Week 2

Rwanda

Our past week has been a real opportunity to get more familiar with the expression – T.I.A (This Is Africa). The week began with the discovery that our Airbnb had bedbugs… this probably should have been apparent sooner as Kirsten was waking up each day with more and more itchy red bites, but she was in denial and maintained that they were from mosquitos for the first few days. We thus spent a solid day after leaving the Airbnb decontaminating the rest of our belongings to ensure that we didn’t take them with us for the rest of our trip!

What we did

After finishing up our time in Kigali, we braved our first African bus depot (where we felt a little bit like two chips amongst a flock of seagulls) to catch a mini bus to Kibuye on Lake Kivu. We spent a couple of days taking in the views and wandering around this incredibly beautiful little town on the lake, before moving on (via two more minibuses) to Ruhengeri, located in the foothills of Volcanoes National Park. The national park is famous for being home to some of the worlds last remaining mountain gorillas, and was where Dian Fossey conducted her life work studying them, before she was murdered here in 1985. Unfortunately, our budget didn’t quite stretch to covering US$1500 per head to actually visit a habituated group of mountain gorillas, but we did spend a day doing the (much more reasonably priced) Dian Fossey hike. The hike took us up through the national park to the ruins of her research station, nestled on a hill between the two mountain tops, as well as her grave next to her favourite gorilla, Digit. We had been warned that the hike would be muddy, but nothing could have prepared us for the 7 hours we spent slogging most of the way through ankle deep (and sometimes knee deep) mud.

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Being so exhausted the next day, we stumbled out of bed at a pretty leisurely hour. We only managed to get to the French mass at the beautiful Cathedral Notre Dame de Fatima, where a particularly industrious group of children accompanied us into the church and stayed with for the entire hour and forty-minute service, in hopes of lightening our pockets of a few thousand francs at the end.

Favourite thing we did

On our third day at Lake Kivu, when the rains had finally subsided long enough to let the sun peep through, we took advantage of the weather and went for a short hike around the edge of the lake. The changing vantage points and all the little discoveries we made walking along the many peninsulas was a real treat. We picked up a small entourage about halfway through of some local children, which seemed to snowball in to larger pack as we passed every home along our route. The kids shrieked in glee every time one of us lifted them over one of the mud puddles (which were plentiful, given the recent rains).

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Favourite thing we ate

We enjoyed a beautiful lunch at the Cormoran Lodge whilst enjoying our walk around the peninsula in Kibuye. We enjoyed some local delicacies – brochettes (basically meat on a stick) and fish freshly caught from the lake, and Tim was delighted to discover they had Spekulous icecream. The food was incredible, though pricey and the views out across Lake Kivu to the DRC in the very far distance were to die for.

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Out most appreciated meal, however, was the burgers we got for dinner at the Migano Café in Ruhengeri after we finally returned from the Dian Fossey Hike. We had originally expected to be back from the hike in time for lunch, however the recent heavy rains had made the mud much deeper which meant the hike took significantly longer and we only got back in time for dinner. We were pretty hungry by this point, having only eaten some nuts and biscuits that we took along for snacks, so our dinner when we finally got it was pretty much the best thing we had ever tasted. No pictures here – we inhaled our food as soon as it was put in front of us.

Favourite phrase we learnt

Kinyarwandan being the language spoken the most here in Rwanda (alongside French and English) we thought it pertinent to at least pick up the basics. A seemingly innocuous expression – Mwaramutse – meaning ‘good morning’, has rendered some interesting replies such as Yego/Yes and Ni meza/I’m fine. As a local guide later explained to us, Mwaramutse can actually be posed as a question early in the morning when it can be taken to mean ‘did you survive the night?’ which goes a long way to explaining some of the circuitous responses we’ve received.

Biggest splurge

Our biggest splurge of the week was more of a necessity – 25,000 RWF ($40 AUD) spent having all of our clothes hot washed by our hotel in Kibuye in order to kill all the bedbugs we feared were in them. Maybe this price was reasonable, but having gotten batch loads of washing done for far less during our travels in Asia, paired with the hotel policy of pricing every individual item to be laundered, we were a bit taken aback. At least it was a better deal than the 50,000 RWF ($80 AUD) originally requested!

Best deal

Exorbitant laundry prices aside, our best deal was undoubtedly our accommodation in Kibuye/Karongi at Home Saint Jean. For just 30,000 RWF a night (about $50 AUD) we were treated to a fantastic lake-view room, a great value included breakfast and an excellent hot shower (not always a given in Africa as we’re fast discovering). The beautifully maintained gardens of the hotel winded down along a lovely path to the lakeside which we thoroughly enjoyed exploring.

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