December 10th, 2023
My next destination was one of Rwanda’s National Parks, and
also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, called Nyungwe Forest. It is mainly known for its chimpanzees but
since I had already seen some in Uganda, that wasn’t in my plan. I thought of maybe doing a hike there, but I
was going to wait and see.
Claudette at Macheo Resort called me a boda boda and it
turned out to be Olivier, the “ringleader” of the motorcycle taxis we had used a
few days earlier to head to town after our boat cruise. I liked this guy, he just had a coolness
about him, plus his English was decent which is a definite bonus. He took me to the “bus park” where I figured
I would find one heading south along the lake.
Well, that proved to be more difficult than expected. I must have spoken to 5-6 guys and all of
them said that I had to take a bus inland and then backtrack. I would show them on my phone where I wanted
to go and I was a bit surprised that none of them could figure it out. I was flabbergasted that no buses would continue
down Lake Kivu. They kept telling me
that I had to go to Bahinga, which Google Maps was saying was inland, east of Nyungwe. I held my ground, did not want to get on a
bus where I didn’t want to go, and started to think of alternatives.
The first one that came to mind was to see if Olivier would
take me there on his motorcycle. I
forgot that I actually had his phone number on a scrap piece of paper, so I
tried to call Macheo Resort…but surprisingly didn’t have any credit on my phone,
even though my data worked. I went to
one of the ubiquitous MTN phone booths and purchased some credit. I called the number I found online and after
a bit of confusion, realized that I was talking to Jackie, the owner of the
place, whom I hadn’t met, and not Claudette.
Jackie gave me Claudette’s number so I rang her. As I was talking to her and telling her about
my predicament, who would I see? Olivier
of course. He had just finished dropping
off someone at the bus park.
When I asked him if he’d be interested in taking me to my
destination, which could take 3 hours at least (6 for him as he would have to ride
back), there was no hesitation on his part.
Awesome. My only concern with
this plan was that there were a lot of dark clouds forming, and I hoped we wouldn’t
get caught in a heavy downpour. We made
a brief stop so that Olivier could grab a jacket, in case that rain scenario
happened.
I was quite happy with my decision as it was a fun
ride. In fact, when we were driving to
Kibuye in our taxi (me, the South Africans and Julie), I mentioned that even
though I have never owned a motorcycle and haven’t driven one much, that the
road along Lake Kivu would be an amazing ride on a bike. A day later, American Paul had told me that
he thought this region should try and promote motorcycle tourism. Entice Westerners to come out and ride these roads
and spend their money. Not a bad idea.
The first of many great views:
There were some great views along the way and Olivier could
sense when I wanted to take a picture.
He would slow down and sometimes asked if I wanted to stop. He also pointed out some things of interest
such as macadamia trees, rice paddies and even a manmade bee shelter hung up in
a tree.
As we neared the turn off to head inland, I was definitely getting
tired and a very sore butt from the ride.
I asked Olivier if he was hungry, which he was. “Let’s stop for lunch” I said and he
agreed. We probably should have stopped
about 15 minutes earlier as we were in a bigger town and might have had more dining
options. Olivier asked a local and there
seemed to be but one choice, a small hole in the wall type restaurant. Okay, let’s check it out.
Well, I got a true, rural Rwandan gastronomical experience. There were three rooms and we sat down in the
middle room. The walls were painted baby
blue, probably 20 years ago as there were marks and stains on the wall. The furniture was simple, with wooden tables
and plastic garden chairs. We sat down next
to some locals and the lady running to show asked Olivier in Kinyarwanda (the
predominant Rwandan language) what we would like. Turns out that there were two choices, with meat
or without meat…1500 or 2000 francs ($1.60 or $2.15)…okay, pretty cheap. In the smallest of the three room were large
metallic containers with the food. There
was rice, beans, potatoes and cassava.
In the back corner were the hunks of beef boiling in a pot. Mmmm…who doesn’t like boiled beef?!? Being a mzungu, the lady let me dish out what
I wanted onto my plate.
A bus was the only option and Olivier took me out to the nearby
bus stand, talked to a local, and made sure I was safely on my way about 10
minutes later. It was a windy, hilly
road through the forest, and I was on one of the flimsy and uncomfortable aisle
seats for first half of this leg of the trip, but someone got off the bus and I
sat in a more comfy seat by the window.
Bidding adieu to Olivier:
The place I planned to stay at was at the other end of the park,
about a kilometer outside. The bus
stopped near another place that I had looked at on Booking.com but decided
against. There were roadside toilets
here, so this was for “short calls” or “long calls” (number 1 or 2) for any
passengers requiring such service. A
kind gentleman behind me, who had been tasked by the ticket collector to make
sure that I got off the bus at the Kitabi Eco-Center Resort. He pointed out that that it was less than a
kilometer ahead, on a hill. I decided to
get out and walk and I arrived at the place before the bus had moved on from
the rest stop.
As I neared the steep entrance to walk up the hill, a foreigner
flanked by a couple of guys in matching vests spilled out onto the road. I found out that these guys were escorting
this French mzungu to catch a bus to Kibuye, where I had just come from. I asked some questions about where the tourist
had stayed as I had decided to gamble and not book a room ahead of time since
it was pretty quiet wherever I went. That
turned out to be wrong as the Kitabi Eco-Center was full, but thankfully where
the French guy had stayed, lower on the hill there were some rooms available. I opted for the cheap option which turned out
to be fine…but check out my bathroom in the pictures!
The view from the Kitabi Eco-Center:
I settled in and then headed up to Kitabi Eco-Center to enjoy their great view from the concrete, open walled structure. I was surprised how much it cooled down later that evening as I had dinner. I ended up putting on all of my warm clothes and thankfully they had big tent flaps with which they could close up the place plus a little portable charcoal fire. It was a nice, and kind of the only place, to hang out at for the evening.
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