Akagera Safari - Michael

Driving through Akagera National Park was not the roughest dirt road I have been on since coming to Rwanda but it was long, dusty and hot--though well worth it! We packed food and camping gear to last us the weekend.  We safaried with our British friends with two boys 11 and 8yrs old.  As we drove into the park our conversations and card games ended.  Binocs were passed around, field guides were opened, and cameras gotten out.  

We leaned out the windows and climbed on the roof to watch zebras meander through the bush and a male impala lope across the road with a score of females.  Occasionally we saw a warthog family trot away through the tall grass with their tails raised high or an African Horn Bill or Go-away bird with a call that sounds like:  “Go-a-way! Go-a-way!”

2 of the 5 giraffes we saw. The baby
still had its umbilical cord. 

After a little while the rolling hills and bush spilled out onto a large open plain of dry grass, dotted with groups of zebra.  Here we spotted a family of Masai giraffe:  three adults and two young ones, one was so young it still had his umbilical cord.

After driving through the park, we came to our campsite at dusk on top of rolling hills speckled with clumps of brush and acacia. (For those of you who live near our home town, it was very similar to the hills between Redding and Red Bluff during summer).  To the east, the hills continued but with the glint of metal roofs and the scattered herds of long horned cattle owned by Rwandans.   In the west, lay wetlands and occasional lakes with the Akagera River flowing through on its way to Victoria Lake and the Nile.  Beyond the river lay Tanzania receding in the distance.

I got 2 crocs and a hippo to show it's nose for this picture.
 We saw 8 crocodiles and 5 or 6 hippos in just one small cove.

On day 2 we followed the broken branches
and giant scat piles of this guy till we
at last caught up to him.

Our muffler fell off on our way out of the park
The rough roads weren't very kind to the car.

The East African animals are not as numerous in Akagera Park as some parks in Kenya or Tanzania. The park’s land was reduced to nearly 2/3 to provide land for returning refugees after the ’94 genocide.  Lions, if any, have been reduced to a few and rhinos were all poached during the war. But elephants and giraffe have been brought into the park and are increasing. Crocodiles and hippos thrive in the lakes and there are over 500 species of birds.  There are also leopards, but we didn’t get to see any this trip. )-; 

Driving across plain in search of giraffes