The Intimacy of Akagera!!

Bruce had a meeting Sat. morning that ran longer than expected

so Eva and Mathias and I took off for Akagera.  Mathias got to drive!!  It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the park entrance. 

Getting there is 1/2 the fun! 

 The dry season is quite apparent.
We've had no rain since May.

The cool thing is that it makes everything
REDDISH BROWN and everything sort of glows!

A classic house in the country.

We had some empty plastic bottles and the kids love
it when you pass them out along the road. 

These little ones were up on the hill.

Each one wants one so we try to save them up when we know we
are going out into the country.  The kids like them because they can easily carry water with them to school in the bottles.

Just how far will these folks walk before they get some where?

Yes, we have some bananas!  He will walk these about 3 miles.

Getting water from the spigots! Right, I didn't now it
was spelled this way either. 

Finally we reach a little village with a "strip mall"!!
Yes, these are all little shops!

This guy has brought his stuff a long, long way,
The church to the right must be a 7th day Adventist since they were having services.  This denomination has a huge presence
here in Rwanda.  

Just chillin'

Then all of a sudden this whole herd of several kinds
of animals were right ahead of us. 

Posing!

Running away!

 Wow, they're in their lanes better than the motos!

A few rebels.

Looks like a movie...

This is were the cow boys live. 

Such a Rwandan shot.  

Check out these horns.  I wonder how they got this way. 

                         And here we are at the entrance!!

An abundance of baboons!  

This is real exactly what the sky looked like.

Magnificent!

Simply beautiful!  The trees looked like fall/winter.

The lake in the distance beyond the dry road.
We were on our way to the afternoon boat ride.
The VERy first thing we saw from the boat
was this guy playing in the marshy area.

The sun was really bright.

We never saw another elephant but you could hear
them all behind the reeds. 

Taking off for the island across the lake... to find the birds....

These are Cormorants!

A stork! 

They are all over the trees...

 Wonder what they are looking at?

This big green puff of plant is a papyrus plant..
Here they say "poppyroos".

Cool tree and birds..
All these sights we are seeing as we drive around
the island on the boat.

Baby Cor's

Stretching their wings.

All lined up and going nowhere!

 Big 'old storks!

The Fish Eagle.  Looks alot like out Bald Eagle but it isn't.

He was squaking a lot... because he was
getting ready to go fishing. 

Great specimen!

Mathias getting his shots!

Eva enjoying the front seat!

The sun is starting down and we are rounding the
end of the island but our guide is insistant
about taking us to find the crocodile.
He pulled us into the papyrus and all the
reeds along the shore and pushed the
boat up close to the edge. 

AND THERE HE WAS!!!!!

TOTALLY LOOKING AT US!
WE WERE NO MORE THAT 15 FEET AWAY FROM HIM!

He blended into the ground ---
but how about that checkerboard tail???

Our guide said he was "hibernating".. but we weren't sure...
When we first started around the island we had seen him
walking around.  He didn't lunge at us, so i guess we were safe.

The crocodiles view!

It's the end of our ride so we take off back across the lake.

Our guide had been great.... 

As we pulled in the fisherman were
getting ready to go out fishin'.

A whole crew of people were on the ride behind us.....

Right after we pulled out of the lake area the
baboons were waiting for us.

Let's see... Looks like there might be some bugs here. 

Mmmmmm, yes..

A closer look!  Check out his hands.

And right after we saw the monkeys we
looked up and realized we couldn't get a
across the road.  

Having been in in Kruger Park in South Africa and having our close encounter with the "ellies" i knew that we didn't
want to encroach on their territory.

More and more kept coming out of the brush.
We didn't have a guide with us...so we
just stopped and watched them. 

even a little one.

Here we are in Akagera again... seeing the elephants and Bruce isn't here. All I could think about was the fact that he had missed seeing a herd again.  So I was both thrilled, yet sad that he wan't able to see this awesome sight.
This herd was much smaller than the one we saw earlier this year.... but it was like watching a close knit family.

Blowing dirt up on his back for his bath-on the left.
About then another car came up behind us...
with a guide.  They took the lead and
we decided to stay a distance back in case we had
to put it in reverse.

They just hung there.... totally blocking the road.

The guide was trying to get them to move off the road.

 With the zoom we get a closer look! 

They are just enjoying hanging out and taking up the whole road. 

Seems that they are starting to move on down the road. 
Two cute little babies!

The guide finally gets out to try to shoo them along.

 He is getting way to close to them.

 Ok... this is way too close.. He doesn't even have a gun...
About this time Bruce called and said he was at the park entrance.  I told him to come to this road as fast as he could so he could meet the elephants...  He did, but a car with 2 guides came fromthe other direction before he arrived and scared them into the bush....before he got to see them.  He certainly had a chance to hear them in the bush but they never showed up again. 

So we went to check into the lodge.

Had dinner and crashed for the night... 
but morning came early since we were planning on a 
long ride.  So, this blog moves right into dawn...
Sunday morning.    

Where we had breakfast at 6:00!
Notice all the others eating with us...

The sun kept rising....

Different setting on the camera!  

It seemed no one was up but us...  but we had a big breakfast
and gathered up our stuff, grabbed our lunches and off we went.

We didn't get very far down the road when we
found this little family awake. 

Vervet monkeys were a great welcome committee.
We were headed north for the day but went south to
see the Ruzizi Tented Lodge before we started off. 

 This is the walkway to the Lake where you can eat breakfast!
After we saw this place Bruce thought we should bring Adam and Michelle and the kids here in Dec for one night.
  It really is a great place! 

Our little family was there when we returned.

We drove for quite a while before
we came to this first lake area!

It was a gorgeous day to see Akagera and
it was great we had taken off early.

We were in for a great day!

love,
margie