Rwanda

Rwanda

The last days in Tanzania we have been facing our first tough and steep hills. A constant up and down, going up sometimes as slow as 5km an hour and down as fast as 50km an hour. It was beautiful though, the views amazing!

After more than a week we arrived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

Kigali is a big city with 1 million inhabitants, the city is quite modern and developed compared to what we saw before and prices are no longer cheap but rather normal European prices. When we came into Rwanda it was a sudden change…houses like the ones we know back from home with little gardens and fences…the locals were again excited to see “mzungus”, the children came often running after us up the hills and a few times even pushed me up. The traffic got worse though…trucks, buses and cars seem to overtake where they can even in the middle of a corner and we saw many near crash situations as well as a few crashed trucks and cars at the side of the road. There is a little sidepath for the pedestrians. The bicycles (including us) and motorbikes seem to switch between road and sidepath wherever there is space…but that does not always go so smoothly…So once when I got off the road where a car was coming full speed and another car was overtaking, I had to go for a sudden stop because the sidepath was busy with pedastrians. As a result though a local cyclist crushed into me. His bicycle fell over and the avocados (which where on the back of his bicycle in a huge bag) where rolling over the road. Everyone was laughing. The children were telling me “I am sorry” but in the same breath “Give me money”. The begging got worse in Rwanda, even though the country seems much richer.

We went to the genocide memorial in Kigali today… The stories and pictures of the genocide are horrifying and sad…a whole room in the museum was dedicated to all the children that died, being shot or even burned alive. And this happened only 20 years ago and the whole world was watching and doing nothing to help. It is unbelievable though to see how quick the country got back to its feed after such a tragedy.

Mwanza

Mwanza

Here we are in Mwanza at the Lake Victoria…the lake that we are going to cycle around for the next two months going through Rwanda, Uganda, Kenia and back into Tanzania.

Arriving in Mwanza it felt like the end to something and the beginning to something new…the first part of our trip going through the center of Tanzania, going through vast mountanius and desert like landscapes comes to an end. We come to the lake with its lush vegetation, green and greener hills, trees and forests. It was a sudden change, maybe 30km before Mwanza from the dry sandy landscape to the green landscape…the air moist…

In Mwanza we had a few days break…we met a Swedish guy called Kalle. Together we had dinner in a Pizzeria and I even had an Italian cappuccino.

The next day we went to a swimming pool and later found a bar with an amazing few over the lake Victoria. Here we watched a thunderstorm coming in, lightning over the lake. The thunderstorms seem to have become regularity, usually in the evenings.

Another day we spent on a beach at the lake Victoria a bit outside the town and then some time in the internet and making plans about our route.

After a few days rest we were ready to go for another week through Tanzania before we get to the Border to Rwanda. Leaving Mwanza we got a bit lost for the first time or lets say we probably made a huge detour on a road that wasn’t on our map. We don’t actually know, maybe it was even the right way, it was the way the locals pointed but not on our map and much longer than the road we were looking for. The road here was a dirt track, sand with some stones and holes in it…it was slow and quite exhausting going on these roads and after 30km we were so tired we stopped when we saw a really nice lodge.

The next day was then a bit tougher with 90 km and a continuum of hills, I still feel my muscles 3 days afterwards.

Today has been the first time here in Africa that I felt cold. It was nice refreshingly cool and cloudy in the morning, got sunny and warm during the day though and then a big thunderstorm came over us leaving us cycling through heavy rains for 2 hours. We were off course soaking wet…until now I never thought about taking out my rain jacket because I am usually warm and a little shower is only refreshing but today it would have been wise to take out my jacket but once the heavy rain started I was soaked within a few minutes and then I didn’t care anymore. We found a little guesthouse in a small town, its basic with only a bucket of cold water to wash with and the usual squat toilet but all I really cared about is getting dry and warm and that I did as soon as I had my room. Tonight dinner is Rice and Chicken again.