around Rwanda and enjoy the friendly waves from children and adults, who now seem more friendly.  There is no side to them, just a nice little wave and a huge smile.

Swimming cows

The road to our next campsite was pretty dire, and narrow!  Lake Ruhondo in the North West of Rwanda, and its another spectacular lake. Near perfect circles of island, as if drawn by a compass, sit in the middle of the expanse of water, as do many other small islands spurting green trees like tufts of hair upon a bald mans pate.

Upon meeting a lorry coming the other way on that bad road, we decided to let him take the outer edge and get past us as we hug the mountainside as close as we dare, whilst keeping a watchful eye on the loose rocks above.  Totally unperturbed by the danger, the lorry simply barges past us, whilst our eyes are hidden in the palm of our hands we sit helplessly breathing in - as if thats going to make a difference!

The campsite was a skeptical offering, in fact it wasn’t really a campsite, but a car park - on a hill!  We got a very basic room and didn’t stay too long - which was a real shame as the location is stunning.

Rwandans farming their piece of land

Making our way to Ruhengeri and we’re struggling for some where to stay.  Ruhengeri is a good size town as its one the door step of the Gorillas on the Rwanda Side of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.  No campsites popped up on our search.  We drove around a bit and found a nice hotel, who allowed us to camp in their garden.  The Garden Place Hotel tucked between two churches and in its own little oasis of lovely gardens - hence its name.  We arrived on a Sunday and were treated to the most wonderful voices from the churches singing their hearts out as gospel music permeates the air accompanied by a zealous pianist whose repertoire was somewhat limited.  You’re able to walk around Ruhengeri too, with the odd tourist doing the same. Whilst out we stumble upon a church parade.  Each church adopting its own colours for its parishioners causing a riotous splash of colour as each church group went by singing and dancing with such fluidity to their bodies.  Smiling, their enjoyment is infectious, and we too were swaying and smiling too.  

It isn’t unusual to camp in hotel grounds with no designated facilities, (some have toilets), with the ablutions being available in one of the hotel rooms, the Garden Place was like this.  A decent room with a decent shower and also a coffee shop in the garden too - locked away in-between churches and behind gates, we really enjoyed our time relaxing off the road.

A short break before we leave the Rwandan people and the countryside that offers so much and head to Uganda, wondering if the country side can be very different from one bordering country to the next, and secretly hoping it isn’t as Rwanda is very, very pretty. and their people are a delight.

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Thanks for reading

Sarah & Steve

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