The Kroghs in Kigali!: GOING TO AKAGERA... Heading to the Lodge

On our way to Akagera the next day... we stopped 1/2 way to see a friend of mine

who has a farm and bed 'n breakfast that she just built. She's been begging for me

to come see it so we stopped.. midafteroon. It is about 50 minutes from Kigali.

Colette was outside working on the grounds.

What a place that she designed and had built!
A place to come and relax...
well, if you're not Colette or her husband Mike..
I think they get to do lots of work here.

This porch, portico or whatever you call it is simply elegant!
Looks more like a palace! This is where we had drinks and talked.

Coffee and pop, of course! Look at the view!!
We had a great time talking.. albeit brief.

This valley and river that you see, pour right into the lake that
President and Mrs, Kagame have a house on..
Another great view, except for the sign. ha!

Pretty spacious! We looked like a doll tea party setting.

This is the side view that you pull into once inside the gate.
There are 4 rooms to stay in upstairs!

Colette's flower gardens are so beautiful. On our way out
we saw her cows and chickens! Thanks, Colette for
letting us drop in on you! Your place is wonderful.

Ada is now driving us closer and closer to the park. To celebrate
we broke out the M and M's that Bruce and I had found for the party last week.
These were peanut ones... This was a FIRST for Ada... He had
never had them before....
but said he would certainly like to have them again!

Do you remember when you had M&M' for the first time?
I don't but in the process of our conversation
Chris taught us all what M & M's stands for..
"Even with their partnership dissolved, Mars and Murrie’s initials stuck as the candy’s name and, in 1950, was even printed on it."
Thanks, Chris, guess we're never too old to learn something new.
I had always thought it was for Melt in your Mouth! Ha!

As we were driving along I noticed something new...
When Bruce and I had come through here in June we had noticed
little boxes on the houses and the tall antenna looking poles.
But now you can see that they have connected the poles and the boxes
with wires and now these folks all have electricity. Since only 13% of
the population here has current... this is a BIG deal. Now maybe 14% have it.

AND he last time we TRIED to drive through here this bridge was under
construction so the detour we had to take took us at least 2 hours longer
to get to the park. Another joyful moment was to see this bridge completed
and looking so nice! It was SO short to get to the park this way!
(thank goodness!)

And this sign over Chris's head.. is Welcoming all of us

to Akagera Park.... but especially Chris and Rachel.

Little did we know what we would expereince in the

next two days.

They took a picture of Ada and me at the gate, too!
Rachel has all the crazy cute pictures we took with her camera
of Chris and her at the gate.
The rest of the day was getting settled into the lodge
and trying to go to sleep. We were all excited about going out
tomorrow...to see the animals.

Morning came and with it a view of the lake and sunrise.

Looking out over the lake from the staircase.

Hazy morning!

This was the view from where we had breakfast... Chris and Rachel
didn't finish all the fruit they were served so they asked if they could wrap it to go.
Since no one uses plastic here... the fruit was wrapped in aluminum foil..

Not only was Ada waiting out front for us but so was this guy. The lodge is almost over-run with baboons but we didn't see too many around this morning..
I wondered where they were.

Having an "Oh.. yes, i just knocked over the trash can
and now i need to scratch" moment!

Chris really wanted to get closer.. but when he started moving
she backed off. So, we jumped in the car and headed out for our first day
in Akagera Park.

When the gate keeper opened the gates we soon discovered

where all the Baboons were.

They were sitting right outside the gate!

Yawning, eating breakfast and just sitting there.. all over the place, Ada suggested we throw them a banana and then we would be able to get a group picture. So... I opened the foil and handed him one.. FULLY EXPECTING HIM TO THROW IT. But NO.. He got OUT OF THE CAR held it in his hand to try to feed one of the babies. I was yelling for him to throw it....and get back in the car.....

But the next thing we knew this big Brut Baboon rushed at him... knocked the banana out of his hand (Rachel has a great picture of this moment but it was the last picture she got here) and then in another split second he jumped 1/2 way into the car over Rachel.. (who in a split second was over on Chris's lap) and grapped the entire package of foil- wrapped fruit out of the pocket behind the driver's seat. We were all yelling at this point... for Ada to get back in.. Rachel is trying to get the window up but the car is turned off so she is yelling to turn the car on... And all that in a matter of a couple seconds.... really! Next thing we knew THIS is what we saw right next to the car on the other side..

The Brut finishing his banana and...

getting out the second one....

and in another few seconds he had cleaned out the whole wrapper and was looking at us DROOLING!
Let's see... he had fresh pineapple, mango, bananas and passion fruit! Yes,
this is the animal that jumped almost on top of Rachel. She was still shaking a little.

But he was a very happy guy... Rachel and Ada's hearts

were still beating loudly and the Brut didn't even share

any of his spoil with anyone.. maybe he is part pig?

We drove slowly through the rest of the "herd"...and this little one on the
left was quite curious about us and what had just happened.
He was wondering, "Are the people in that big moving thing insane?" Ha!

This was the only Vervet Monkey with this huge group of baboons.
Quite strange actually... There must be a story about him.
He was a little shy.

The lodge is about 5 minutes from the Camp Entrance.. which is here...
but we already felt like we'd had enough adventure for one day!
This is where we picked up our guide, Denise.