Roger Diski Tears His Trousers - Adventures in Rwanda

Chimp Tracking in Nyungwe Forest

 It’s not easy. You have to work hard to find the chimps, and the first part of working hard is getting an early morning call at 3.30.  After muffins, croissants and a strong cup of coffee, we were on the road at 4.15 to pick up our guide from the forest HQ. Then it’s about an hour’s drive to the part of the forest where the chimp tracking takes place. Here, those who wished could hire a porter to carry their backpacks, and then we were off into the forest at about 6am, as dawn broke. This is the time when the chimps are active, feeding up in the fig trees and moving through the forest canopy searching for food.

You start off on a forest trail and it all seems fairly easy, if a bit steep; but then, when the chimps are located, it’s a machete job, cutting a trail through the rainforest - and suddenly we are following paths through undergrowth where no human foot has trodden before. It’s steep and we are walking over a carpet of vines that can be a couple of feet thick; anything I grab onto is rotten, has no substance, comes away in my hand - and we are trying to be quiet so that the chimps do not clear off before we get there. My lightweight trekking trousers were ripped apart by a thorn, and I will take a pair of gardening gloves next time.

We encountered our group of chimps at about 10am. There were three of them, eating in different trees. We had a few minutes looking at them, took some pictures and then they moved on. I think we were making too much noise. Was our brief encounter worth four hours’ tracking? Well, we all felt it was, that we’d witnessed something special, and that the tracking/ trekking had been a wonderful       adventure.

We spent another hour or so trying to locate a second group, but failed and came out of the forest lower down the slopes. As we came out of the forest, the cultivation began. There is no intermediate zone: where the forest ends, banana trees begin. Every inch of land that can be, is cultivated in Rwanda. It has the densest population in Africa.

Soon we came across a Twa (pygmy) village. Everyone seemed pleased to see us, and we took some pictures, bought some pots and masses of children gathered around. A 4x4 came down to collect us so we didn’t have to climb back up the forest slopes and we were back at our starting point by midday. An hour’s drive took us back to Nyungwe Forest Lodge where lunch awaited.

Laugh till your sides ache in Rwanda

From ROGER DISKI

Visited Iby' Iwacu, the ex-poachers village near PNV, today. What a welcome! The star attraction is the 67-year-old pygmy who dances, sings and raps welcoming songs with great gusto throughout the entire visit.

The village land was given to the poachers so that they could make a living by alternative means. There are 1000 inhabitants, and their main occupation is agriculture –planting food crops such as potatoes and tree tomatoes in the rich volcanic earth - and shaping lava blocks into valuable building stone. But they also have a fantastic hour-long cultural show for visitors, brilliantly hosted by Emmanuel.

There is a medicine man who, without any mumbo-jumbo, shows you the plants and preparations used to heal a variety of ailments – camphor for chest infections, aloe vera and honey for skin complaints, a blend of five herbs as a muscle relaxant, something to help you get pregnant, and of course herbal Viagra.

 They’ve built a replica of the old royal palace, and their skill is in persuading you to participate. They managed to dress me up as the king and took me through the various rituals – explaining the true significance of the ‘king-size’ bed, which, on occasion, had to accommodate many maidens.

They got the men to learn to shoot arrows, the women to grind sorghum, all our achievements punctuated by cries of guma guma guma (means ‘bravo’ evidently) to celebrate our success at these endeavours.  The visit culminated with an impressive display of traditional ‘intore’ dancing. Amazingly, they even persuaded the guests to join them.

I’ve been to a few cultural villages, and they can be excruciatingly embarrassing or feel phoney. This was a pure delight, and felt ‘authentic’ in the sense that they made us feel they loved doing it, were pleased to see us and were having fun. It was done with a sense of humour – my companion, Kath, said she laughed so much her sides ached - and we were made to feel part of that wonderful Rwandan community.

Authentic Holidays

Bridge & Wickers' Roger Diski discusses some of the ways in which real, local experiences enrich a holiday in The Daily Telegraph (5 Feb 2011).
Roger arrived in Rwanda last night and was delighted by the Wifi internet access at Kigali airport.