RWANDA
is no begging and people work. Thatched roofs were banned since they cause fire and disease, and the country aims to provide every child with shoes( for $ 1) to further prevent disease. AIDS awareness campaigns and the banning of plastic bags were yet more steps to get this country to the peaceful 11 million strong nation it is today. Now it’ s one of the fastest growing economies in Central Africa, with a GDP growth of around 8 % per year between 2001 and 2014.
Into the mist
We’ re off to our abode for the next two nights – the Serena Lake Kivu Hotel on the border between the DRC and Rwanda. We ask Amos about the weather and his answer is unambiguous:“ In Rwanda you have two kinds of weather – rain and no rain.” I marvel at the undulating tropical scenery as we negotiate the countryside, up hills and down mountains.
Amos overtakes trucks on death-defying hairpin bends with gay abandon, but we manage to make our way safely down to Lake Kivu in the approaching dusk, deftly avoiding school children, herds of goats and pigs.
The Lake Kivu Serena Hotel is a sanctuary. It overlooks its private beach and offers 66 luxury hotel rooms with views of the lake, a restaurant with panoramic views, indoor and beachside bars, a luxury pool and the Maisha Health Centre. For dinner we feast on pea soup, seafood brochette with lemon butter sauce and warm apple pie. An early wake-up call finds me bleary-eyed for the two-hour drive to catch a glimpse of Rwanda’ s endangered golden monkeys at the Volcanoes National Park. They are sprightly creatures, leaping from tree to tree.
Later, the setting sun dances on Lake Kivu as it plays hide and seek with the black storm clouds and we have front row seats to a spectacle only Africa can offer. In an event so rare I shall put it up there with a millennial surviving for a week without social media, I find myself in the lobby at the unholy hour of 5am for a second consecutive day the next morning. But it’ s worth it, for today we commune with the great silverback mountain gorilla.
Rwanda is one of three countries where mountain gorillas can be observed in the wild. A rare privilege, since there are only an estimated 800 left in the world. Our guide is the inimitable Francois Bigirimana. He worked with Dian Fossey, the legendary American primatologist portrayed by Sigourney Weaver in the film Gorillas in the mist, and is somewhat of a legend.
“ Defecate montoon fo see gorirra,” he says, which I would learn apparently means“ it’ s a difficult mountain( to
50 Travel Update | issue 9