22-11-2006Hi again, it's been a terribly long time since we updated the log. Sorry for that. Here we go...
We left the Akagena Game Lodge for Kigali and arrived there after a pretty good drive. But the Rwanda people drive so bad!!!
We satyed a night in the Okapi hotel so we could arrange some stuff with the dutch embassy. We tried to obtain a letter of introduction, but they had nveer heard of that, so they could not help us. This is very strange, because the sudan embassy really wants this letter if you apply for Sudanees visa, weird. So we went to the egyptian embassy to get our visa. This was no problem, we just needed some documents to show tou counselor. We could pick our visa up the next day. After this we went over to Bralirwa to finally meet Door Plantenga. Door was fantastic and started us out with a tour of the limonaderie (see pics). Afterwards her driver Modest, brought us to the Plantenga/Hogewoning residence, which was beatiful! Lots of animals by the way... We met the kids Pieter, Anne and Ben. That night we went for a pizza and had a few Mutzig at home.
The next day we went to see the Genocide-memorial, which was very impressive, an absolute must-see when in Kigali. In the afternoon Pieter and Ben took us for 9 holes of golf. And guess what, they won. By a landslide!! We felt very tiny after that. But arriving back home and watching jiskefet made us feel good again... That night we had diner with Rene and Mirka (did I spell that right?) at the indian restaurant. very nice people and very good food. We went to Rene's place for a night cap en drove home in the middle of the night.
We woke up with a slight hangover, so we decided to watch another movie! Really, just sitting back and watching a DVD was pure luxury for us! In the afternoon we left for Kinigi, which is very close to the Parc National de Volcans. Because we had reservations to see the mountain gorrilas!! Again, arranged by Door and the fam. We slept at the Kinigi Guest house, which was just what we needed. Got up early the next day and started walking through the rain forest with our guide. And after only 45 min... there they were! Absolutely beatiful to see these animals so close. And they really are just like us humans. Looking into those eyes is like looking into the eyes of somebody you already know (Jan-Willem, is that you?). After exactely 1 hour we had to leave our new friends and walk back down to the car. It was about 11 o'clock, and that was it, so we head back to Kigali. This drive, like the one the day before, was so dangerous. I'll say it again; those Rwandans are really friendly and all, but really can not drive!!
After another movie Door, Arjan, Pieter, Anne and Ben came back from a party. Door immedialtely grabbes by our hairs (?) and took us to Rene's place again. Here we met with a group of Dutch law students who were on a field trip, can you believe that? And I (Alex) even met and old classmate, small world. After drinks we went for diner, and after diner we went for more drinks. At around 3 o'clock in the night Patrick (the most fashionable guy we met so far) dropped us of at the Plantenga/Hogewoning residence and we crashed!
Monday morning was tough, both hung over terribly we said farewell and head for Uganda.
08-11-2006We left Tanzania and entered Rwanda by driving over the Rusumo falls on a tiny bridge (which apparently can cope with 8-ton trucks.
At the Rwanda side, customs was very slow, but no problems. We left the border at around 5 o'clock and found out again, there was no camping or guest house. So we just headed for Kigali. Rwanda is beautifil with its mountains and extremely friendly people. But in these mountains we had our first near-death experience as a huge Scania truck came heading straight at us. I slammed the brakes and hit the horn. Scared and furious we watched the truck coast by only 2 cm away from our car. We both looked out the window to find all the locals yelling something at us; apparently, in Rwanda they drive on the right-hand side of the road!!!! Aaaagh!! We had not seen one single sign telling us this. So, a bit afraid of the truck driver, we headed on with shaking bodies...
At about 18:15 we found a sign with "Akagena Game Lodge", we decided to check it out. After an hour of driving on a dirt road we arrived at Akagena National Park and the Akagena Game Lodge. But, a double room was 90USD and camping was no option. After some work with our puppy-eyes we got a "drivers-room" for 37USD. We had a great dinner and went to bed.
The next morning we could see the view, beautiful, especially after another very wet night. We decided to head for Kigali today, so you'll hear from us whem were there! Toedeloe