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The Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda is teeming with wildlife both large and small. They range from Lions, Giraffe, Elephant and Hippopotamus to Hyena, Impala and Gazelle. There is a rich variety of bird life at Akagera as well.
Rwanda also has water bodies which are ideal for water sports and fishing, particularly Lake Kivu in the west of the country and Lake Muhazi in the east. Lake Kivu also offers beautiful beaches, jutting peninsulas and an archipelago of beautiful islands.
Rwanda, in a nutshell, is a nature lover's paradise. It is also one of the friendliest of countries. A warm welcome is complemented by comfortable facilities, fine food and a rich cultural heritage.
Experience Rwanda :
In colonial times, the thrilling beauty of Rwanda's rolling mountainous landscapes earned it the sobriquet "The Land of a Thousand Hills". After independence, this small Central African nation leaped to fame as the Land of "Gorillas in the Mist", adopted home of Dian Fossey and the most important refuge for the rare mountain gorilla. And as recently as the late 1980s, Rwanda was a popular holiday destination with a bustling tourist circuit. Gorilla tracking in the Virungas was the country's premier attraction, supplemented by the mesmerising savannah and plains wildlife of Akagera National Park, the incredible biodiversity of the extensive Nyungwe rainforest, and a range of montane and lakeshore around the expansively beautiful Lake Kivu.
Kigali :
Located in Rwanda's geographical heart, the rapidly growing city of Kigali is not only the national capital, but also the country's most important business centre and main port of entry.
Serviced by an efficient international airport and connected to neighboring Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi by surfaced roads, Kigali boasts a range of hotels catering to all tastes and budgets, and an assortment of fine restaurants whose menus reflect the country's historical links with Belgium - while also embracing numerous other International cuisines.
Despite such concessions to modernity, Kigali retains the feel of a garden city. With a satisfyingly organic shape dictated by the verdant slopes over which it sprawls.
The compact, low-rise city centre surrounds a busy, colorful market, and is studded with souvenir stalls displaying a wide range of lovingly executed local crafts. The atmospheric Muslim quarter abutting the city centre is well worth a visit, and one can also explore the network of leafy avenues that wind out of the town centre into the surrounding residential suburbs.
Among the safest and friendliest of African capitals, Kigali is blessed with a moderate high altitude climate that belies its tropical location, and is conveniently located within three hour's' drive of the main tourist sites.
The Rwandan capital provides both a comfortable and welcoming introduction to this land of a thousand hills and an ideal springboard from which to explore this magical country.
Butare:
Butare was the largest and most important city in Rwanda prior to 1965, when it lost out to the more central located Kigali, 135 km to its north, as the capital of independent Rwanda.
Today the site of several academic institutions including country's largest university, Butare is still regarded to be the intellectual and cultural pulse of Rwanda.
It is also an attractively compact and sedate town of shady avenues emanating from a main street lined with comfortable small hotels and breezy terrace restaurants.
The most prominent tourist attraction in Butare is the superb national museum, which houses perhaps the finest ethnographic collection in east Africa.
Absorbing displays of traditional artefacts are illuminated by a fascinating selection of turn of the century monochrome photographs, providing in sight not only into pre-colonial lifestyle, but also into the subsequent development of Rwanda as a modern African state.
The cultural significance of the Butare area is further underlined by a visit to nearby Nyabisindu, formerly known as Nyanza the traditional seat of Rwanda's feudal monarchy. The impressive royal palace at Nyanza, an enormous domed construction made entirely with traditional materials, has been painstakingly restored to its 19 th century state and is now maintained as a museum.
The Volcanoes National Park
"In the heart of Central Africa, so high up that you shiver more than you sweat," wrote the eminent primatologist Dian Fossey, "are great, old volcanoes towering up almost 15,000 feet, and nearly covered with rich, green rainforest - the Virungas". Situated In the far northwest of Rwanda, the Parc des Volcans protects the steep slopes of this magnificent mountain range - home of the rare mountain gorilla - and the rich mosaic of montane ecosystems, which embrace evergreen and bamboo forest, open grassland, swamp and heath.
An exhilarating trek through the cultivated foothills of the Virungas offers stirring views in all directions. Then, abruptly, the trail enters the national park, immersing trekkers in the mysterious Intimacy of the rainforest, alive with the calls of colourful birds and chattering of the rare golden monkey, and littered with fresh spoor of the mountains' elusive populations of buffalo and elephant Through gaps in the forest canopy, the magnificent peaks are glimpsed, easily accessible and among the highest in Africa, beckoning an ascent
The bustling market town of Ruhengeri has a memorable setting at the base of the Virungas. Oil the outskirts of town, the natural bridge at Musanze - a solidified lava flow - is a fascinating relic of the volcanic activity that
shaped this scenic area. Also within easy day tripping distance of Ruhengeri are the seldom visited but lovely Lakes Burera, Ruhondo and Karago. Ruhengeri offers a good selection of reasonably-priced small hotels and guest houses, but visitors seeking greater comfort could base themselves in Gisenyi or Kigali and - with an early start - head to the Parc des Volcans and Ruhengeri as a day trip.
Gorillas:
The Virungas are the last outpost of the endangered mountain gorilla, and their lush slopes provide an appropriately dramatic natural setting for what is perhaps the most poignant and thrilling wildlife experience to be had in Africa. Nothing can prepare the visitor for the impact of encountering a troop of gorillas munching bamboo in their unfenced natural habitat. The sheer physical presence of an adult male silverback - three times as bulky as the average man, yet remarkably peaceable and tolerant of human visitors - defies verbal description. Nor are there words to convey the thrill of recognition attached to staring deep into the liquid brown eyes of these gentle giants, who share some 97% of their genes with humans.
That mountain gorillas survive today is largely thanks to Diane Fossey, who is buried at the karisoke, her research centre in the virunga alongside some of the animals to which she dedicated her life. Fossey became a household name following the release of the biographical film gorillas in the mist, which was set in the parc national des volcans, and shot on location there.
Critical and public acclaim ensured that gorillas in the mist also served to raise international awareness of the plight of the mountain gorillas, whose numbers have increased from an all time low of 250 in the 1970's to almost 400 in 2001.
Roughly half of the world's mountain gorillas are resident on the Rwandan slopes of the virunga, where four habituated groups - ranging in size from seven to 37 individuals - can be visited by up to 32 tourists daily.
Permits to visit the gorilla are issued by the Rwanda Tourism Board (ORTPN) in Kigali or Ruhengeri.
Nyungwe National park :
Extending for 1,000 square kilometers across the majestic hills of southeast Rwanda, Nyungwe National Park is the largest block of montane forest in East or Central Africa, and one of the most ancient, dating back to before the last Ice Age. A uniquely rich centre of floral diversity, the forest has more than 200 different types of tree, and a myriad of flowering plants including the otherworldly giant lobelia and a host of colourful orchids.
Nyungwe is most alluring for its primates: 13 species in all, including humankind's closest living relative the chimpanzee, as well as the handsome L'Hoest's monkey and hundred strong troops of the delightfully acrobatic Angola colobus. The most important ornithological site in Rwanda, Nyungwe harbours almost 300 bird species of which two dozen are restricted to a handful of montane
An extensive network of well maintained walking trails leads through the forest to various waterfalls and viewing points.
A comfortable rustic resthouse and perfectly situated campsite lie alongside the main road, and the reserve can readily be visited as a day trip from towns of Butare and Cyangugu.
Nyungwe does, however deserve more time, anybody who wants to track chimps and see several varieties of smaller primate will need two days there and dedicated birdwatchers might never want to leave!
Akagera national park:
Set at a relatively low altitude on the border with Tanzania, Akagera National Park could scarcely be more different in mood to the breezy cultivated hills that characterise much of Rwanda, Dominated scenically by the labyrinth of swamps and lakes that follow the meandering course of the Akagera River, the most remote source of the Nile, this is archetypal African savannah landscape of tangled acacia woodland interspersed with open grassland.
Akagera is, above all, big game country! Herds of elephant and buffalo emerge from the woodland to drink at the lakes, while lucky visitors might stumble across a leopard, a spotted hyena or even a stray lion.
Giraffe and zebra haunt the savannah, and more than a dozen types of antelope inhabit the park, most commonly the handsome chestnut-coated impala, but also the diminutive oribi and secretive bushbuck, as well as the ungainly tsessebe and the world's largest antelope, the statuesque Cape eland.
Camping alongside the picturesque lakes of Akagera is a truly mystical introduction to the wonders of the African bush. Pods of 50 hippopotami grunt and splutter throughout the day, while outsized crocodiles soak up the sun with their vast jaws menacingly agape. Magically, the air is torn apart by the unforgettable high duetting of a pair of fish eagles, asserting their' status as the avian monarchs of Africa's waterways. Lining the lakes are some of the continent's densest concentrations of water birds, while the connecting marshes are the haunt of the endangered and exquisite papyrus gonolek, and the bizarre shoebill stork - the latter perhaps the most eagerly sought of all African birds.
Lake Kivu :
Lake Kivu is an extraordinarily beautiful Inland sea enclosed by steep, green terraced hills along the Congolese boarder three resort towns, Gisenyi, Kibuye and Cyangugu; stand on the littoral, connected by a wild roller-coaster road that tumbles through lush plantain fields and relic patches of misty rainforest to offer sweeping views over the blue water. It is one of the classic road journeys in all of Africa. There is also charter boat service on the lake connecting the 3 towns.
Gisenyi, the most developed of these resorts, lies less than an hour's drive from the Parc des Volcans, and is set on a sandy beach lined with swaying palms and colonial-era hotels that exude an atmosphere of tropical languor.
In Kibuye, to its south, tourist activities are centred on a modem lakeshore guesthouse overlooking pine-covered hills seemingly transplanted from the Alps.
Different again is Cyangugu, close to Nyungwe Forest, whose more subdued tourist development is compensated for by a stirring setting of curving inlets winding into narrow valleys.
Lake Kivu is the largest of numerous freshwater' bodies that shimmer in the valleys of Rwanda. Lakes Burera and Ruhondo, close to the gorilla-tracking centre of Ruhengeri, are oft-neglected gems, deep blue water's ringed by steep hills and tall waterfalls, with the nearby Virunga Volcanoes providing a spectacular backdrop.
Away from the main resorts, Rwanda's lakes offer visitors rewarding glimpses into ancient African lifestyles. Here, fishermen ply the water in dugout canoes unchanged in design for centuries, while colourfully dressed ladies smoke traditional wooden pipes and troubadours strum sweetly on stringed iningire (traditional 'guitars'). And, the birdlife is fantastic: flotillas of pelicans sail ponderously across the open water, majestic crowned cranes preen their golden crests in the surrounding swamps, while jewel-like malachite kingfishers hawk silently above the shore.
Art people and culture:
Music and dance plays an important role in the traditions of all Rwanda's peoples, with the Tutsi favouring epics that commemorate acts of excellence and bravery, the Hutu enjoying more humorous lyrics, and the Twa celebrating their hunting roots through music. Traditional songs are often accompanied by a solitary lulunga, a harp like instrument with eight strings. More celebratory dances are backed by a drum orchestra, which typically comprises seven to nine members, and collectively produce a hypnotic and exciting explosion set of intertwining rhymes.
Lucky vision may chance upon spontaneous traditional performance in the villages of Rwanda. The finest exponents of Rwanda's varied and dynamic traditional musical and dance styles, however is the Intore Dance Troupe. founded several centuries ago, the Intore - literally "The Chosen Ones" - once performed exclusively for the Royal Court, but today their exciting act can be arranged at short notice through the National Museum in Butare.
A more modern form of Rwandan music is the upbeat and harmonious devotion singing that can be heard in any church service around the country.
A wide rand of traditional handicrafts is produced in rural Rwanda, ranging from ceramics and basketry to traditional woodcarvings and contemporary paintings.
Rwanda at your fingerprints:
Geography:
Rwanda is a land locked republic in eastern central Africa, on the water shed between Africa's two largest river systems: the Nile and the Congo. Much of the century 26,338km, is dramatically mountainous, the highest peak being Karisimbi (4507m) in the volcanic Virunga chain protected by the Parc des Volcans.
The largest body of water is Lake Kivu, but numerous other lakes are dotted around the country notably Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi, and Mugesera. All of which have erratic shapes following the contours of the steep mountains that enclose them.
Climate:
A combination of tropical location and high altitude ensures that most of Rwanda has a temperate year round climate.
Temperatures rarely stray above 30 degrees Celsius by day or below 15 degrees Celsius at night throughout the year. The exception are the chilly upper slopes of the virunga mountains and the hot low lying Tanzania border area protected in akagera national park.
Throughout the country, seasonal variations in temperature are relatively insignificant.
Most parts of the country receive in excess of 1,000 mm of precipitation annually, with the driest months being July to September and the wettest February to May.
Language :
In addition to the indigenous language of Kinyarwanda, French and English are official languages. French is widely spoken throughout the country. In the capital and other tourist centres, many people speak English.
Economy :
Primarily subsistence agriculture economy, Rwanda nonetheless produces for export some of the finest tea and coffee in the world. Other industries include sugar, fishing and cut flowers for export.
Getting there :
Rwanda Air Express flies daily to Kigali from Nairobi, twice a week from Entebbe ( Uganda ), and Wednesday and Saturday from Johannesburg. In partnership with SAA it also flies to Kigali from the USA via Johannesburg.
Other international flights arriving in Kigali are with SN Brussels, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian airlines with these last two connecting straight with Asia through Hong Kong and mainland China.
All international flights arrive at Kigali international airport, 10 km from central Kigali.
Passport and visa :
A valid passport is mandatory, visa required by all visitors except nationals of the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, DRC, Sweden, Mauritius, South Africa and Hong Kong.
Visa cost US$35 and can be bought upon arrival.
Health :
A certificate of yellow- fever vaccination is required. Much of Rwanda lies at too high an elevation for malaria to be a major concern but the disease is present and prophylactic drugs are strongly recommended. It is advisable not to drink tap water. Bottled mineral water can be bought in all towns.
Hospitals are located in all major towns.
Money:
The unit of currency is the Rwanda franc. The US Dollar is the hard currency of preference. It may be impossible to exchange travellers' cheques away from the capital. Credit cards are usually only acceptable at the major hotels in Kigali.
When to visit:
Rwanda can be visited throughout the year. Gorilla tracking and other forest walks are less demanding during the drier months. The European winter is the best time for birds, as Palaearctic migrants supplement resident species.
What to wear:
Dress code is informal. Daytime temperatures are generally warm, so bring lots of light clothing supplemented by light sweaters for the cool evenings and heavier clothing for the Parc des Volcans and Nyungwe. When tracking gorillas, wear sturdier clothing to protect against stinging nettles, and solid walking shoes. A hat and sunglasses provide protection against the sun, and a waterproof jacket may come in handy in the moist mountains.
What to bring:
Binoculars will greatly enhance game drives and forest walks, as will a good field guide to east African birds. Bring a camera and an adequate stock of film. Print film is available but transparency film is not. Toiletries and other essentials can be bought in the cities.
Communication:
Rwanda has an excellent cell phone network covering almost the entire country. International phone calls can be made easily. Appropriate sim cards for the network are readily available everywhere, even in remote towns, and cell phones can be purchased or rented from major shops in Kigali. Most of towns of any size will have several internet cafes and computers centres.
Getting around:
Rwanda has possibly the best roads in east Africa. Most visitors who have booked through a tour company will be provided with good private vehicles, usually 4-wheel drive. All of the major centres are connected with local and luxury bus services. Air charter services are available anywhere in the country and well advertised.
Hiking and biking:
The fine road network, with little traffic, offers wonderful opportunities for long bicycle trips across the verdant hills and valleys.
Mountain biking and hiking can be enjoyed on the thousands of kilometres of fine rural trails linking remote villages, criss-crossing the entire country.
Accommodation:
Several high-standard international business and tourism hotels exist in Kigali, while comfortable midrange accommodation is found in all main tourist centres.
Food:
Good western food with a Belgian influence is served in tourist-oriented restaurants and hotels in all centres. Rwanda favourites include goat kebab, grilled tilapia (a lake fish), ugali (a stiff maize porridge), matoke (cooked banana) and potatoes.
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