Akagera National Park
Our final drive is a long one, long enough to break into two parts once again. This calls for another stop at the Chato Beach Resort and some dubious catering. The first step is that long run back, via the Mwanza ferry to Chato, followed by a similar length of drive back into Rwanda and then north to Akagera.
Fred has arranged to meet a couple of his correspondents from TripAdvisor at Chato and we enjoy a rooftop drink and dinner together with them. It makes the evening pass quickly, but the food is decidedly average, even though my chips masala was pretty tasty.
In the final analysis, as a place for a quick stop-over, it wasn’t too bad. It was just geared up to cater to a local clientele far more than it was for foreigners. This simply has to be forgiven and understood for what it is. We were well off the beaten track and really just had to put up with whatever we got.
Our second day on the road leads us back through Rusumo, over the Kagera River and back into Rwanda. It’s still a joint border post and the formalities – with an electronic passport system – are quick and painless, but the Rwandan security requirements are a bit more of an issue. All our bags need to be x-ray scanned and the vehicle needs to be searched. This all takes time and eats into our day. It’s also the middle of the day and very hot, which makes us all a little crabby.
Once comfortably back on the road, we have to override the sat-nav several times, constantly having minor roads suggested in place of the main one that we need. Emmy has a fair idea of where to go, but even he hasn’t been to Akagera in several years and the roads have been improved since that time.
Entrance to the park is a multi-stage affair. At the initial gate we are signed into the guest book and presented with our tracker. This will be used to make sure that we didn’t go off-track during our stay. Keeping to the official tracks in a park is very important, as repeated off-road driving degrades the habitat and road surfaces alike.
A couple of kilometres further into the park and we arrive at the actual main gate. Here we complete our entry requirements and pay our park fees. Akagera has a fee structure than one can only hope extends and expands to other parks in other countries, as it is by far the best way to manage a park that I’ve ever encountered. Simply put, if we pay for three nights, we can stay longer without paying any more. So, two hundred dollars now gets us five nights in the park and even longer if we wanted. It’s an amazing innovation, encouraging people to stay longer inside the park, and therefore spending more money in the lodges. The down-side is that you do have to spend the night in the park itself – you can’t sleep outside at a lower-cost lodge. For us, this isn’t an issue, but it could be for visitors on a budget. It is almost certainly only possible when the park and the accommodation is managed by the same organisation, but again, this is a model that I don’t have an issue with.
Akagera National Park is now managed by African Parks, a growing non-profit organisation created to help manage and re-invigorate failing national parks across Africa. It seems to be working pretty well and continues to expand and improve its operations continent-wide.
Once inside the park, it is a short drive to the top of the hill and our luxurious destination for the first three nights, the Mantis Akagera Game Lodge. The views are spectacular, the rooms are air-conditioned and the food is exquisite. We’re arriving late enough to not really feel like going out for an hour, so our real exploration of the park will have to wait for another dawn.
Our first full day in Akagera is, perhaps inevitably, the best of them. We start slowly, dropping down to the plains to the west of the lodge and finding a few zebras and lots of really interesting birds down near the dam. Nightjars and melba finches are always nice to see.
After lunch, we drop down to the eastern side of the ridge and explore around the lakes a little. There are many more birds, including some magnificent fish eagles and my first ever rufous-bellied heron. There are plenty of warthogs and a few baboons on this side of the hills. As we continue north, we encounter more zebras.
Heading further north still, on the main track, we have to stop for a big bull elephant. He seems a little uncertain of us at first, but then he closes to within a couple of metres of the vehicle before passing us by. I snap a shot with my phone, just to set the scene and then take some magnificent close-up shots with the Pentax. Realizing that we have to think about getting back to the lodge, we head up over the ridge and back down towards the dam once more. From the top of the dam, we scan the plain, finding impala, topi and buffalo in the distance. There’s also what looks like a couple of grey rocks moving through the long grasses – white rhino.
We’re off the dam and out onto the plain as quickly as we can, limited by there being only one road that we can take. Deceptively, it takes us directly where we wanted to be. For thirty minutes, in the light of a setting sun, we are the only vehicle, with exclusive access to a female white rhino and her part-grown calf.
I’ve seen both black and white rhino and, honestly, blacks are the ones that everybody wants to see. When I’ve seen whites, they have either been semi-tame or asleep. This pair just seem to be getting on with their evening and pretty much ignore our presence. They have no problem, however, with coming within 20m or so of the vehicle and giving truly wonderful photo opportunities.
Driving back up the hill, we meet several elephants feeding on the roadside. It lends credence to my theory that they were here all day and simply keeping out of sight when we were on our morning game drive.
Our second morning starts wet – very wet. It’s far to wet to open the vehicle top and we must content ourselves with side windows for a few hours. We actually end up sitting in the car in the car park of the lodge for almost an hour, just waiting for the rain to begin to slow. When we finally head down the western tracks towards the dam, we are one of several vehicles to do so.
At the bottom of the hill, we encounter a major traffic jam. There are a family of elephants on the road and everybody has to stop. The matriarch is a true giant, with three-foot tusks and a very considered demeanour. She sees the first few family members across the road, despite some truly awful driving from a couple of vehicles, and then settles down in a semi-hidden position to monitor the rest of the family.
As vehicles start to scatter, we stay with the family and are treated to some more magnificent photographs and behaviour. By the time we reach the dam, the rain is stopping and we once more begin to see birds with really good viewing. We spend far too long photographing bathing gees and ducks, chasing francolins in the long grass and generally enjoying ourselves away from the crazy crowds.
Our third day is a quiet one, driving around the loop once more finds only herds of buffalo and yet more birds. There are also clouds of butterflies, attracted to minerals on the roads after the rain of the day before. Out on the plain, there’s no sign of the rhinos, but there are photogenic zebras and topi to be seen.
When Emmy grabs his binoculars and stares intently into a distant acacia, there’s a sense of confusion from the three of us. “There’s a leopard in that tree,” he announces after a few moments of observation. “He’s lying along the branch to the left.”
Sure enough, 400m or more away, difficult to make out even with binoculars, there is a cat asleep in the tree. My attempts with the camera to spot him are less than successfully, but this is a combination of distance, bad light, shadows and the inevitable heat-haze induced shimmer. Akagera is a big-five park and we’ve now had four of them. All we need to see here for a full set is a lion.
This day takes us to our final lodge. Ruzizi Tented Lodge is on the shores of Lake Ihema and offers somewhat more basic accommodation in raised tents with ensuite facilities. We spend the rest of the day settling in, before enjoying an excellent dinner made only slightly less enjoyable by being out on the deck in the dark with poor lighting.
Our last full day sees us chasing birds along the shores of the lake and exploring a little further north on this eastern side of the ridge. There’s little so see, but the birds are very welcome and push our numbers for the trip to over 250 species. After a relatively quiet day, we retire to pack and prepare for our departure.
Being only about three hours or so from Kigali, we have the chance to spend the morning in the park and then have lunch before we have to leave. I’ve packed the Pentax into the camera bag already, so I just keep the Canon superzoom in the pocket in front of my seat and we set of for a final drive around.
Heading back south at the top of the ridge, we come up behind a column of elephants on the road. They have a very young calf and seem reluctant to cut across country, preferring the easier walking that a road provides. We are content to follow at their pace for a few hundred metres, but then they meet more traffic coming in the other direction.
After a few minutes of uncertainty, there is a concerted effort by the family of elephants to resolve this situation. The matriarch, at the back of the line, turns to warn us off as, at the exact same time, one of the aunties appears off to our right with a similar intent. This is planned and we have to beat a hasty retreat in reverse. We only need to signal our understanding, though. There’s no concerted charge, just a warning that one could be in our future.
Satisfied that they have made their position clear, the family reluctantly conclude that the road is untenable and head off down the hill to the valley in the west. Even with the pocket camera, these pictures are a wonderful finale to our trip to Akagera.
Here’s a park that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Even the tzetze files were, for the most part at least, manageable. I’m sad that we didn’t really have the opportunity to explore the northern part of the park, but perhaps we will just have to go back again in the future.