the dark side of the moon

how many times have you been camping in the african bush with a double matress, a bialetti coffee maker and had drinks with ice under the stars watching an almost total eclipse of the moon dancing round a bonfire? well - this is my weekend in akagera summed up in three lines - in one word: BREATHTAKING! definitely one for the memory box.

there is nothing like driving along through african countryside with some good music and company - I got carried away by just looking out the window and letting myself be absorbed by the music and the countryside; in a world of my own, too happy for words - feeling like everything is in perfect alignment; being in exactly the right place at the right time - I would not have changed anything.

I also realised how much I miss camping and being outdoors, sitting around a fire and sleeping under the skies; must remember to do this more often. and camping with a car is fun; you get to take your house to the bush ;-)
we packed the van with a double matress, moskito nets, charcoal and kerosene, the kerosene lamps, food and drink for an army, coffee pots and a sound system - if you do it, you might as well do it right, right?

off we went to akagera national park which is only a good hours drive from kigali but the landscape is very different; still hilly but you can already see how it turns into the plains of the serengeti; the vegetation is less dense, the dominant colour the yellow of the dried grass spotted with green dots of shrubs and bushes against the sometimes red, sometimes ocre colour of the earth.

upon arrival we went and had lunch at the lodge before setting off in search of giraffes and maybe the elephant. at some point we lost the others and were just driving through the bush, stumbling upon a herd of antilopes without a clue of where we were going or indeed where the other car had gone. but thanks to a phone call indicating us that the others were just past the herd of okapis and had spotted a giraffe and a compass we miraculously managed to find them - and the giraffe.

as night was falling we drove up to the camp site which is on a hill overlooking one of the lakes in the park. we set up our 'tent' - we tied a moskito net to a tree and placed the double matress underneath it - done! the others struggled a little more with their swish little igloos; but in the end everyone had a 'roof' under which to sleep.
we got a good fire going and indulged in some domain de bregon with pringles before proceeding to the main course of the event - brochettes, bread and pasta salad. we even still had some ice left from the improvised coolbox and thus had some cocktails with ice whilst sitting round the fire listening to music from the portable stereo - can it get any better?
oh yes! looking at the moon we suddenly realised that there was a shadow moving over it - and it wasn't a cloud... so we concluded that what we were in fact witnessing was an eclipse of the moon. well - it was one of the most amazing moments I have lived so far. magical - absolutely magical!

the moon shining onto the lake

brochette

after a night under the stars we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and as we came prepared started making coffee - well, there's nothing like a good coffee after waking up! we unpacked the breakfast buffet which consisted of bread, manchego cheese, nutella and peanut butter, fruit and cookies - you name it! and after a nice chilled breakfast we packed up our belongings to go and find some wildlife. we weren't hugely successful but still managed to see a couple of bald eagles, hippos, different types of antilopes and animals that look like an african version of deer, kingfishers and ibises.

sunrise


the 'tent'




breakfast buffet

we stopped at the campsite by the lake and spontaneously started having lunch. unfortunately some of the bread had gotten drenched in kerosene, but luckily there was more ;-) so we indulged in more tortilla de patatas (home made of course), left over pasta salad, cheese and fresh pineapple - seriously delicious and spot on! then a little siesta in the shade.
we concluded our tour d'akagera with a drink in the lodge.

hippos

bald eagle

we were just about to settle down with a refreshment as ana called us - a baboon had smelt the food on the back of the pick up and helped himself to one of our garbage bags (the one with the kerosene-bread) - fascinating to watch him go through our garbage, carefully inspecting all the stuff and eating what he deemed eadible. it's quite weird to see a furry thing moving just like a human being. once he'd finished with that bag he climbed onto the back of the van and opened the carton of juice and started drinking. the guards from the lodge chased him away and took our garbage and we quickly proceeded to lock all the food related items in the car - after all we wanted to drink our coffee in peace before hitting the road back home to kigali.

checking out the garbage