My Rwanda, Uganda Safari

Akagera National Park (Rwanda), Mgahinga National park (Uganda)

Little did i know that Rwanda had this beautiful National park (Akagera National park) with unbelievable wildlife and spectacular landscape, Being my first time visiting this amazing park, I didn’t know what to expect but I was in for a surprise. We started our journey from the Radisson Blu Hotel Kigali. My Dear friend Nicole Cambre and her family paid for my stay at the Radisson Blu Hotel. My room was out of this world, a big bed, enough to roll twice without hitting the floor, wide balcony overlooking the pool area and great meals served at the restaurant. I think my stay here helped calm me down because half of the time I was thinking about the Journey. The Radisson Blu Hotel is located in heart of Kigali city.

Our journey, started the following day at about 7:30am from the Radisson Blu Hotel, but got interrupted when most of the roads were closed because every last Sunday of the month in Rwanda, roads a closed so that the people have a morning jog as way of staying physically fit which I found to be one of the selling points for Rwanda. With my little knowledge of the road network around Kigali, I improvised and asked a (Bodaboda) motorbike man to take me to the road that heads to Akagera National park, which he gladly did at a fee of 1000RWF. As i got onto the high way, finding my direction was easy because the roads in Rwanda a well marked all the to the National park. Our journey took us about two and half hours to the main gate.

Upon arriving at the gate, we made payments and were given a guide to take us to Karenga Bush camp, which is about 4hours drive from the main gate. Our guide Godfrey Nyamulangwa, suggested that we take a shorter route to the camp instead of the normal lake side view route which was perfect because though rocky and requires a good four wheel-drive car, we had great sightings of animals like a leopard relaxing in the tree, lots of Zebras, the massai giraffe, impalas, waterbucks, buffaloes and much more but the landscape was breathtaking. We arrived at our camp (Karenga Bush Camp) at about 3:40pm and checked in, in our beautiful safari tents built on wooden decks. All the tents have stunning views of the Kirara plains with lots of animals roaming at a distance away and beautiful hills forming the backdrop of the savannah. it was time to rest a little at the reception area, with also great views of the plains, while being cooled down by the winds coming from all directions.

Our time for an evening game drive was set for 4:30pm. We headed out in our open Jeep into the Kirara plains roaming with lots of game as far as your eyes can see. we didn’t have to go far before we encountered herds buffalos, hyenas, Topi’s, zebras and much more. One needs at least 3nights at this camp. The game drive took about 3hours and headed back to our camp in time for our dinner. Our dinner was on an open deck with beautiful views of the stars and lots of animal noises coming from the plains.

The following morning, we had a morning game drive and returned back for full breakfast and off we went to Ruzizi Camp which is close to the reception area of the park about 4 hours drive from Karenga Bush camp. The camp was full so i had to find a room at Akagera game lodge. This lodge has beautiful views of lake Akagera, large rooms with all you need, good WIFI all around the Hotel and amazing food. I spent one night at this lodge and the following day left for Uganda to see the mountain Gorillas in Mgahinga National park. The journey took us about 6hours to Mgahinga Lodge located at the base of the mountain.

The following day was the Gorilla tracking day, which went so smooth. We walked for about 2 hours and Boom we were right with the animals. These gentle giants were feeding, so we had to follow them for some time, while taking pictures and just observing them. After one hour, our time was up and headed back to the reception for our graduation ceremony. All who manage to track the Gorillas a given certificates as proof that one was able to track the Gorillas which is rewarding. We walked back to our hotel in time for lunch and later headed back to Kigali to the Radisson Blu Hotel, which marked the end of our tour.