Akagera Game Park with Dr. Konn's group - The full posting

Alarm went off @ 4:30 am. I've convinced Dr. Konn that they can pick me up along the way. It will help Philbert as well because he is picking up their laundry to wash it while they are out today. I may not have mentioned that there is no washing machine here. I've not found any Laundromats. So about every six days I pay Philbert around $2,000 FRw to wash my clothes by hand. He air dries them on the line outback and then irons the shirts.

RATS!! not real rodents but shoot!! not a gun, but dang!! No water. I forgot to mention yesterday one other Great Thing!! Not only was there water but the shower had water pressure!! and not only that but the water was warm!! Hot Dog!! The shower is one of those hoses with a shower head that you hold in your hand and point in the direction you desire. However, the pressure is such that if you hold it sideways (or up) the water only goes down, , , not out sideways for a while before turning down. And though we have hot water in the sinks it never seems to have any positive thermal qualities when dribbling out of the shower wand. But I'm not complaining, because I had a bucket full of water saved for just such an event and I'm getting to see Giraffes, and Baboons today!

So Philbert & I meet the buses at the corner. Once they have given him the eleven bags of laundry I have a seat. Everyone seems in excellent spirits. I never hear an exact head count but there are ten American Students, One faculty member (Bianca), Dr. Konn, three people with the tour company, about 25 Rwandan students and me. So close to 40 people in two buses. Kigali is roughly in the center of the country. Last Sunday I traveled around 2.5 hours basically west to Kibuya and was at the western border. This Sunday we're traveling about 2.5 hours basically east and we'll be at the eastern border. A 2.5 hour drive doesn't' get you nearly as far on these roads as it will in the U.S.. The main roads seem well maintained but are heavily used be all sorts of traffic (buses, trucks, taxi vans, motos, the occasional bicycle (frequently carrying some commodity or another person) and people walking, always, people walking.

We move from the main paved road to a dirt road @ the town where Bill Clinton's Foundation has donated monies to build and outfit a hospital. The further you get from the main roads, the lower the quality/standard of the housing. We pass many community water supplies today. I see yellow 5 gallon containers collecting that water which makes me seriously doubt the information given me last Sunday when I was told that the yellow containers were all for milk.

We get to Akagera Park and proceed to check in where we can stretch legs, empty bladders, pick up the guide for each bus, sign in and meet the first animal. There were a number of baboons around the ranger station and they seemed adjusted to people. One in particular, was quite happy to mill around with us and was interested in anything that might be eaten. We could get quite close to him without any apparent nervousness , , , , , , on his part. The temptation was great and just before we got ready to leave he was sitting in a bush about 2 feet off the ground , , , , and his feet looked so soft and touchable, , ,, and he'd been sooo friendly so far , , , , , so I got closer (and he ignored me) , , , , , reached out (still ignoring me) , , , , , and touched the bottom of his foot. He must have been ticklish , , , , , for he jumped to grab my hand, grunting loudly and ran off past me. The others nearby hadn't seen what had caused the incident but were startled as he ran past. . I tried to act non-chalant and kind of meandered off around the corner. Shaloy has already scolded me. I know, , they're wild animals....

Into the buses and within 15 minutes we see the Giraffes. They were pretty close by and two of them were hitting each others necks with their heads. I've seen a video of this but the ranger tells us they are just playing around... In the previously mentioned video it didn't look like playing but at the park today it did. We see some antelope which aren't on my side of the bus and I don't hear the name clearly and some Zebra. The ranger tells us that there are about 15 lions. They are seldom seen by the tour buses and primarily eat the zebras (the Giraffes can kick pretty hard). We leave too soon for me but on to find the buffalo.

It's a long drive and the first group is about 1/3rd of a mile away under some trees, barely visible and we don't try to get closer. Another 20 minutes and we see come to zebras standing in the middle of the road. Just standing, , , waiting , , , , after a few minutes the bus driver revs the engine and the Zebras take off running, , the African students really liked that and there was quite a bit of hooting and hollering. A few minuted later, another small group of Zebra and a lone bull under a tree. We're about 70 yards away when the other bus splits the distance between us and the Buffalo who is now paying attention. Quite quickly he puts his head down and charged. They quickly put it in gear and as soon as they started to increase the distance he stopped. It was only about another 1/2 mile to a group of over 50 buffalo. They seem wary and we don't get very close. On the way back we see almost all of the same family groups of animals as on the way in.

Another rest stop @ the ranger outpost. The faculty member Bianca was quite happy when we were able to locate a couple of Cokes (she hadn't had her coffee and was getting a caffeine withdrawal headache/migraine). On to the Hippos. The lake is the 2nd largest in Rwanda and we stop at a "fishing project" and catch a pictures of some Egrets, Maribou Storks (Which I think are some of the ugliest birds) and a pair of beautiful Egyptian geese. A little bit further and we stop at a camping site where we are told there are hippos. We're allowed out here and we pile out scanning for a huge animal but see only a small disturbance on the water surface about 30 yards out from the shore and a small partial head with nose, eyes and ears. The hippos poke their heads up for 5 - 10 seconds. The rangers tell us that each submersion lasts about 5 minutes and if that is so there were around 5-8 individuals in this herd. as we would see a head once every 45 seconds but never so enough to be able to actually identify different ones.

It's getting close to lunch time so we go to the park lodge. A very nice modern facility with a fantastic view, top notch service and a very nice pool. If you want a place to go and relax far far very far away from it all (and be treated well with great accommodations, food and service) I can highly recommend Akagera Game Park Lodge. We made lunches with Various kinds of sandwiches (tuna or PBJ or Nutella), fresh pineapple, biscuits (cookies), water and 15 plates of "chips" (thick French Fries) fresh and hot from the restaurant. Everybody ate until they were satisfied. Afterwards many people swam.... Dr. Konn had told me at one point that there would be swimming today, , , But I had spaced about it and hadn't brought my trunks, , , but I was hot and the water was cool and I did have on solid black boxer briefs which were quick drying, wicking so , , , , (no I didn't swim in just my underwear!) I unzipped the the trouser legs of my pants and jumped in. About 3:00 pm we packed it all up headed for Kigali.

Same trip in reverse, with a brief pit-stop for those with small bladders or who had consumed much fluids We were back in town by 5:15. I asked to be dropped off in Kimironko near the market as I was getting low on some supplies. The market was beginning to shut down as sundown was approaching and there are no lights. I was able to get a pineapple, 2 mangos, 0.5 Kilos of mixed beans for soup, 6 eggs, two 500ml containers of milk, a Kilo of tomatoes, a cabbage, carrots, onions and a Kilo of those strange Kinyomoro fruits. I'll get pictures of the market next time I go.

I took over 300 pictures today and the Internet speed isn't very fast. When I got home I couldn't access Blogger & I needed to let my computer churn through the images and some software I needed to load in order to sort pictures. I laid down for a nap and didn't wake up until 4:30 am Monday when I started the process over, , , So the complete regular blog about Sunday is just coming now Monday evening.

The students who were on the trip asked for me to send them e-mails of any pictures I took of them. However that would be waaayyy tooo time consuming of a process and I might not send them the ones they wanted. Soooo, If you want a picture or pictures here's what you do. Go to my Picasa album. When you see a picture you desire right click on it. Tell your computer where you want it saved and BINGO. You've got the image. Of the 300 pictures 54 were blurry or of no interest at all and I've deleted them. Some of the pictures have captions but it'll take me a good part of an evening to add captions to the rest (which I intend to do - eventually) .

Tomorrow I start @ King Faisal Hospital.