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Return to Rwanda — a journey beyond the past

Return to Rwanda — a journey beyond the past
The silverback author spent a few hours-with. Photo: Angus Begg
Angus Begg
By Angus Begg
13 Nov 2024
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Rwanda offers a fresh perspective for travellers, blending its natural beauty with a sense of community. From the shores of Lake Kivu to the wildlife of Akagera National Park, visitors can explore the diverse landscapes and culture of Rwanda.

‘I returned here, opened this place, to show my parents that I’d come home.”

Odette Nyiramilimo, a retired gynaecologist and parliamentarian, is the owner of Rushel Kivu Resort, on the northwestern shores of the 2,000km2, Lake Kivu. I would call it an intimate, personalised guest house rather than a resort (a term that calls to mind images of Sun City) although I suppose the volleyball court and kayaks on the beach can qualify it as such. 

Odette had chosen to build here, close to her home village, because it was in this area that her parents were killed in the genocide of 1994. I related, for in early July of that year I’d been reporting on those dark events, at the southern tip of the lake.

And now I was here, among tropical vegetation back on the lake, in conversation with a wonderful granny visiting from Kigali with her grandchildren, nice kids seemingly in their tween years, decked out in hoodies, with phones at the ready. 

I had the distinct impression that nature – in particular the sounds and sight of the numerous birds in the lush vegetation around the guesthouse, hugging the lake and hills above – had helped her on her journey of redemption. 

Having first arrived here in 1994, in the cargo hold of a Hercules C-130 cargo plane carrying tonnes of relief supplies from Nairobi for the victims of the genocide in the south of the country, I still feel a weird connection.

Misplaced it may be, but a bond was created in the insane week I spent in that beautiful country. 

I had begged my “bosses” at the South African Broadcasting Corporation to let me cover the story. They were reluctant, but as my TV colleagues had set off with a fairly large budget, I was given R2,000 and told to make do. 

1994 - UN troops in Cyangugu. Few knew at the time that the French were assisting the 'Interahamwe', the perpetrators of the genocide, to flee into Zaire (Photographs: Angus Begg)



Refugees fleeing the genocide from Cyangugu into then Zaire now DRC. Photo: Angus Begg



Working out of Nairobi as the airport hub for all east African troubles back then – as I had done when covering the “Black Hawk Down” Somalia two years earlier (seated on bags of maize, with the Newsweek correspondent as my fellow passenger in the back of the Hercules) – we had landed in Cyangugu, on the Rwandan side of the border with what was then Zaire, today the DRC. 

Stepping out of the aircraft at the tiny Cyangugu airport in February 2024, flashbacks washed over me. I knew I had been here. 

The big difference was that this time I was seated on a comfortable seat in a passenger aircraft and I could see out of a window. I was in control of where I was going. 

What had been an atmosphere of fear and flight had been replaced by the overriding sense of positivity, exploration and a “can-do” attitude that was to characterise my two weeks in Rwanda. 

There was also the broad smile of Jean-Marie, a previous Rwanda guide of the year winner, well-informed and experienced, waiting in the terminal building, who was to become my best mate for another 10 days. 

We would take in Nyungwe National Park, arguably the largest chunk of remaining Afromontane forest, today famed for its habituated chimps, the length of Odette’s Lake Kivu, coffee and tea plantations, and the gorillas and golden monkeys of Volcanoes National Park. Not forgetting the magnificent, underrated savannah woodland and lakes of Akagera National Park, flying like a yellow-billed hornbill beneath the radar on Rwanda’s eastern border with Tanzania.  

In fact Akagera was our first park, after two nights in Kigali. 

***


I had been following and covering Rwanda’s resurrection ever since that gruesome period in humanity’s history, writing on travel for CNN Traveller and business for a South African publication. 

I was planning to design a private-guided safari itinerary around Rwanda, and was here to see for myself how this little land of lakes had changed since my last visit in 2007. 

A young woman named Providence Ngabire met me at Kigali airport, ushering me into a lounge while a colleague went to collect my bags from the carousel. 

Providence runs her own boutique tour operator, and being aware of my interest and experience in the country, suggested we could work together. She had the know-how of the fast-emerging safari industry and moving guests around the country, and myself as a journalist, guide and safari host had – in marketing terms – a USP in having the country’s story in my backpack. 

I had already been impressed in 2007, when I consumed a cappuccino that I declared at the time (as a self-confessed, Cape Town-born coffee snob) to be as good as I had had anywhere. But that greeting at Kigali airport, to where I’d flown from Brussels, followed by checking into the luxurious Residence by Heaven, my accommodation for the night, left me in no doubt that Rwanda had seriously upped its game. 

Just how much would be revealed over the next two weeks. 

Akagera National Park


Of all Rwanda’s parks I knew the least about Akagera, on the country’s western border with Tanzania, but I had read so much and was looking forward to the opportunity to learn. 

Characterised by savanna woodland, hills, lakes and wildlife not automatically associated with this land of the gorilla, Akagera owes its resurgence to the South African-based African Parks (AP), which already manages – many would say “rescued” – 22 national parks (NP) and protected areas in a dozen countries across the continent. 

Among the list of resuscitated parks are Zakouma NP in Chad and South Sudan’s Boma and Badingilo NPs, which just happen to host the largest population of migratory antelope on Earth.

A good thing about Akagera, for those chasing an itinerary deadline, is that the park is not too large. It’s possible to drive from the southern to northern end in a morning (without too many stops). But it’s not the sort of place one wishes to rush through. 

Whether a birder or not, a morning boat cruise on Lake Ihema is “compulsory”. 

From high above (at Akagera Game Lodge, which is really a large hotel) the sunset is absurdly beautiful. But it’s on a boat on the lake, floating around papyrus islands, with fish eagles, roosting herons (the “specials”), waders and bee-eaters, that you find yourself hooked. 

Rufous-bellied heron on a papyrus island on Lake Ihema. Photo: Angus Begg



Sunrise over Lake Ihema from Akagera Game Lodge. Photo: Angus Begg



Fish eagle - one of many on the shoreline of Lake Ihema. Photo: Angus Begg



The park stretches out as a tapestry of savanna woodland, lakes and the ubiquitous “big five”, offering a topography that at times strikes me as a combination of South Africa’s Umfolozi-Hluhluwe, Lapalala Wilderness and Welgevonden reserves. 

As with Lapalala, a visit to the anti-poaching unit at the Akagera park headquarters reveals profound surveillance and enforcement.

Nyungwe National Park


I couldn’t wait to get back to Nyungwe NP. One of the oldest rainforests in Africa and at more than 1,000km2 the largest expanse of Afromontane forest in Rwanda, it was here in 2007 that I had seen my first chimpanzees and colobus monkeys.

Morning mist in the forest canopy of Nyungwe National Park. Photo: Angus Begg



Fishing boats on lake Kivu at dusk. Photo: Angus Begg



There was no tourist accommodation back then, so I slept in the office of one of the scientists working for Wildlife Conservation Services – a US NGO helping with the country’s resurrection – while the park’s boardwalks and infrastructure were being laid out. This time I was based at a Cyangugu hotel, and things had changed. 

I met Rwandan bird guide Clavert at the Nyungwe House & Tea Plantation, where we began our hike in the rainforest. The swing bridge, which took us above the primary forest canopy, was a notable feature, even under overcast skies.

Back in the vehicle we drove half the length of the lake to the opulent Cleo Lake Kivu hotel on the edge of Kibuye. It’s a bright, super-luxurious light cast on another grim genocide landmark (Kibuye). 

Forgive the repetition, but how this country has changed.

There we cruised for more than an hour north in a motorised boat to Rushel, where we caught up with Odette again. 

Volcanoes National Park and the gorillas


Climbing up from the lake through hills on hectic dirt roads that called all four wheels into overdrive, revealed villagers repairing roads, hoeing those dark, volcanic soils and planting coffee trees and potatoes.

A typical shot from the car in the Volcanoes National Park. Photo: Angus Begg



The One&Only Nyungwe House, set between the forest and tea plantations. Photo: Angus Begg



Back on the country’s tar network, we stopped to buy some Volcanoes tea varieties from a woman in a green framed hut – coffee and tea plantations are cooperative ventures, owned by communities – at the side of the road. We later stopped at Crema cafe in Ruhengeri – the regional centre and the park’s main hub – for a full-bodied, welcome coffee, not a given in the Netherlands. 

Here I scribbled an alternative route from Rushel to the Parc national des Volcans on a serviette, to discuss with Providence a little later.

Checking in with my permit at the park the next morning, I had a barista-brewed coffee. I understand the attraction of the gorillas, and that visitors are almost guaranteed to spend time with these gentle giants, but I have reservations about how busy and commercialised it has become. 

The oldest five-star safari lodge taking tourists to see gorillas. Photo: Angus Begg



The silverback author spent a few hours-with. Photo: Angus Begg



I heard of a gorilla “slapping” (probably reprimanding in gorilla-speak) a tourist who was in the way recently, and think of elephants sometimes seemingly acting out their frustrations with too many vehicles in the southern Kruger. 

Maybe it is better to add Uganda’s Bwindi gorilla experience to the Rwanda package? It’s an option. 

In keeping with the booming popularity of the park, the number of four- and five-star lodges scattered around the surrounding Kinigi village has also mushroomed. 

The drive back to Kigali is short, maybe a couple of hours, with flights back to Europe departing in the evening, allowing time for travellers to catch up on city attractions they’d missed when they arrived. 

Or to stop at one of the various coffee-stop-deli-cum-padstals along the way, maybe just to chill at a sports bar in the city.  

I’ve watched this country attack itself, teeth bared like a rabid dog. With the cause of the infection that resulted in the virus cured, I have had the immense honour of observing it lick its wounds over the next 13 years. It was looking good in 2007. 

Today it is prancing like a poodle on the African tourism map. DM

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