Kibaya Il

It was another very early start for a long day's journey in the truck. We travelled over unusually well constructed roads through more beautiful, misty mountain countryside full of banana plantations and paddy fields. The people looked at us in open mouthed, and wide eyed astonishment, waving at us with smiles and cheers - it seems not many white people pass this way as we seemed a real novelty. Rwanda is an unexpectedly wonderful country with a rich, vibrant, creative culture and friendly, welcoming people. It was a Sunday and many of the women were in their Sunday best in brightly coloured and patterned dresses and head scarves sometimes with babies strapped in pouches on their backs. Their broad smiles and friendly waves to us as we passed was so heart warming. We continued through the verdant countryside and passed the border with Tanzania, with the usual mild anxiety, but without too much difficulty. The contrast in terrain on the Tanzanian side of the border was remarkable. We found ourselves in wild country again, after the cultivated countryside of Rwanda, with huge valleys filled with trees mixed with lush scrub and grassland - some of my favourite countryside so far. Huge storks flapped into the trees, large snake eagles sat silently still in the trees. Occasional marshy areas at the bottom of the valleys were teeming with dragonflies, insects and bird life. The roads also deteriorated markedly with ditches and potholes causing us all to bounce around the truck and slowing our pace to an average of about 20mph - we were now back on the left hand side of the road and one hour forwards again on the clock. We stopped for lunch by the roadside in the middle of a wide valley surrounded by hills and lush countryside. The weather became hot and humid in contrast to the cool of the morning air. As the truck rattled, bounced and rolled into the afternoon through ever denser forest, the horizon grew grey and the inevitable billowing clouds of the rainy season loomed ahead - an epic landscape meeting an epic sky. As the skies continued to thicken, we entered a landscape of high, rocky escarpment valleys dotted with villages of mud brick, thatched houses and the older traditional roundhouses which harked back to more ancient tribal times. The rains finally came as we approached the campsite. We had rolled up the tarpaulin sides of the truck as we usually do to get an unrestricted view, but had to roll it down quickly as the heavy rain poured in. We arrived at the accommodation, Sayari Guest House and Bar, in Nyakanazi which was right next to the town community centre where locals were watching a football match between Kenya and Tanzania on TV in a large hall as we arrived. Excited young children were also buzzing around us. There was a small bar where we got drinks. This place felt like authentic Africa far from the tourist trail. The accommodation was run by a female matriarch and her female employees. We were shown to our rooms with a toilet and intermittent electricity but no running water. We were cooked a traditional African meal of spice infused rice, bean stew, sliced cabbage and a green nutty flavoured mash of pumpkin leaves - the meal was absolutely delicious. We talked with a Brazilian couple, James and Gabby, fellow travellers on our trip, about travel, politics and the environmental crisis, as moths circled around the lights above, and the electricity failed several times, plunging us all into the darkness of the African night. I then retired for an early night ahead of yet another 6am start to the next day's journey.Read more