Nyungwe National Forest

About 5 hours east of Kigali is located Nyungwe National Forest. It takes 5 hours not so much due to its distance away from Kigali but due to the very poor road conditions, pedestrian congestion and lack of signage. Nyungwe is a jewel of a tropical rainforest whose geologic bedrock was formed approximately 1.2 billion years ago. It is home to some breathtaking vistas and a bio-diversity of stunning proportions. It is said, for example, that it is host to 140 different species of orchids alone. The vegetation heralds back to the beginning of time and the park is populated with huge fern trees reminiscent of Jurrasic Park, mahogany and other Dr. Seus-like specimens.

What makes it such a special site is that just about every inch of arable land around the forest has been terraced and transformed into either tea plantations or plots of sustanance crops--- dating back to the iron age. Villages line the route leading to the forest and long lines of pedestrians crowd the sides of the road for mile upon mile, when suddenly one enters the park, the lack of human activity becomes palpable. The temperature even drops dramatically and the increase in wildlife becomes immediately noticeable. A sense of calm and peace descends upon the traveler. We spotted several types of primates foraging near the road sides as we traveled towards our accommodation for the night. More about the accommodations later.

The following day, we undertook a guided hike on one of the park’s many trails. The park has benefitted from the efforts of USAID which constructed a colorful and informative interpretive center and a canopy walkway. Nonetheless, forget about getting an admissions' discount as an American citizen. We forked out $50 per person even for Gus and Emma. Annie got a bit of a reduction and her admission was only $40 US. I’m pretty sure that entrance fees to some of the most popular US national parks don’t even begin to approach such amounts.

We of course selected the canopy walk not only because it was the shortest time wise for little short legs, but also because we got to get up to tree-top level and view the forest from a totally different perspective. We saw lots of monkeys, birds and plant species which were all new to us. We got some great photos , a thrill from walking across the undulating canopy walkway 100 meters above the forest floor and made it back to the vistors’ center with a minimum of complaining from the young’uns and without getting rained on to boot!

Some of the more spectacular species we saw during our excursion (both while driving and hiking) were the Great Blue Turaco (pictured), Blue Monkey (Diademed Guenon) and Large Spotted Genet (unfortunately, he'd been run over, no doubt by one of these passenger busses that travel at breakneck speed with no regard for anything else on the road).