On Our Way to Nyungwe National Forest

Last weekend we decided to get away Friday afternoon through Monday so we headed southwest to an area we had not been to.  The drive was 4 1/2 hours of mostly good road

until we got closer to the park...but this drive took us to Nyungwe National Forest. 

Apparently this is the largest "mid range" rain forest in Africa and it is in Rwanda!
 The ride there was pretty beautiful.

Just driving along the roadside.

 Everyone has something on their head, it seems.

Ok.. not these guys... That's probably why they are smiling!

About an hour or so Southwest of Kigali

 These kids were cooling off in a little pond.

I like these straight "columns" against the rolling hills! 

A little closer.


We kept seeing all these little white tent like buildings and
when we stopped to take a picture all the kids came running.


We later learned that this is another refugee camp for folks coming from the Congo.

And then we reached the park.

This road is so great here... but in just a few minutes... it turned into 

a rutted --potholed drive.  

Looks like we're looking down on the canopy here in the late afternoon.

 The sky was beautiful!

The Forest is Beautiful! 

The cows are beautiful!

Getting deeper into the Park and Forest.

After driving for hours we were getting weary.  

Stopped here to check out the view... Turns out this is the trail head for several of the hikes.

Looking just behind the sign.

It was quite steep... BUT then we saw our first... little ones alongside of the road. 

At this writing we aren't sure if these are Colobus monkeys or L'Hoest monkeys.
Pretty sure they are L'Hoest, though.

Finally after we'd driven ALL the way through the park we came out on the other side
and smack dab into acres and acres of tea fields.
And there in the middle sat the Lodge we were going to stay at!
( lodge on the left--cabins on the right)

Once in the lobby we were greeted with our own personal
hostess... We were treated to a nice cold drink, too!
The other thing that greeted us was several
 walls --full of Cow Dung pictures...
Yes... these ornate pictures are all made out of you know what!
This is a small portion of the lobby.  The lodge had 6 huge fireplaces.  

This was our best Wi-Fi spot!

Cool ceiling light--that looked like a tree from the shadows. 

Got there just a little before the sun was setting....   and this is what the mountains looked like
as we walked to our "room"/ cabin! 

Our sunken room.. 

The bath room above the bedroom/ living room part.
THIS was a very nice place. 

Prince charming was clinging to the wall right
outside the door.  He was about an 1 1/2 inches
long but boy could he stretch.

So, by the time we get settled it wass dark outside so we couldn't see anything else today!
But we are looking forward to seeing all this area has to offer, in the morning.
So far we are really glad we came here.
Time to Relax!

love,
margie