Sunday, October 11, 2009

Akagera Park


Akagera Park

Went to the southern entrance of Akagera Park - left at 4:30 am in the
morning and got to the park by 7 am. Was not the only one thinking of
Safari that day - another 4 WD with Japanese tourists arrived at the
same time at the park office to pay the entrance fees.


Greeting Committee

A park ranger joined us (Emmanuel (driver) and me) and we began our
tour - 2 minutes into it we come across Zebras - the ranger had told
me before we started that he cannot promise seeing all of the animals
or even any really. Well, the start was promising. Around the next few
corners, we ran into a particular kind of monkey (forgot the name) and
soon thereafter a large baboon family crossed our path. They seemed to
be totally unphased by us - I asked the ranger whether they are
aggressive here because I have heard of baboons being quite 'curious"
if not attacking cars etc. The ranger said not Rwandan baboons....


Hippos

Well, shortly after this, we stopped by Lake Ihema to see hippos
hanging out in the water - more in than out. The ranger and I get
closer to the water to observe them better. Emmanuel also leaves the
car wanting to come over as well, we left all windows down in the car.
All of a sudden I hear Emmanuel scream and yell and I turn around and
he is 'fighting' with a baboon who has made it into our car going
through the brown bag I brought which included some snacks and water
bottles, The baboon took his time - literally sitting in the back
seat going thru the bag pulling out the crackers and then jumping out
of the car and running to a place about 10 meters from the car to sit
down and slowly enjoy his loot. The ranger and I stood still just
watching it from about 5 meters. Since no one seemed to be afraid (the
ranger was actually laughing the whole time) I was neither. Emmanuel
was somewhat agitated - not sure if out of fear or because he felt bad
that the baboon made it into his car and he did try and chase him out
by pushing him out - screaming and yelling at him - honking the horn -
but really did not do much. This all happened on baboon time and he
could care less about the people around him. We later named the baboon
"Stealy". The photo is of Stealy eating the crackers - even Emmanuel
took a photo with his phone camera. I found out later that this was
the second time that Emmanuel had this experience at that spot with
most likely the same baboon - this baboon seems to hide out in the
nearby bushes to wait for cars to stop with windows down, people
leaving the car to go to the lake, when the baboon makes his run for
it to go through the stuff left behind. Last time, he apparently went
off with a bag of a tourist which included a laptop... the bag was not
recovered.


Thief


Maraboes

We stumbled across a number of other animals like maraboes - right by
the lake - very eerie looking big birds!


Impalas

We left the lake and hilly area for the savannah - there the first
animal we saw was a waterbuffalo which stumbled along the path on
three legs holding its fourth - the fourth was almost cut off by the
wire that was around the ankle. Poachers set traps - the buffalo was
able to rip the wire off the log but by doing so it almost severed its
foot - it was not a great sight to say the least - the park ranger
could not do a thing - they are not allowed to shoot animals unless
they have permission and that could take time. They said hyenas will
take care of it soon.


looking towards Tanzania

Before heading home, we stopped at a park lodge for refreshments - I
spoke with Emmanuel at length about the history of the area in
particular during 1994. I was interested if Tutsi fled across the lake
to Tanzania to which he said yes. He told one story which was of the
accountant of the lodge - the accountant got his family together
because a park ranger promised to help them get to the lake and put
them on a boat to safety for the exchange of money. Once the
accountant with family got to the lake, the park ranger took the money
and killed the family right there... the park ranger is apparently in
prison now.

The Japanese tourists came to the lodge as well and sat close to us -
we began talking and I was asked what I was doing in Rwanda - I told
them and spoke about the genocide. They then asked:"What genocide?"
Yes, they had no clue - never heard anything about a genocide in
Rwanda. I suggested that if they were to go to Kigali that they may
want to visit the Kigali Memorial Center. After they had some
refreshments, they left the lodge, on their way out, their driver who
knew Emmanuel told Emmanuel, they were leaving to go to the Memorial
Center now!!