Today we visited Akagera national park. 6 of us piled into a vehicle one of the guys had arranged for us along with a driver and off we went, having waited around for the obligatory hour at 6am! We completed the necessary paperwork and payments at the park gate and collected our guide for the day, James. We agreed on a route which took us by some of the lakes then onto the hilltops to enjoy the panoramic views. James told us the roads were in bad condition but our vehicle should be able to give it a go! The first sightings of the day were some giraffe and zebra. We then found some buffalo taking shelter under a tree. Next on the agenda was to see if we could find a herd of elephants. They had made their way across the boundary of the park and for the last couple of weeks had been sighted in an area inaccessible by car. We saw lots of signs of their recent presence on our journey – trees which had been pulled down, fresh dung, and we also came across some locals whose crops had been destroyed by the elephants earlier this morning. Despite bumping along tracks which barely seemed to exist through thick bush we didn’t manage to get a glimpse of the elusive giants. We stopped at midday by a lake for ‘breakfast’ as we got lower in altitude and closer to the water, we were plagued by horseflies inside the vehicle but were provided with entertainment as people tried (unsuccessfully) to swat them. At the next lake we saw hippos in the water and James spotted two elephants across on the opposite shore – we still don’t quite know how he did with his naked eye. With the help of a pair of binoculars we all just managed to make them out!
The tracks we drove along were apparently the old tracks which were no longer used… in places there were large pot holes, huge patches of mud which we skidded through, trees across the tracks requiring either James to jump out and remove them or take a diversion through the grass/mud/rocks to go around them, ditches which caused the vehicle to tip to what felt like a 45 degree angle and was bumpy all the time. At times the track seemed to just disappear in front of our eyes and at one point we found ourselves driving through grass as tall as the vehicle! The lads sat on top of the vehicle for most of the day so will suffer the effects of sunburn, sore bottoms and thorn scratches tomorrow!
As we drove through the day and climbed the hills to enjoy panoramic views from the top we saw different animals including impala, elands, reedbucks, warthogs, more buffalo and zebra, oribi, roan antelope, topi and a wide variety of birds. We stopped at 4pm for a picnic lunch at the top of the highest hill but could not hang around for long as we needed to exit the park before dark and we still had 1 ½ hours to go! As we continued suddenly James asked the driver to stop. He had seen some baboons across the nearest valley. Again I don’t know how he did it – the blended into the background so well. We finally returned home at 7.30pm – tired but having had a good day.
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