Uwimana

We had the bike trail planned way in advance of our trip and we do have some great things sorted out over the next month or so but we decided at the last minute to take advantage of being at the southern tip of Lake Kivu to visit Nyungwe National Park and do a jungle canopy walk.

Big mistake. The website for the park is great and details all of the various activities we could do there and the canopy walk at 40$ each seemed like a reasonable price to pay for a 2 or 3 hour adventure in the jungle and to cross a 70m high suspension walk.

What the website failed to mention was the park entrance fee. Wow! That was a shocker but as we had travelled 40 minutes to get there, we kind of felt obliged to go ahead and pay the entrance fee PLUS the canopy walk fee and make the most of the wildlife and birds in the park.

What wildlife? Which birds? The best the guide could come up with was a quick Google search and an audio clip of something in the trees that we couldn’t see.

There is a pic or 2 below of the views from the canopy walkway but at a cost of total cost of $$$, we will not be recommending this particular jaunt to anybody else.

When we told Yannick from Lava Bikes, who was still with us to take us back up north, he said, “I thought it might be a bit pricey.” Cheers!

The rest of Friday was a Transit Day - capitalised as there are going to be a few of these. Again, the distance wasn’t that great but this was Rwanda and the hills, bends and switchbacks are never ending. One corner is called Mother Mary, as you are supposed to cross yourself before going around it.

However, the 6 hours did pass relatively quickly because there is always something to look at in a foreign land. As well as the 3 lads hitching a tow up one particular hill (photo below) on the back of a lorry, it was also a Friday which meant market day in each town or village we passed through.

The usual busyness, noise and colour of the roadsides was multiplied many times over with goods and produce being taken to or away from markets stalls. With almost no 4 wheeled vehicles here, the volume of bikes and motorbikes was huge.

As we neared the end of our journey in the border town of Ruhengeri, a second last minute decision to book a tiny, dusty back street guesthouse for the night, turned out to be an excellent one. Behind the big metal gates, Little Bird Paradise was indeed just that. Our host, Chance, was a wonder ordering us a takeaway, bringing drinks to our patio and providing the most wonderful garden setting for our last night in Rwanda.

We are wondering how many last minute decisions we will make and whether we should keep a tally of good and bad outcomes. At the moment it is 1-1!

Our last (ever) Rwandan breakfast provided by Chance, continued the feel good factor before Yannick, who had agreed to take us to our first port of call in Uganda, picked us up.

We were strangely nervous about the border crossing having read too many stories about palms needing to be crossed. We needn’t have worried. It was a doddle and whilst the immigration official asked us if we had Yellow Fever Certificates, she didn’t actually want to see them😀.

So by 1000, we were in country number three of our trip and heading up to Bwindi Inpenetrable Forest. This was a 2nd Transit Day in a row but with the prospect of gorilla trekking on Sunday and then 2 days R & R at Lake Matunda, the first sights and sounds of Uganda only added to our excitement.

As we write this we are looking out across The Inpenetrable Forest which, right now, is The Invisible Forest. The end of the rainy season here has delivered yet another massive late afternoon thunderstorm. We sympathise with friends at home who have had some wind and rain recently, but the current deluge in Bwindi is actually rather exciting.

Fingers crossed for clear skies and 🦍 🦍 tomorrow but for now, we need to catch up with the finale of The Traitors 🏰Read more