Nyungwe Forest

Rwanda is a small country, only about half the size of Nova Scotia, or the size of Maryland in landmass.  Yet it is highly dense, with 11 times the population of Nova Scotia and nearly double the population of Maryland.  Around 10% of Rwandans live in Kigali, where I'd spent the first week of my trip in Africa.  At this point, I was ready for something different, so along with my mother, Faye, and Emmy, I headed to Nyungwe forest, the largest rainforest in Rwanda and the furthest point geographically from Kigali in the country.

The four of us left around 7 AM to ensure we arrived at the forest in time for the final canopy walk of the day.  The drive from Kigali to Butare gave me my first glimpse of Rwandan life outside of Kigali.  The scenery was an interesting mix of rolling countryside and farmland, broken up by busy small towns.  One thing that remained consistent was the huge number of people walking along the side of the highway.  Most Rwandans cannot afford a car, so their options for tr ansport are to take moto-taxis (fairly dangerous but also quite cheap; $2 USD gets you a 20 minute ride across Kigali), or to walk. 

Emmy explained to me that most rural Rwandans will walk great distances to school or to the markets where they sell their harvested fruits and vegetables.  Many of these people, who covered the whole age spectrum, were carrying things on their heads, ranging from baskets of fruit to long pieces of wood to axes.  Emmy explained that rural Rwandans look down on most Kigalians as being lazy, as they cannot carry 100kg on their heads.  Many of the

Two hours into our drive, we arrived at Rwanda's second largest city, Butare.  My mother and Faye had some work to do briefly at the hospital, so Emmy and I headed for the National museum of Rwanda.  While I'm not a huge museum person, this one was quite well done, and worth the forty-five minutes or so I spent exploring it.  Of particular interest was a scaled down model of the type of straw-made palace that the King of Rwanda would have lived in the 1800s.  It didn’t hurt matters that the tour guide who showed me around the museum was the most beautiful woman I’d seen in Rwanda.

After exploring the museum, Emmy and I reconvened with the doctors and headed straight for the forest.  The three hour drive from Butare to the canopy walk at Nyunge forest was even more remote, as small towns and rolling hillsides were replaced with narrower roads, a dearth of people, and tall, increasingly dense trees.  About two hours into the drive, we reached the beginning of the forest proper.    We were delayed a bit towards the end of the drive by construction.  Emmy explained that just five years ago, the entire road system surrounding the park was dirt, but by the end of 2013 it would all be paved.

Of particular interest to me was the fact that Rwanda uses Chinese companies to do their construction (though all foreign businesses operating in Rwanda must employ a minimum of 60% Rwandans).  Apparently Rwanda is one of the easiest countries in the world to set up shop in as a foreign business owner.  Since Paul Kagame took over seven years ago, he's been trying to stimulate the local economy, so taxes for business owners are low, and entry restrictions are limited.  Hearing this made me consider moving to Rwanda full-time and opening some sort of business.  I have a small ownership share in a pizza restaurant in Toronto; we've considered expanding, so perhaps Kigali could be North of Brooklyn's second location.

Eventually we arrived at the start of the hike to the canopy walk just in time.  Everyone had done the walk at least once previously except me, so it was just me and my mother who set out on the quick 2.5 hour hike.  As we embarked on the descent towards the canopy walk,  our guide, Antoine was quick to identify and describe the different types of flowers, trees and plants we saw along the way.  After 40 minutes of slippery, mostly downhill hiking, we arrived at our point of interest.

My mother and I at the midpoint of the canopy walk

The canopy walk itself is a 90 meter long walkway, suspended between three cylindrical towers, 70 meters (240 feet) above the ground.  Built just two years ago, it offers an absolutely fabulous birds-eye view of the Nyungwe forest, though it took me several minutes to get past my fear or heights to fully enjoy it.  Interestingly enough, I felt much more comfortable jumping out of a plane 9,000 feet above the ground than I did traversing this clearly well-built ropewalk at just 240 feet.  By contrast, my mother would never in a million years jump out of a plane, or bungy jump, or do any such extreme activity, but felt quite peaceful being so high up, saying that the presence of nature made her feel at ease.  

Clearly terrified

We posed for some photos, and Antoine did a good job pointing out several groups of jumping monkeys and unique birds that called this marvelous natural castle their home.  After about 30 minutes of traversing, posing, and soaking in the mind-blowing scenery, we began the ascent to the starting point of our hike.  It's amazing how a 40 minute hike downhill can turn into at least a 1 hour hike uphill.  We finally made it back, limbs more or less as attached as they were several hours prior, and had Emmy drive us to our accommodations for the night, the Nyungwe forest lodge, situated in the middle of a tea plantation.

The lodge was, by all accounts, one of the nicest places I've ever stayed.  It was surprisingly luxurious for the surroundings, but at the same time not tacky or obtrusive.  The main building housed a substantial lounge area and a full-service restaurant (all meals were included with the accommodation).  Then the rooms themselves were situated across the tea plantation, in separate villas.  My only complaint was that the bathroom had a non-closeable window in plain view of the sleeping area, which is fine if you are a honeymooning couple, but less suited towards a mother and son sharing a room.

The dining room at Nyungwe lodge

In the morning, Faye, my mother, and I embarked on a 4 hour hike to see Rwanda's biggest waterfall.  Unlike the canopy walk, which was almost entirely downhill on the way there, this hike featured varying ascents and descents, and winded its way through an even more remote part of the forest.  Our guide, "Julius Caesar" was extremely animated as he pointed out the various attractions along the way, including a narrow river that winded its way alongside us for a portion of the hike.  

The waterfall itself was quite spectacular, and certainly put Niagara Falls to shame.  While Niagara Falls is of course much larger, wider, and more powerful, it has become such a tourist attraction, that it has lost much of its beauty, as it's surrounded by more Applebees, IHOPs, and Comfort Inns than a suburban strip mall in Ohio.  On this hike, by contrast, we encountered exactly 0 other people, and the waterfall and its surroundings remained untouched by man.

Proudly displaying my patch of chest hair

After the hike, we had a delicious lunch at the lodge, then hit the road for the 5 hour drive home.  The drive home was noted by many small children running up to our car as we meandered through the more rural stretches, happily shouting "umizugno!" - a common expression to hear from the children in Rwanda, and roughly translating to "rich person" or "rich traveller."  Apparently the gesticulation is not actually intended offensively, although you rarely hear it from adults.

The trip to Nyungwe forest was my first foray outside of Kigali, but certainly not my last.  As of now, I'm still behind on two more blog entries (white water rafting in Jinja and gorilla trekking in Northwest Rwanda), and have two more exciting adventures planned (a 4-day safari in Tanzania, followed by the most ambitious of my journeys, a 7 day trek of Mt. Kilimanjaro).  I leave for Tanzania in 2 days, so I'll try to knock off one or two more blog posts before then