Akagera Game Park

May 2005

I went to Akagera the first weekend in May at the invitation of people I had only recently met. I appreciated their generosity – especially to someone they don’t really know. I’m not sure why I’ve been surprised, but many people I have met here are generous and offer a lot without thought or expectation of reciprocity. It’s good to be reminded of this and these gestures seem so unexpected – just because I am not used to them in New York.

So, as a follow up to my previous post, I found out that Rwanda does have mandatory community service days and witnessed it for myself. This practice, which is called umuganda (and is not unique to Rwanda), apparently now occurs from 9 am to noon the first Saturday of every month after previously being held on the Fridays. The Saturday morning we left for Akagera was a community service day and, while we were allowed to travel outside the
city without being stopped because of license plates that
clearly indicated we were foreigners, many cars with
Rwandan license plates were stopped on the side of the road.
People were lined up outside their cars, perhaps to pay fines
and then to participate in the national and mandatory
community service.

The two hour drive to Akagera was interesting. Just outside
of Kigali, the scenery changes dramatically and there are
fields of crops such as corn, sugar, and houses with fences
made of live plants. The road to Akagera was well paved for
the first hour, and we passed small towns with mud and brick houses. Because it was a community service day, it seemed as if every person
in these small towns was out and on the side of the road.
And, they stared as the car passed through their towns.
Some people, particularly children, waved at us, and we
waved back, but many others had a stern look on their
faces – as if to say that it was not appropriate to be traveling
on umuganda.

As we neared the park, the road changed and was unpaved.
Since it had rained a lot, the tall grass and thicket-like trees
looked green and lush. The road was red, may be from the
clay in the dirt, and it was often bumpy and filled with
potholes. The land also flattened out near the park, as it is on the
border with Tanzania.

Akagera was a nice entry into the world of wild animals.
During the war, the Akagera game lodge hotel was
abandoned and was taken over by baboons. And, even now,
the baboons behave as if humans are a pesky nuisance and
roam the hotel freely. I saw a baboon walking the grounds of
the hotel when we first arrived. And, I was a little mesmerized
by the whole troop, which I soon met near the hotel pool.

The baboons camp out in close proximity to the pool
because it has tables where people eat and drink. They wait for
opportunities to steal food, water bottles and, yes, beer.
When careless guests walk away from their food or drink,
the baboons make their way from the grass and
trees directly behind the pool, climb up a short brick wall,
and perch on the wall’s ledge while they grab their goodies
– usually before anyone is the wiser. And, even when you
can see it coming, you might just freeze as I did the first
afternoon of my trip.

A baboon slinked up the wall and sat on the ledge about two
feet away from me. And, in a quick move, the baboon stuck out its long, thin brown furry arm and its black, padded digits towards the
cup of coffee on the table next to me. I could not believe that
I was so close to a baboon and just stared at it. But, the
people behind me started to make a noise and then a waiter chased
it away. I kind of wished they had just been quiet since it
would have been fun to see, if the baboon would have stayed
on the ledge after he picked up the cup of coffee.

Later that afternoon, I walked over to a tree behind the pool
where the baboons congregated to eat berries. Again, I was able to get
just a few feet away and watch them jump from one tree
branch to another. They’re mischievous and playful creatures
and I loved watching them eat, play, and plot to take
food and beers from the guests.

Early the second morning of my stay at the lodge, I went out
on a drive in a modified, school-bus that was only covered on
the sides and top with canvas – not much protection from the
animals we hoped to see. When we stopped at the ranger’s
office to pay entry into the park after leaving the lodge, a
section of our group went behind the building. After a few
minutes, the driver of the bus came in and asked us to join
the rest of the group. He had given me a pair of binoculars
and, with a little direction from another group member, I
focused in on three giraffes moving through the landscape in
the valley below. There were two adults and a baby giraffe.
And, they seemed to saunter through the area. Next to them,
the trees looked small and overshadowed. Too bad we could
not get any closer but it was still nice to see them.

During the four hour drive that first took us up some hills and
exposed us to amazing vistas, we saw impala, antelopes and
a lot of interesting birds. The red, clay filled road was still
such a beautiful contrast to the tall, green grass that was peppered
with small white and yellow butterflies and purple and yellow wildflowers. (I may have said this before, but Rwanda is breathtaking and gorgeous!!)

The guide on the bus initially kept apologizing for not seeing
any of the big animals, but I was taking in the soothing
scenery. My one regret was not being able to get a camera
before leaving the States since things just got too hectic.
But, the absence of a camera forced me to really enjoy the
moment and, while some of the other hotel guests were
scrambling to get good shots of the animals we eventually
encountered, I could just sit back.

After about an hour into the trip, the driver cut the engine of
the bus. I couldn’t figure out why until I looked straight
ahead and saw black and white stripes. We came upon a
group of zebras (and from the sight of them, pretty well fed).
A long time ago, someone told me that zebra stripes are not
identical. And, since this was my first encounter with a herd
of Zebras, I started looking at them closely and did notice
differences in the group. Zebras look a lot like horses and,
unlike some of the impalas we ran into, they stayed clear of
our bus. The entire group backed up when the driver
turned on the engine and slowly moved towards them.

After seeing more antelope and some rare birds, our
bus made its way down to one of the lakes in a network of
water ways that serves as a natural divide between Tanzania
and Rwanda. The scenery changed and we moved into a
palpably warmer climate. When we neared the lake, we
saw that there were hippos in the water. The bus got within a
few feet of the water where the hippos were cooling
themselves off. Although it was only about 10:30 in the
morning when we got to the lake, it was getting progressively
hotter and I kind of envied the hippos. We
saw at least two groups of hippos and a couple of them
snorted at us – as if to say, keep your distance. A
couple of the hippos looked like they were swimming but it
was really hard to tell since they just keep their very round
eyes and ears above water. It was a great sight! But, I hope
to see the hippos out of the water sometime – although that
is when they are at their most dangerous and can charge a
vehicle.

After viewing the hippos, we moved along to another part of
the lake and found an elephant (named Solitaire) in the park.
The elephant was also in the water, which was good since he has
run after people and vehicles in the last month. There are
people who monitor the animals and this elephant was tame before the
war but -- for some reason – does not like people now. So, we
were warned to keep a healthy distance and did not get very
close at all.

After the game drive, I spent the rest of the afternoon
roasting in the sun and catching up on some sleep before
heading back to Kigali. It was an amazing experience, and I
hope to have the chance to visit the park again in the future or another one where I can see more animals up close. Although Akagera is
known to have a lion and rhino, we were not lucky enough to see them
this time but I still loved the experience and the entire
weekend! And, just before I left, I saw the baboons plotting
to take advantage of another unsuspecting guest. I have a feeling that - if the baboons have their way – I will come back one day and find them lounging by the pool with big beer belies and concocting a plot to raid the hotel kitchen!