Arriving @ Rwanda

Wild camping on the way to Rwanda

After our last stop in Tanzania at Lake Victoria, we drove east, to get to the border of Rwanda. The border was a “one stop border”, with the office building on the Rwanda side to get all the formalities done. Surprisingly, there were not many trucks waiting at that border. For some reason, somebody had sent us back to the Tanzanian side, with the justification, that they had a technical problem and couldn’t do anything. Back in the Tanzanian office building they were surprised, made some calls and sent us back over the river again. We then went straight into the main building, and everything went well. Just that we had to convince the immigration officer, that we are not from Australia, therefore don’t belong to the Commonwealth and please want to pay for a visa. It took a while but he eventually gave in and found Austria on his visa list.

Visa for Rwanda, Uganda and Kenia for $100,-
Money exchange the African way

Some things changed immediately after the border: endless hills formed the landscape, no rubbish was lying around, everything looked well maintained. The roads had a green border, next to it was a bike lane and another one for pedestrians. The houses looked nicer, had hedges in front and the shops looked also better than in Tanzania or Zambia. On the other hand, we noticed less motorised transport, mostly bikes were used as taxi and to transport everything else, at least in the countryside.

After the border we had organised a SIM Card and then stopped at Urugo Women’s Opportunity Centre, which had a cafe, a restaurant and a nice garden, where we could camp. The next day we continued to Lake Muhazi, where we stayed at Umuko Lodge.

Celebrating a new country with Spanish cava
Lake Muhazi

To explore the lake, we took a boat trip from our lodge to find some birds and enjoy the landscape.

Fisherman on bamboo float

The lake shore is dotted with nice houses but also farms, which cover all of the hills around.

Jacana
Pied kingfisher
Long-crested eagle
Open-billed stork
African Fish Eagle
Flower of the Day

After leaving Lake Muhazi, we will be on our way into the capital of Rwanda: Kigali. More on the next post!

1 thought on “Arriving @ Rwanda”

  1. Torsten, DG7RO

    danke für den Bericht, insb. die Unterschiede zwischen den 3 Ländern der letzten Tage. Leider nix aus Burundi gehört. Bis bald.

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